Charlie Sheen Releases Photo and Takes Up Challenge to Help Sick and Dying Babies at CHERUBS

RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, August 10th Charlie Sheen released a photo that showed a new side of him. He traded in his famous bowling shirts for a "Charlie's CHERUBS" baseball jersey, asking his fans to vote to help critically ill babies win research money.

When Dawn M. Torrence Williamson looked at her computer screen and realized she was actually conversing with actor Charlie Sheen via Twitter, she could not believe her eyes. The day before, she had mentioned Sheen on the social network and asked for his help to raise awareness of her organization, CHERUBS - The Association of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Research, Awareness and Support.

Suddenly, he was there. Tweeting away about Dawn and CHERUBS and asking his 4.5 million followers to "Vote for CHERUBS" - Sheen's first tweet was "@CharlieSheen I'm down with Dawn!! @ncdawn RT @cherubs Help critically ill babies with CDH. Take Charlie's challenge to vote! www.voteforcdh.org.

CHERUBS is in the running to win a $250,000 award in the Vivint Gives Back Project. The Vivint Gives Back Project is an opportunity for Facebook users to help Vivint support charities that are doing good work in neighborhoods and communities across the United States. The program is also designed to help direct Vivint's philanthropic dollars, which are donated by Vivint employees to eligible charities who are helping restore hope for families across North America. The charity that receives the most votes will receive $250,000, while the remaining top charity in each of the five regions will receive $100,000 each.

CHERUBS is a 501(c)III non-profit organization founded in 1995 to help families and medical care providers of children born with CDH.

CDH occurs when the diaphragm fails to fully form, allowing abdominal organs into the chest cavity and preventing lung growth. CDH occurs in 1 of every 2500 births; a baby born with CDH every 10 minutes. 50% of babies diagnosed with CDH do not survive. The cause is not known. Over a half million babies have been born with CDH since 2000. CDH is as common as Spina Bifida and Cystic Fibrosis but there is very little awareness and even less research. CHERUBS is working hard to raise more CDH Awareness, and in turn, more CDH Research, while they continue to support families affected by this devastating birth defect.

Currently CHERUBS is in third place and Mr. Sheen would like his followers to help them win the award. With 4.5 million twitter followers it would not take a very large percentage of them to make a very big difference and so he continues to tweet his support and his plea for votes have been re-tweeted by many of his celebrity friends. Williamson, who lost her own son to CDH is ecstatic. "With Charlie's help and his fans' support, I think we could actually win this award and make a real difference. We are so grateful for his efforts."

Those wishing to take up the Sheen Challenge and vote once a day for CHERUBS can follow the link www.voteforcdh.org. To find out more about CDH, visit www.cdhsupport.org. Follow Charlie Sheen on Twitter @CharlieSheen or Dawn M. Torrence Williamson @NCDawn.

SOURCE CHERUBS