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The Elephant Project is a non-profit organization that auctions off celebrity autographs and photos and donates all proceeds to the Alzheimer’s Association. I recently spoke to David Niederhoffer, the project’s founder, about the organization, the celebrities he has met, and how we can all help out.

What is The Elephant Project?
The Elephant Project is an organization that I started to raise money and awareness for the Alzheimer’s Association. There is a phrase that says “elephants never forget,” and in the fight against Alzheimer’s, we want all those affected to “never forget.” The project started with the idea to have celebrities pose for a picture with an elephant beanie baby and then to auction off these photos along with an autograph and a beanie, with all money going to the Alzheimer’s Association. I’ve begun developing more parts to the organization and hopefully in the future it will become a fully-functioning non-profit organization. Right now, it is a fund raising organization that donates all profits to the Alzheimer’s Association to support it’s mission.

What inspired you to start the Project?
I started the project after my grandfather passed away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2006. I have always loved to come up with innovative ideas and when my grandfather passed away, I knew I’d have to come up with something great to fight this horrible disease in his memory. I also wanted to come up with an idea that would attract a young crowd, which I’m hoping The Elephant Project is doing with some of our celebrity participants. There aren’t many Alzheimer’s organizations out there and what we currently have doesn’t focus too much on getting kids and teens involved. I hope that when they see that their favorite celebrities such as Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale, and more have participated in The Elephant Project, that kids will be more interested in what Alzheimer’s disease is and how they can help.

You’ve met so many celebs through the elephant project anyone who stands out? Anyone who was particularly sweet or funny?
Felicity Huffman was the first celebrity who actually asked me how I was affected by Alzheimer’s disease and I really appreciated that she took the time to find out more about me. I ran into Adam Sandler in a restaurant in L.A. and he couldn’t have been nicer. Anne Hathaway was cracking jokes with me while she was signing the Elephant Project card, because it is a relatively blank card and she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to use her signature to steal all of her money! Julie Andrews is like royalty and I was so honored to meet her. At her book signing, no pictures were allowed, but when we explained the project to her, she asked us to stay until the end of the signing so that we could get the picture once the crowd had left. Most of the time when I meet celebrities, it is really quick, but these were just a few of the ones that spent a little more time to learn about the organization. One celebrity that I have not met, but went out of his way for The Elephant Project is George Lopez. When I first started the project, I sent letters to a few celebrities that I admired to ask them to just sign the Elephant Project card. George went out of his way to buy an actual elephant beanie baby, take a picture with it, develop it and sign it, and send all of these items to me for them to be auctioned off. My family and I still talk about this all the time and we were shocked and so thankful for George’s kindness.

What’s coming up for The Elephant Project?
The Elephant Coloring Project is another part of the organization that I developed, but haven’t really had the time to work on lately. In this project, we have celebrities color/design an elephant, which will then be auctioned off in the future. We also hope in the future to create a book that will feature all of these designs. Right now, the Broadway casts of Wicked, Rent, and [title of show], as well as That’s So Raven star Anneliese van der Pol have participated. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some more people to do it soon!

How can people buy an autograph or photo from The Elephant Project?
We hold auctions for The Elephant Project a few times a year. The auctions feature an 8×10 picture of the celebrity and the elephant, an autographed card, and a beanie. The auctions will start at $25 and go up according to how many people are bidding. People can also buy a 5×7 picture of a celebrity and the elephant by making a $10 donation. The pictures can be bought through the store on my website.

How else can people help?
Spreading the word about The Elephant Project is pretty much the best way to start helping! We have a twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/elephantproject. Follow us @elephantproject. Also, please become a fan of The Elephant Project on Facebook by going to http://www.facebook.com/elephantproject.

Go to http://www.elephantproject.org for more information!

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