On Friday, October 22, Justin Timberlake participated in a White House Conference on Philanthropy called “Gift To The Future”. It was broadcast live over the Net, PBS stations, cable access stations, and satellite downloads. Justin presented his charity foundation to the President, First Lady, and a variety of people who are involved in philanthropy. Here’s what Justin had to say:
“Before I begin, I gotta be honest. This isn’t your normal pop group’s demographic.” (laughter). “But nevertheless, I don’t always get to dress up to go to work (laughter), so I’m a bit excited to be here, to talk about what I’ve just started a couple of weeks ago. And it is the Justin Timberlake Foundation.”
“I remember one of my close friends, he asked me one time, he said that if you could use one word to describe your life, what would it be? And I thought about it, and I said, I would use the word ‘blessed’. And let me tell you what I mean. I’ve been really lucky in my life…I’ve landed…what started as a hobby…and it became a career for me.”
“And with that in mind I think back to when I used to attend a public school, before I really started pursuing my career with ‘N Sync, and where that’s leading me. And I was in this very small town outside of Memphis, Tennessee in a public school, about the age of ten or eleven, and had so many dreams, and so many aspirations of the arts, and music, and entertainment. And there was never ever really any way for me to outlet that, to find a way to pursue that. And I thought about it for awhile, and talked over this with my parents, and I remember my parents always saying ‘remember your roots’. If whatever happens, remember your roots, remember where you came from, and that’s what I’m doing now.”
“I want to give back to the communities, I want to install the best possible music and arts programs in schools, in public schools today. You notice that if it’s not an art school, so to speak, you don’t really find many arts programs. And I feel that music, in my life, has…I’ve used it to channel so many emotions, and so many positive and negative energies that I may have been feeling at the time. I feel that if you give young minds and young hearts those possibilities that they can really do something positive with it, instead of all these negative situations that we’ve so recently seen in the past year or two with public schools and public high schools.”
“So, I’ve just started this so recently, two weeks ago, and in the next, you know, couple of months I’m going to be working with the Giving Back Fund, who’s helping me start this foundation. And, you know, you’ll be hearing in ways that you can definitely help me give back to the kids, and help them. Because I really think music has been a way of my life, and I think it should be a way of life. It’s such a great form of expression, and uh…(applause) and uh…that’s it. I just want to give back (laughter). Thank you.”