Sandra Bullock is famous for movies like "Speed," "While You Were Sleeping," and "The Blind Side." Away from the cameras, she has spent more than twenty years giving to people hit by disaster. Over and over, she has written seven-figure checks to the American Red Cross, often within days of a catastrophe. She also spent years helping one flooded New Orleans high school get back on its feet. Here are ten documented times she gave her money, time, and attention to people in need, in order by year.
1. Gave one million dollars after the September 11 attacks
After the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Sandra Bullock gave $1 million. According to her Wikipedia biography, it was her first public $1 million donation, and it went to the Liberty Disaster Relief Fund, which helped victims of the attacks. Al Jazeera's 2005 reporting also noted the 2001 gift when it described her later giving. That first donation started a pattern that would last for years. Bullock became one of the American Red Cross's most dependable celebrity supporters, and her Wikipedia biography says she has given $1 million to the organization at least five times since then.
2. Sent a second million to the Red Cross for tsunami relief
The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami struck in late December 2004. Bullock contacted the American Red Cross that week to make what a Red Cross statement called "her second million dollar gift" to the organization. The charity said the money would pay for relief supplies, financial support, and technical help for survivors. The gift was announced in early January 2005, and the White House listed it among private donations for tsunami relief. Marsha Evans, then president of the American Red Cross, said Bullock "continues to enable our lifesaving work and is a model for personal generosity."
3. Donated one million dollars after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, and Bullock gave again. Fox News reported that she donated $1 million to the American Red Cross after the storm. Fox News also reported that she gave $25,000 to help rebuild a school the hurricane destroyed. Bullock had strong ties to New Orleans, and ABC News later described her as a vocal supporter of rebuilding the parts of the city Katrina damaged. The Katrina gift became part of a running total that, by 2017, had reached $5 million to the Red Cross for disaster relief since 2001.
4. Adopted a flooded New Orleans high school after Katrina
Warren Easton High School in New Orleans dates to 1844 and is one of Louisiana's oldest public schools. During Katrina it took in nearly 10 feet of floodwater and about $4 million in damage. Starting after the storm, Bullock gave the school what news reports described as hundreds of thousands of dollars. The money paid for college scholarships, new band uniforms, and renovations to the auditorium. In 2009 the school inducted her into its Hall of Fame. Speaking there, she called the gift "the best investment I ever made" and said modestly, "I just write the checks."
5. Turned her Blind Side premiere into a school fundraiser
In November 2009, Bullock walked the red carpet in New Orleans for a special premiere of "The Blind Side," the day before the film opened nationwide. The event did more than promote the movie. It also raised money for Warren Easton High School, the public school she had been supporting since Katrina flooded it. The Bend Bulletin reported that by then she had given the school hundreds of thousands of dollars. Bullock later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film, which is based on a true story.
6. Gave one million dollars to Haiti earthquake relief
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010. Within days, Bullock announced that she had donated $1 million to relief efforts. The Honolulu Advertiser reported that her gift went to the emergency operations of Doctors Without Borders in Port-au-Prince, where the quake had damaged three of the group's facilities. Today and CBS News later listed the Haiti gift among her major disaster donations. It was a change from her usual practice, since this $1 million went to a medical aid group rather than the American Red Cross.
7. Helped fund a free health clinic at a rebuilt school
On August 29, 2010, the fifth anniversary of Katrina, Bullock went back to Warren Easton Charter High School for a ribbon-cutting at its new on-campus health clinic. Tulane University's coverage of the ceremony lists her as a "Warren Easton Benefactor." The Associated Press reported that the $700,000 medical and dental clinic was built with money from Bullock and from the Kellogg Foundation and the San Francisco 49ers Foundation. The clinic was set to offer free care when it opened that fall. At the ceremony, Bullock told the crowd that tragedies sometimes bring out the best in people.
8. Gave the largest celebrity donation after Japan's tsunami
In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan. That same week, the American Red Cross told ABC News that Bullock had given $1 million to help the people affected. The Red Cross confirmed that it was the largest celebrity donation it had received since the disaster. The gift was described as coming from Bullock and her family. In a statement, the organization said it was "extremely grateful for this generous support from Sandra Bullock and her family." CBS News and NBC News also reported the donation.
9. Pledged one million dollars for Hurricane Harvey relief
Bullock grew up partly in Texas and has made her home in Austin. When Hurricane Harvey flooded the state in August 2017, she pledged $1 million to the American Red Cross for relief. Elizabeth Penniman, a Red Cross communications vice president, told Fox News, "This is an incredible gift. We're so thankful." Bullock told E! News, "I'm just grateful I can do it," and added, "We have to take care of one another." According to reports at the time, the Harvey gift brought her donations to the Red Cross to $5 million since 2001.
10. Donated thousands of masks to Los Angeles health workers
In April 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Bullock donated 6,000 KN95 masks to front-line health care workers in Los Angeles. Her partner at the time, photographer Bryan Randall, shared a photo of the delivery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. He thanked staff there and at Adventist Health White Memorial. According to his caption, the idea came from Bullock's two children: "Kids wanted to give masks. 6000 of them went to the warriors on the front lines in downtown LA." A month later, Bullock and her daughter appeared on "Red Table Talk" to thank a nurse manager who ran a COVID-19 unit at White Memorial.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Bullock
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2005/1/3/tsunami-aid-continues-pouring-in
- https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050104-1.html
- https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/sandra-bullock-donates-1m-toward-harvey-relief-efforts
- https://www.today.com/today/amp/tdna115699
- https://abc7ny.com/archive/6816411/
- https://thehimalayantimes.com/ampArticle/73972
- https://bendbulletin.com/?p=205069
- https://honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2010/Jan/16/il/hawaii1160337.html
- https://news.tulane.edu/print/pdf/node/42951
- https://www.eluniverso.com/2010/08/30/1/1379/sandra-bullock-celebra-5to-aniversario-katrina-clinica.html
- https://abcnews.com/news/story/sandra-bullock-million-japan-earthquake-victims-13160417
- https://www.yahoo.com/news/sandra-bullock-donates-6-000-022058242.html
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sandra_Bullock_2018_(cropped).jpg
