Friday, June 03, 2005
An Amazing Act of Generosity
As seen at Kim du Toit's site:
That's Denzel Washington, who recently visited Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
Simply visiting, and cheering up the many hospitalized military personnel and staff, would have been plenty. But it seems Mr. Washington wanted to do more. Check it out -- you'll be impressed.
I do hope this gets covered in the press. If I see it, I'll add links. (As of 1PM, Google News comes up empty.)
Way to go, sir. A more patriotic act -- and an apolitical one, at that! -- I'd be hard-pressed to imagine.
UPDATE: The indefatiguable (and indispensable) snopes.com has more of the story:
As might be expected with the U.S. military's having been engaged in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq for the last few years, the demand for space in Fisher Houses at some military facilities has exceeded their capacities. According to the Fisher House Foundation, when Denzel Washington was at Fort Sam Houston in December 2004, he did visit its Fisher House and learn of their need for additional facilities, and he did later make a substantial donation to the Fisher House Foundation (amount undisclosed, but it was described as "one of the most significant received in our history" by James Weiskopf, the foundation's vice president for communications), but he did not, as described above, "get out his checkbook" on the spot and write a check for the full amount needed to construct a new building.That's certainly good enough for me.
Due to the generosity of the American public (including Mr. Washington), the Fisher House Foundation has already collected enough money to build another house, although it will not necessarily be constructed at the Brooke Army Medical Center.
UPDATE II: It seems that Jeff Harrell was on the case more than a month ago. If you like the story, check out his take on it. (It seems that he trusts snopes.com far less than I do.) One of his commenters compares this story with Sandra Bullock's $1 million donation for tsunami relief, and I agree -- another apolitical donation of surpassing generosity.
By the way, I couldn't find anything on the subject through Google. A9.com, however, found it right away. Who knew?
UPDATE III: Smash has more.
