Rachelle Lefevre who played Victoria in The Twilight Saga’s first two movies, Twilight and New Moon, has revealed that she auctioned off Twilight items signed by cast and crew for an organization in Los Angeles, called School on Wheels, which tutors homeless children.  She auctioned the items on Ebay and raised over $14,000 for the organization!

What a smart way to use your sucess, doing for others.  It isn’t a new idea but I don’t think we hear about it enough.

Rachelle said: “I got a bunch of stuff that the cast had signed and I did an eBay auction and raised $14,000 for an organization in Los Angeles, called School on Wheels, which tutors homeless children, that’s one of the benefits of being involved with Twilight.”

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I just LOVE Rachelle Lefevre!  I was pissed when I learned she wouldn’t be playing Victoria in Eclipse and I’m not sure I have ever gotten over it. 

Rachelle Lefevre, who played Victoria in Twilight and  New Moon, heads into the jungle for the new ABC series, Off the Map, from Grey’s Anatomy executive producer Shonda Rhimes. But first, the redhead talks to ET online about what it’s like to be a doctor in a South American clinic. 

ETonline: How well do you think this show portrays life in a clinic? Is it more real or more soapy?

Rachelle Lefevre: With the actual gritty real subject of the show, what we discovered when doing our research is that people who work with various organizations in high-conflict zones — and, if you read books and articles about what it is like to be a doctor there — they have no tension and stress relief at the end of the day and they see and do horrific, tragic things all day and they really do get drunk and have sex. This is in all our research. We were afraid that we weren’t doing it justice. We were like: “We must be adding sex to this noble job,” but, in fact, these people are heroes but they are human beings. Nobody can be around that much blood and intense medicine and not need something mindless at the end of the day. All the sex, getting your shirt off and steamy soap stuff about it is organic and kind of honest. Even though our show is heightened reality, it is still not that far-fetched.

ETonline: Your character was barely in the pilot. What can you tell us about her?

Rachelle Lefevre: I was added to the show after the pilot, which is why I am not really in it. My story takes a little longer to evolve. Basically what you know is she is the potential love interest of Ben, played by Martin Henderson, who organized the clinc. She is a free-spirited character and a really good doctor, who cares a lot, but is clearly damaged in some capacity.

ETonline: Are these doctors like cowboys, who don’t function well in organized medicine, so they head out to the jungle?

Rachelle Lefevre: I think that is an accurate decision. They are cowboys in that they are on the new frontier. They are going to bring medicine where there hasn’t been Western medicine before. One of the things we deal with is these people have had healers and shamans. They have their own medical tradition. They haven’t had exposure to Westernized medicine.

ETonline: Can you talk about working with this ensemble, which also includes “Grey’s Anatomy” alum Jason George, “Friday Night Lights”‘ Zach Gilford and Meryl Streep‘s daughter Mamie Gummer? Did it help you bond quicker?

Rachelle Lefevre: It did. People have been saying all day, “Oh, you seem to get along so well.” When you are on an island, you only have each other. It was a blessing because there was no room for personalities or diva behavior. Everybody was, “Hey, we are all in this together. We miss our friends and family, so let’s be there for each other.”

ETonline: Do you have any stories or fun things you guys have been able to do together?

Rachelle Lefevre: It’s funny. Someone asked me about what the first day of work was like, and I realized a funny parallel. There’s a scene that you see in the pilot where Zach and Caroline [Dhavernas] and Mamie jump in the water, and they’re like “Woo” in the water. I realized that that was all of us on our first day, because our first day of work was to see how comfortable we were in the ocean, and so they took us snorkeling with giant sea turtles, and we had this moment where it was literally like life imitating art. It was the cast of “Off the Map” standing at the base of the ocean going “Well, this job is awful. Woo” and running into the water. It was exactly the same.

ETonline: What is it like filming in Hawaii?

Rachelle Lefevre: Hawaii is absolutely beautiful. There is no substitute for a real location when you are trying to shoot the jungle. You’ve got to go where it is lush and green — those mountain ranges and the ocean. Very quickly the scenery became a character on our show. We are never on the soundstage. If you are in Hawaii, why shoot anything inside?

Did you know how ‘Twilight’ would change your life?

Rachelle Lefevre: I had no idea that it was going to change my life, but I had no idea that I was going to end up doing a show where I was going to have to move to Honolulu either. This is the kind of business where you always have a suitcase packed in the back of your closet to go where the call is.

LOVE HER!

The show premiered last night.  What did you think?

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Photo Credit ~ Bob DAmico-ABC