How many salacious stories have we read online, or in the tabloids about some young, hot-mess starlet having a debaucherous birthday party, solely for the purpose of exposing her unmentionables to ready camera lens and/or hooking up with the latest rapper, boy band member or troubled Hollyweird matinee idol? It's a good thing Days of Our Lives' Kate Mansi isn't your typical Hollywood starlet.
The popular actress chose to celebrate her big day by bringing awareness to a cause she believes in — getting clean water to countries lacking the critical resource. I caught up with Mansi to find out more about the organization she's involved with, charity: water. We also dished her alter ego Abigail Deveraux finally losing her V-card on DAYS.
Is Mansi sad to see leading men Casey Deidrick (Chad) and Nathan Owens (Cameron) leaving the serial? How does she feel about working with Casey Moss—who plays Abigail's bad seed brother JJ—and veteran actress Melissa Reeves, as their long-suffering mother Jennifer Horton? Keep reading to find out!
Daytime Confidential: Happy birthday! It's cool that you used your big day to bring awareness to a charity you're passionate about. How did you become involved with raising awareness about issues concerning water?
Kate Mansi: I found out about the water crisis on World Water Day this March. Upon more research I learned that charity:water was one of the leading nonprofits bringing clean water to underdeveloped countries for the first time. They also pioneered a nonprofit model that allows donors a unique experience of getting media, GPS coordinates and photos with information on where their donations are being used. I saw that people were "giving up their birthdays" to raise money for water projects and I felt called to join. Additionally, the most powerful element of charity:water that encouraged me to start a birthday campaign of my own was learning about how they tailor each water project to the chosen community, to allow for a system that can sustain itself long after it is implemented. Ultimately, I realized that there are simple solutions to get water, our most basic and essential resource, to the 800 million people in the world suffering without it. charity:water determines carefully which locations are most in need, which system—of nine possible systems such as hand dug wells and rainwater catchments etc.—will be the most efficient and effective solution that the community can sustain.
Because I received such outstanding support and feedback from friends and fans during my birthday campaign, charity:water has offered to continue my campaign until Dec. 31 so we can reach our goal of $20,000! Therefore, what started as a month-long campaign is now going to be a three-month champion fundraiser to raise $20,000 for Orissa, India in order to give the communities latrines to aid the water crisis there. People can find out how to get involved in the next events and how to win more fun prizes and packages from DAYS via my twitter @Katemansi. READ MORE