Sophia Bush and her boyfriend Austin Nichols are continuing to fundraise for her half-marathon to help out the victims of the Gulf Coast oil spill. Here are some incentives if you donate:

$50 = Signed 8×10 photo.
$28 = Automatically entered in a drawing to win a One Tree Hill season 7 DVD signed by the whole cast.

You can donate to Sophia’s cause at CrowdRise.com!

JustJared.com can also exclusively reveal that Sophia and Austin will be presenting the Breakthrough in Green Innovation award to Global Green at the 2010 Breakthrough of the Year Awards presented by Crest 3D White.

SWEEPSTAKES
Win a Limited Edition One Tree Hill Season 7 DVD Signed by the Cast
Contest ends August 18, 2010 at 8pm eastern time
OFFICIAL RULES
NO DONATION NECESSARY. A DONATION WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.
Contest begins August 11, 2010 at 8am eastern time
Contest ends August 18, 2010 at 8pm eastern time
1. HOW TO ENTER: Go to www.Crowdrise.com (the “Website”) and follow the on-screen instructions to make a donation of exactly $28 during the Sweepstakes Period and you will be automatically entered into the Drawing (defined below) for the Sweepstakes – Win a Limited Edition One Tree Hill Season 7 DVD Signed by the Cast.
ONLINE ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY August 18, 2010 at 8pm eastern time. No illegible, incomplete, forged or altered entries will be accepted. All entries become the exclusive property of Sponsor and will not be returned.
2. SELECTION OF WINNERS: Winners will be determined from all eligible entries received in one random drawing (a “Drawing”.) One Drawing will be held on August 18, 2010. The Drawing will be conducted by representatives of Sponsor whose decisions are final on all matters relating to this Sweepstakes. Winners will be notified by email at the email address provided upon entry on or about one (1) day after the date of the Drawing.
3. PRIZES AND ODDS: Limited Edition One Tree Hill Season 7 DVD Signed by the Cast. Approximate Value $999. Odds of winning depend upon the number of eligible entries received. All prizes will be awarded (assuming sufficient number of eligible entries.) Limit: one prize per household. Sponsor reserves right to substitute prizes of equal or greater value. No other substitution or transfer of prizes permitted. Sponsor responsible only for prize delivery; not responsible for prize utility, quality or otherwise. Taxes and fees, if any, are the sole responsibility of winners.
4. ELIGIBILITY: Sweepstakes open to individual legal residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia, age 18 or older as of August 11, 2010 at 8am eastern time, except employees (and their immediate families and members of the same household) of Sponsor and its affiliates, agents, judges and advertising and promotion agencies.

See full rules and disclaimer here

Best known for her role as Brooke Davis on “One Tree Hill,” Sophia Bush and co-star Austin Nichols are hard at work off-camera, drawing attention to environmental issues near and dear to their hearts.

I spoke with Sophia during on 100th day since BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploded, creating the worse environmental disaster in U.S. history. The self-described “eco geek” and budding ecoista—she’s a fan of Stella McCartney, Rogan, David Babaii and Alba—was on location in North Carolina, after returning from a recent trip to the Gulf Coast, where she and Austin joined Global Green to investigate the BP oil spill and got a first-hand look at the corporate bureaucracy surrounding the clean up. “[BP] is really perpetuating the image that they’re trying to fix this,” she said. “But really the effort is to cover up how badly they have screwed up the situation.”

Bureaucracy is not a concept Sophia supports—especially when it comes to environmental and social justice. Despite reducing her meat consumption—she’s considering veganism—shifting the “One Tree Hill” set to compostable tableware and encouraging recycling, the star remains frustrated by the production’s inability to donate excess food to a local homeless shelter for liability reasons. “I understand that everyone is scared of…something not working and it coming down on them, but we need to stop being scared and start taking care of people and our environment,” Sophia told me. “Food waste in the U.S. accounts for a crazy amount of greenhouse gas emissions—we throw out 94 billion pounds of food every year! That’s insane.”

As @aus10nichols and @sophiabush, the couple continues to draw attention to the oil spill story. “A woman wrote me from Australia that the only news she was getting on the oil spill was from my Twitter account,” Sophia said, noting the irony: The actress only recently set up her social media accounts—under protest.

“I met a girl who was a fan of the show and she ran up to me and said, ‘Thank you so much it’s so cool that you always respond to me on Twitter.’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t have a Twitter account. I don’t have Facebook, MySpace or friend-whatever.’ And she burst into tears! It ruined her day,” Sophia said. “I almost feel like I have to do the social media stuff now in order to get rid of the people who were impersonating me doing it. Words were misspelled. Honey, I was a journalism major—if you’re going to pretend to be me online at least spell check!”

