Presidents’ relief fund raises over $41 million
Donations will benefit victims of 3 hurricanes in 2017
An appeal by five former U.S. presidents for donations to help victims of three 2017 hurricanes has stopped accepting gifts after raising $41.3 million.
The One America Appeal, led by former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, raised the money for relief efforts in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Major donors included Merck, the Hamon Charitable Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, Pfizer Foundation, Lady Gaga, the NFL Foundation, The PGA TOUR, and proceeds from a preseason men’s exhibition basketball game between the University of Kansas
and the University of Missouri.
“On behalf of the former presidents, we want to thank each of the roughly 110,500 donors who so selflessly answered the call to help our fellow Americans in need due to the devastating 2017 hurricane season,” David Jones, CEO of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, said in the statement.
The campaign was inspired by Hurricane Harvey, which struck the Texas coast Aug. 25. It expanded in September to include recovery efforts in Florida from Hurricane Irma, and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands from Hurricane Maria.
The former presidents appeared Oct. 21 at a benefit concert in College Station produced by the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation. The event featured performers Lee Greenwood, Lady Gaga, Alabama, the Gatlin Brothers, Sam Moore, Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen.
Donations from the campaign have been distributed to the Houston Harvey Relief Fund. the Rebuild Texas Fund, the Florida Disaster Fund, Unidos Por Puerto Rico and the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands.