On leap day (Feb. 29), People ran an exclusive feature online that dove deep into the Firework Foundation, which was co-founded by "American Idol" judge Katy Perry and her older sister, Angela Lerche.
While growing up in a strict, religious household, the sisters experienced what it's like to not know where your next meal will come from.
"You want to talk about food stamps? I can talk about food stamps. You want to talk about food banks? I can talk about food banks. You want to talk about busking in the street as a teenager, hoping to make $20 to cover yourself, I can talk about that too," Perry told People.
So in 2018, the siblings started the Firework Foundation, which helps kids in need get access to the arts.
"A lot of times it's reminding them that we didn't come from anything either," Lerche said. "[Perry] wasn't born into some musical family that had all this access. She worked so hard for so many years to get to be where she is."
So far, the foundation has helped over 400 middle schoolers in and around Los Angeles, providing them with songwriting sessions, shoe design workshops and choreography classes.
"I'm just so grateful. It's so overwhelming because you hear so many stories from these kids, and what it's like back home and what they're dealing with," Lerche added. "They give so much to us, and I'm just grateful that we're able to show them that there is something better out there."
For Perry, this good work means even more than her musical legacy.
"If in a hundred years nobody knows Katy Perry or the song 'Firework,' but they know what the Firework Foundation is, then I'll have fulfilled my purpose," she shared.
