Pink Donates $500,000 to Aid Australian Fire Relief: 'I Am Totally Devastated'
Celebrities, including Pink and Celeste Barber, are pledging to help those affected by the devastating Australian wildfires.
On Saturday, Pink announced that she would be donating $500,000 to fire services in Australia, and also shared a list of local fire stations and their donation pages with her fans.
“I am totally devastated watching what is happening in Australia right now with the horrific bushfires,” the musician, 40, captioned the post. “I am pledging a donation of $500,000 directly to the local fire services that are battling so hard on the frontlines. My heart goes out to our friends and family in Oz ❤️.”
Meanwhile, Barber — an Australian actor and comedian — recently put out a call on social media for her followers to donate to relief efforts. On Thursday, Barber, 37, posted a Facebook fundraiser titled “Please help anyway you can. This is terrifying.”
As of Saturday morning, the fundraiser had raised over $9.8 million.
A post shared by P!NK (@pink) on Jan 3, 2020 at 10:47pm PST
Please help where you can. This is terrifying. https://t.co/HHemX5P3KM pic.twitter.com/QYrrEZfHFK
— Celeste barber (@celestebarber_) January 3, 2020
The brushfire crisis in Australia has claimed the lives of at least 17 people and burned through more than 11 million acres since it sparked in September.
As the more than 130 fires continue to burn, ecologists from the University of Sydney believe almost half a billion total mammals, birds and reptiles have also died in the fires since September.
On Wednesday — one day after what was reportedly deemed the deadliest day of the fire crisis since its start — Australia deployed military ships and aircraft to help victims and communities in need.
As of Thursday, there were 2,000 firefighters working in New South Wales alone, with additional help arriving from the United States, Canada and New Zealand.
RELATED: LaMelo Ball and Other Athletes Help Australia Wildfire Victims — Including Native Nick Kyrgios
Among those pledging to help are professional athletes including LaMelo Ball and Nick Kyrgios.
Ball — who is American but plays for the Illawarra Hawks, an Australian professional basketball team — recently pledged to donate one month of his National Basketball League salary to help victims of the fires, according to a statement released by the Hawks.
“It’s sad to see what is happening on the South Coast of Australia,” Ball, 18, said in the press release. “People have lost their homes and everything they own. My parents taught me to help out wherever I can, so this is my way of helping out.”
Meanwhile, Kyrgios, an Australian tennis player, pledged $200 Australian dollars for every ace he hits at upcoming matches.
“I’m kicking off the support for those affected by the fires,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’ll be donating $200 per ace that I hit across all the events I play this summer.”
According to CNN, Kyrgios, 24, hit 20 aces at a match on Friday, adding up to a donation of $4,000 Australian dollars.
“I don’t really care about the praise too much, I just think we’ve got the ability and the platform to do something like that,” Kyrgios said after the match, CNN reported.
“It’s tough to go out there and concentrate on tennis, to be honest,” he added. “Every ace I was hitting that’s all I was thinking about. Every time I stepped up to the line that’s all I was thinking about.”
