When Brian Austin Green and Sharna Burgess started dating late last year, the pair quickly bonded over their shared passion for philanthropy.
“One of the things Brian and I found out when we were getting to know each other was that we aligned on wanting to do good in the world and help create change,” the Australian Dancing with the Stars pro, 35, tells WHO over Zoom, with her beau sitting by her side.
“This crazy platform that we have, just through what we’ve been doing, we want to do something with it.”
It seemed like fate then, when the couple were approached to team up with Trueheart – a social impact search engine – to be the new ambassadors for their #Search4Smiles campaign.
“It’s hard continually going to people, especially now during the pandemic and everything that’s happened, and asking for money, saying, ‘Hey can you donate for this cause? Can you donate for that one?’” Green, 47, says.
“And most people are saying you know, ‘No, I’m barely getting by right now so I can’t donate an extra $5 to a cause.’ So this seemed like a great way with what they developed.”
With a baby born with a cleft lip or palate every three minutes, this campaign will help the global non-profit Smile Train provide free cleft care to children in need around the world. All people need to do is scan the web using the Trueheart search engine.
The company donates 80 per cent of its profits to charities around the world.
“Literally, you can search things like you normally do, and in doing so, you’re donating to not only this charity but five others,” Green explains. “Everybody’s already online and searching things on their phones or tablets. So it’s like, why not use the search engine that will donate to charity?”
As a father-of-four himself – Green shares Noah, 8, Bodhi, 7, and Journey, 4, with ex-wife Megan Fox and 19-year-old Kassius with Vanessa Marcil – the Beverly Hills, 90210 star says that “everything hits home more”.
“It’s so incredibly debilitating for kids. And as they grow, if it’s not fixed and they’re malnourished, it can take a huge toll on their body, their confidence and their social skills – their whole life,” Burgess adds.
“If we can be a part of helping more kids, have their smiles change and help them feel better about themselves so they can move confidently in life, then heck yes – we want to be a part of that!”
Despite having previously attempted to keep their romance low-profile, Green and Burgess admit they couldn’t say no to banding together for such an amazing cause.
“To me, the idea is reaching as many people as possible. And if the two of us can reach way more people than either one of us by ourselves, then why wouldn’t we want to do that together?” Green gushes. “Plus, I like spending time with her.”
Burgess adds,“It’s our first opportunity to do something like this together. I’m really excited that it’s for kids and it’s to help people smile. I mean, everyone needs a reason to smile after what we’ve all been through in the past 12 months.”
With all this talk of smiles, it’s hard not to notice how much the couple makes each other grin. “We smile a lot every day,” Burgess says.
“He tends to make me laugh quite often.”
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