But she does have limits. “People have said to me, ‘We really appreciate what you’re doing for the environment but can you tweet about other stuff?’ Not really. I really don’t care about what I ate for breakfast,” Sophia said. The focus remains firmly on her cause.

The actress, who grew up in Pasadena, CA, attributes her interest in environmentalism to summers spent at a camp in the Sierras. “We had this phrase, ‘Pack out what you pack in.’ We never left trash or a site disturbed,” she said. “Is it worth a $1,000 fine to throw your soda can into the wilderness? How hard it is to take that plastic bottle home and toss it in the recycling bin?”

And at the end of the day, Sophia believes that environmentalism is simply about making a personal commitment: “Everything starts with one person. Gandhi was one person. Martin Luther King was one person. And look at what they did! They started these amazing social revolutions. We need a social revolution for the environment. I know that we can do it. I know that it’s possible. We just need to get everyone on board and then we’re off to the races.”

But Sophia’s personal commitment goes even further: Her goal is to inspire others as well. “We have the capability to create a revolution, but there are still people out there spewing this bile that being an environmentalist is elitist. How is having a less expensive electricity bill and buying less expensive fuel and lowering your cost of living elitist? That’s crazy talk,” she said. “I love my job and being an actor but it’s not rocket science. The thing I want to do at the end of the day is pack out what I pack in—and then pack out somebody else’s trash.”

You can read the rest of the interview Here

Sophia Bush is gearing up to break a big sweat this fall—and all for a good cause. Although she hasn’t run a mile since junior high, the 28-year-old One Tree Hill star recently blogged about her plan to run a half marathon in November to benefit the Gulf Coast. Bush is determined to complete the 13.1-mile race despite a longtime battle with asthma. “An asthma attack is terrifying,” Bush wrote. “And when you’ve been debilitated by such attacks you begin to avoid activities that trigger them.” The stylish star kicked off her training last Wednesday with a one-mile treadmill run, and has increased her workouts daily. As week two of training begins, she is running with a group of about 12 runners. To get fit for roles in the past, Bush has worked with trainers who helped whip her body into “fighting shape.” Now, she’s taking her workout to the streets in an effort to raise money for the people of the Gulf Coast. “They need all the help they can get,” wrote Bush, who is reaching out to friends and family to garner sponsorship dollars. “So I am running. For the Gulf. For all of you. Because when my lungs start hurting, and my legs start screaming ‘this running business is BULL, Sophia!’ I think of all of YOU.” To learn more, check out sophiabush.com.

(Source)

I am going to run a half marathon this November. Yup. Me. The asthmatic with a years-old knee injury, who hasn’t run a mile since Junior High. No seriously. Since Junior High, as in since I was 13 years old. For the record I am now 28, but thanks to the genes of my kick ass parents (I love you Mom and Dad!) I still get carded when I buy beer for BBQs at the grocery store. Yay for me!

Why would I do this to myself, you ask? Or is that me asking? I’ve been asking myself that question a lot since last Tuesday when I decided to do this. The ‘why’ is the Gulf. And it’s also you guys, really. I got the idea from the King of Crowdrise himself, Edward Norton, who ran the New York City marathon last year to raise money for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, a charity that stole my heart many years ago and still has a firm grip on it. Now, I make no claim to be anywhere near as tough as Ed, but I am determined. And in bouncing creative fundraising ideas off of some pals at work in North Carolina, I mentioned Ed’s marathon, and my friend Jane said, “Well, you know there’s a half marathon here in November.” I promptly laughed in her face.

So my Little Voices! I ask you to do this with me. In the spirit of “paying it forward,” in the spirit of saving paper, and in the spirit of making our voices heard, join me in this experiment. Stop sending paper fan mail. Start making a difference. Whatever you would have spent on a letter, a scrapbook, yes, even a bottle of wine (le sigh), pay it forward! Visit my crowdrise page, at www.crowdrise.com/sophiabush, and donate the cost of whatever that letter, or scrapbook, or bottle of wine would have been. Contribute $2.00, $5.00, $10.00, $40.00, or $400.00!! And post a message on my page. Because I actually read those! And I will see your words. You can post a photo, a story, a favorite quote from my show or one of my movies, and I will see it. And I will smile. And we will waste no paper. We will raise money for people who need it. Because your little voice, your one little letter, adds up to $2,250.00 a MONTH! Imagine if we raised that much, and more, this month. And next month. And every month. Imagine how loud our voices will be then.