Phil Keoghan of Amazing Race continued his bike ride across America, and here are some more clips of his adventures along the way.

On the 8th day of Phil’s journey, he started having tons of flat tires because he was using a very specialized type of bicycle tires. So he called the company that made them and they met with the team to bring them a batch of new, much sturdier tires for the trip. Phil’s wife showed up to join the trip and they continued on their journey through Arizona. Then it began to snow.

On the 9th day of the trip, Phil was given an award by the United States Public Health Service. Very cool! Then they rode through the four corners area and ended the day of riding over 120 miles.
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As I told you a few days ago, the host of The Amazing Race, Phil Keoghan has been on his way across the US on a bicycle to help raise money for MS research. CBS has released a few clips with Phil telling of his adventures on the trip so far.

In this first clip, Phil tells us how the highway patrol actually closed down one direction of an interstate for him to ride for 15 miles so he could be safe on the journey. I think it’s a good thing that the patrol did for him, but I’m sure glad I wasn’t in that huge line of cars backed up on their way to their destinations. Check this out:

And this is a cute clip where Phil and his team leave Las Vegas and head out through the desert for a 132 mile day of riding. They make a couple of stops for photo ops and his dad, who is part of the crew, seems to have a fixation on tumbleweeds. Phil says that they were traveling through “alien country” because so many sightings are reported there. He says that he was in hopes of his own sighting, but they saw the military doing flight maneuvers instead.
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Phil Keoghan the hunky host of The Amazing Race has embarked on the journey of a lifetime…and he’s doing it all for charity. He took off from the west coast on April 1 and will ride for 40 days until he ends his trip in New York City. He’s not doing it on a motorcycle, either. No, he’s pedaling all the way!!

During his trip, you can track his progress on the web site philridesacrossamerica.com. While you’re there, you can sign up to join Phil’s ride, find out where Phil is now or make a donation to help people with multiple sclerosis. It’s a fantastic cause and I admire him for doing such a huge task to raise awareness for it.

[Image: © The Serpentine Project]

There’s another reality star who is giving back, but we don’t as often hear about him. That’s because it’s Jeff Probst, host of the Survivor series. Now that he’s an Emmy Award-winning star, he is finally being taken seriously, as he should have been all along. And he’s obviously feeling the need to give back after all of his success. He’s founded a charity for foster kids aging out of the system called The Serpentine Project. Here’s the official press description for you:

The Serpentine Project, founded by Jeff Probst, is a non-profit organization that empowers youth transitioning out of foster care by providing personalized mentorship, life skills training, job shadowing and financial support thereby opening the door to a world of possibilities and the means to reach for their dreams. Learn more about The Serpentine Project at theserpentineproject.org and keep on reading to get a little taste of what will be offered in the coming weeks.

And to get awareness out as well as to raise funds for the organization, he’s teaming up with CBS to hold an auction starting tomorrow. It’s just the first of what may be a series of auctions for the cause, but the first two packages are identical. They will each be auctioned off at eBay and here is what each prize package will contain:

• strong>Two tickets to the Survivor: Gabon live finale taking place at CBS Television City in Los Angeles on December 14, 2008
• A meet and greet session with Emmy Award-winning Survivor host, Jeff Probst
• Lunch with the Survivor contestants where you will have the opportunity to take pictures and get autographs from your favorite Castaways
• An opportunity to take an exclusive backstage tour

[Photo: ® CBS Broadcasting Inc.]

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know a number of reality stars, and have even met four of the Gabon cast members. They are all very animated, outgoing and interesting people. You will have the time of your life at a lunch with them!

These auctions take place from November 20 – 30, 2008 at www.ebay.com/survivorgabon. Good luck with the auction!!!

[Jeff Probst Photo: ® CBS Broadcasting Inc.]

If you have time to watch only one new reality series, you should make it the Chef Jeff Project. This Food Network reality series is absolutely wonderful. Chef Jeff Henderson, who did time for drug dealing over a decade ago, is now an award-winning chef, motivational speaker and author and he is truly giving back by taking six “at risk” young people under his wing and teaching them how to cook in his catering business.

But he doesn’t stop with teaching cooking. He teaches them how to present themselves to employers and clients, how to lead a team, follow instructions and the very most important lesson he gives them is how to respect and feel good about themselves. He mentors them on life, and the kitchen is merely the classroom.

I found this show by accident…a happy accident. It hasn’t gotten the publicity it deserves. I was immediately touched by the stories the young people told of their backgrounds and how hard it has been for them trying to find a way for themselves to thrive when they have grown up with no advantages. And they are learning to do just that.

The really cool part is that once they complete Chef Jeff’s program, they will all have scholarships to culinary schools where they can perfect their skills and become successful chefs like their mentor.

The Chef Jeff Project airs on Sundays on The Food Network at 10/9 pm. Be sure to tune in! It’s a terrific show!!

To continue my quest to keep you up to date with the latest events and status of former reality stars, I found this great interview clip that gives us the scoop about two Survivor Winners, Ethan Zohn & Jenna Morasca. Besides dating, they share and support each other’s charitable causes. Ethan founded Grassroots Soccer to raise awareness about AIDS in Africa. And Jenna is the spokesperson for the Humane Society.

At the New England Revolution home game on August 20, 2008 in Foxboro, MA, Ethan Zohn will launch Grassroot Soccer UNITED with a 500-mile Dribble Campaign that will take him all the way to Washington, D.C. You can add to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and help Ethan support Grassroot Soccer in Africa by joining Grassroot Soccer UNITED.

Links:
Humane Society of the U.S.
Grassroots Soccer
Join Grassroots Soccer on Facebook

I have to thank my good buddy Betsy Hijazi for the idea for this section of my site. She suggested this months ago and I, being the dense person I can sometimes be, didn’t think to start it until today. I realized that I will be attending at least two of these reality stars’ charity events in the next three months, so her idea finally got through. (Thanks, Betsy!)

Anyway, one of the things that occurs to most people when they meet a group of reality stars is that they often have a desire to give back to others who are less fortunate. They have a “15 minutes” of fame, and many of them want to use it to do some good for others. So from now on, I’m going to highlight those activities on this site. I’ve added a new section (It’s just got a couple of pages so far, but give me a few days and it will begin to take shape as the reality stars I know give me information for their charities.)

Check it out in the sidebar. It’s a permanent page on this site and it will be under the main page of Reality Stars Give Back. I’m going to give each charity a page and any reality stars who want to send me updates, they will be on that charity’s page.

Right now, the big push is to find reality stars to help with the upcoming Reality Rumble event on October 4th in Virginia. I have posted about it before, but any time you want to find out what’s happening with it, check that page. My friend Tim Lawler will be sending me regular updates for it.

There will also be a page for the huge Survivor Dodgeball event in November added too. I’m hoping that this will become a place for reality stars to promote their events, and for the reality fans to find out how to meet them while supporting their causes.

If you have any information about these types of events and want them covered here, just email me the details. Let’s all help reality stars help others.