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Montreal pop-rock band Simple Plan, whose album sales have topped 7 million copies worldwide, has created a limited-edited T-shirt with all proceeds going to the Red Cross for the Japan earthquake/ Asia Pacific tsunami relief efforts. The band also donated $10,000 via The Simple Plan Foundation.

The shirt, featuring the red sun disc from the Japanese flag in between the words “simple” and plan” and underneath “#helpjapan,” sells for $20 on merchdirect.com.

“It absolutely breaks our hearts to watch the horrible images and videos of the devastation that has hit Japan following the March 11th earthquake and tsunami,” said Simple Plan drummer Chuck Comeau in a press statement.

“We had the privilege to visit Japan many times and it’s one of the most amazing places in the world. To see such destruction has deeply affected everyone in the band and we really wanted to do everything we could to make a difference. We know our fans will rally behind us and that together we will help the Red Cross make a huge difference in the lives of those affected.”

Nikki Sixx’s kids, the product of his generous Running Wild In The Night music program at Covenant House California which serves more than 10,000 homeless youth a year, are making more of the program than even the Mötley Crüe and Sixx: A.M. bassist imagined. 

In May 2008, Sixx donated $250,000 to the Los Angeles and Oakland shelters, mostly via sales from his 2007 New York Times best-selling autobiography, The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star, and companion Sixx: A.M. album.

“I donated a very large percentage of the proceeds from The Heroin Diairies to the Convenant House and through that, and awareness, we’ve raised a lot of money, but it goes fast. It just goes so fast,” Sixx tells Samaritanmag.

He also gets involved with other fundraising initiatives, such as auctions, and plans to donate proceeds from his photography book, This Is Gonna Hurt (our April 12), a companion to the next Sixx: A.M. album (due May 3) of the same name.

“What got me to the next level in my life was music. It was something to live for,” Sixx tells Samaritanmag. “A lot of the kids at Covenant House, they go through really hard times obviously; they’re just coming off the street; there’s gangs and prostitution; drug addiction; they’re getting into a safe environment.

Vancouver singer-songwriter Hannah Georgas, and 2011 new artist Juno Award nominee, is hoping to do more with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation once she has more time. Her father passed away in 2009 from the disease.

Proceeds from her 2009 EP, The Beat Stuff, which sold 6000 copies in Canada, according to Nielsen Soundscan, went to the organization. She also donated the money Walmart paid her to turn her jingle for the big-box chain into a full song, “You’ve Got A Place To Call Home,” which was available as a free download.

The past year she has been touring and promoting her full-length album, This Is Good, but the Foundation is still close to her heart. “My dad was later onset. He wasn’t born with it. He got it later on in his life and I was like, ‘Okay what’s this?’ and then educated myself about it,” Georgas tells Samaritanmag.

“The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is the most important thing on my agenda, so even if I’m really busy I want to try to help with that. That’s been one thing that’s been on my brain. Whenever I can, I try to get involved. There’s stuff that’s coming up with them in the fall. They want me to perform at one of their functions.”