You know a celebrity is serious about their committment to doing good when they feel uncomfortable accepting an award for it. Hayden Panettiere was brought to tears while she was being honored by the Humane Society Of The United States for her protests against the slaughter of whales in Japan. She was thankful, but acknowledged that so many other people are more deserving.

"As an actress, you always dream of getting awards like the Golden Globe award, but I never expected to get an award that is this special and important to me as this. There are people who dedicate their entire lives to preserving the environment and defending animals, they are so much more deserving of something like this."

A week or so ago I was lucky enough to get invited to attend the Shinnyo-en peace gala in which Morgan Freeman was one of the honorees. He too said something to the same effect. "Doing good is its own award. This is overkill". It shocked me that he said that as I thought it was insulting to his host. But I then realized that it is true. When you are doing good for the sole purpose of helping people, receiving an award is really unnecessary. But it does get us talking about their efforts right? So there is something positive coming out of those ceremonies.
Keep up the great work guys! It's very inspiring.
Bauer Griffin