As a way to give back, reality TV star Ernesto Arguello is promoting #GivingTuesday, a movement to create a national day of giving on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
This is the second year of the initiative, which aims at getting people to commit to a project and give back on Dec. 3, while also spreading the word through social media.
Arguello’s personal project “Snap 2 Live” hopes to save five million lives by 2020 by raising awareness on road safety. To do so, Arguello designed a belt as a visual reminder of the lives that could be saved.
“My life is about giving to others,” Arguello said. “This initiative with the United Nations is to help save lives. Road crashes are the number one killer of youth so I created a belt, a fashion belt.”
The belts, which come in a variety of colors, are valued at $30 and 70 percent of the profits go towards the Road Safety Fund.
“Basically it’s a fashion accessory and the idea is for it to work as a reminder of the things we can do every day to save lives,” Arguello said. “Buckling up, not drinking and driving, not texting and driving.”
In addition to the “Snap 2 Live” initiative, Arguello continues to work with “Education Model Towns,” an organization created to provide opportunities to people in Third World countries.
“The core of the towns is education, so we teach them community life, academic education,” Arguello said. “We build the schools, we donate to the schools, playgrounds athletic facilities and most recently an entrepreneurship program.”
Arguello is currently working with a town in Honduras and a town in Panama. He has plans of expanding to a town in Colombia for 2014.
“I want to be able to offer opportunities and help change people’s lives in as many places as I can,” Arguello said. “Need is international.”
