Body Positive North West goes 'GaGa'

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Monday 29^th June was just another day at Manchester based HIV Charity Body Positive North West (BPNW). Manchester’s Youth Offending Service were receiving training in the board room, food was being prepared in the kitchen and a large team of volunteers were busy renovating the drop-in centre and turning a bare car park into a lush garden full of activities for the growing number of young people using the centre.

Then Lady GaGa turned up. The hottest star in the world had picked BPNW from a large number of charities as the one she wanted to support.

GaGa’s unannounced visit was a surprise to the 50 or so volunteers who were taking part in an Orange RockCorps backed scheme to encourage young people to volunteer.

Each volunteer was rewarded with a ticket to GaGa’s gig at the Manchester Apollo on July 13.

 Lady GaGa helped out with a massive self-portrait the BPNW volunteers had been working on by painting the words “Love + Art + Kindness” in pink onto it.

She said: “It’s been so amazing coming here today. The volunteers were so cute because they didn’t know I was coming.  They looked up and were saying: ‘That looks like Lady GaGa.’”

GaGa talks sense
So why did Lady GaGaA come to BPNW? The Lady herself told the hoards of press covering the event at the Whalley Range Centre: “I have lots of people in my life who have been affected by the virus and a lot of gay and lesbian friends who are confronted with fears about that sort of lifestyle and the situation of HIV that we have to be mindful of everyday. 
"I just wanted to spend some time with them today, and do a bit of painting with them today.”

One of BPNW’s lucky young members actually got interviewed by GaGa herself about his life with HIV.

Stephen Greene, RockCorps co-founder and CEO told us: “Lady GaGa is an incredible artist.  It's thrilling that she’s bringing her unique energy and passion to one of our community projects. By doing so, she will inspire many others to volunteer.”

Last year, 5,000 young people in the UK took part in Orange RockCorps, earning tickets to see the stellar line up Busta Rhymes, Ludacris, The Automatic, John Legend, Feeder, Lethal Bizzle and Guillemots perform at the Royal Albert Hall. Collectively, volunteers worked 20,000 hours at 55 projects, helping 41 charity partners. 96 percent of those who took part last year intend to volunteer on an Orange RockCorps project again, and 57 percent said they would volunteer for their local community without the incentive of a ticket.

The Orange RockCorps programme will also be amplified via a partnership with Sony Ericsson and Channel 4, who will broadcast the volunteer work and UK gigs during a summer of programming on T4.

Volunteers wishing to take part in Orange RockCorps can register by visiting http://www.orangerockcorps.co.uk

Look out for photos of the day in the next edition of Positive Living, Body Positive North West’s Magazine.