Charlie Sheen Organizes Bipolar Awareness Walk
The actor who says he's "biwinning," not bipolar, is organizing a 1.2 mile walk.
April 15, 2011 — -- Charlie Sheen has a new cause (no, it's not getting his "Two and a Half Men" job back, though he's waging that war too) -- bipolar awareness.
Today, Sheen, who's currently on his "My Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour, posted a series of tweets about a bipolar awareness walk he's organizing in Toronto this evening. The actor wants fans to meet him at his hotel and walk 1.2 miles with him to Toronto's Massey Hall, where he performed Thursday and is set to perform tonight.
Sheen tweeted today: "Stop the Stigma!! Bipolar Awareness Walk!! Please join me at 6pm at the Ritz tonight! Raise Money! Raise Awareness! #BIPOLAR #BIWINNING." In separate tweets, he said he's taking donations for the Canadian group OBAD, the Organization for Bipolar Affective Disorders, and he's "matching all donations $ for $"
The news is as surprising to OBAD as it is to everyone else.
"We've never had anything like this happen before," Kaj Korvela, executive director of OBAD, said in a phone interview with ABCNews.com. "I got a call from one of his managers and he said Charlie Sheen was spontaneously looking for a cause to give money to. He said they were just going through the web and they came across my organization and decided this was a good thing to do. Maybe it was the acronym of my organization that he liked, I don't know."
Korvela runs support groups for people affected by bipolar disorder in and around Alberta, Canada. His organization is small -- "1.5 people -- me and my assistant who doesn't work full time." He expects donations from Sheen and his fans to come through CanadaHelps.org, where OBAD maintains an account, but has no idea what kind of money to expect or how Sheen's walk will pan out.
"I really don't know what to think about it," he said. "The logistics of doing walks and events usually entails blocking streets off and phoning the police department. I'm as flummoxed and confused as anybody else."
What got Sheen interested in bipolar disorder, a condition he claims he doesn't have despite multiple medical experts saying that he exhibits the behavior of someone prone to manic highs and depressive lows?
"Apparently someone at [a] show brought to his attention," a person close to Sheen said. The source added that Sheen's walk doesn't have "anything to do" with the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who revealed this week that she recently sought treatment for bipolar disorder.
Sheen's publicist told ABCNews.com that "Charlie decided to do this on his own" in an "effort to create awareness of bipolar disorder."
Charlie Sheen in Toronto
Sheen's Toronto show Thursday received mixed reviews. It followed a similar question-and-answer format that he adopted after his disastrous Detroit, Mich. debut but featured a special guest, comedian Russell Peters.
The most notable part of Thursday's show came when Sheen invited a woman whose husband had died two years ago to come onstage. She said she coped with her grief by watching episodes of "Two and a Half Men" and wanted Sheen to raise a glass to honor her husband of 19 years.
He did, though Peters noted that it was a glass of non-alcoholic cider, since Sheen claims he now shuns drugs and alcohol.