Jerry Richardson Donates $100,000 To Charleston Victims’ Families And Emanuel A.M.E. Church
Jerry Richardson, the owner of the Carolina Panthers, has donated $100,000 to honor the victims of the Charleston church attack. Richardson made a donation of $10,000 to the family of each victim, while the remaining $10,000 will be donated to the church, the Huffington Post reports. Richardson and the Panthers made the donation in a letter to The Mother Emanuel Hope Fund, a charitable fund set up to pay for funeral expenses, and, once those have been paid for, to support the church.
You can find out how to make a donation here.
In the letter, Richardson laid out what should be done with the donation.
“Please accept the enclosed check from the Carolina Panthers in the amount of $100,000 to provide $10,000 per family to help defray funeral costs, and other financial needs of each, and $10,000 for the church as a memorial honoring the victims.”
The letter was posted online to the Twitter account of Bakari T. Sellers, a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, who expressed his thanks to Richardson. Colin Cole, defensive tackle for the Panthers, also posted the image, and thanked Richardson.
Jerry Richardson and the Carolina Panthers donated $100k to the victims families. People are so gracious. Warms my ?? pic.twitter.com/TMs4mTezvx
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) June 20, 2015
#PrayersforCharleston – some things are just bigger than football…@Panthers – thank you Mr. Richardson.. pic.twitter.com/sHxZGYjH4R
— Colin Cole (@ColinCole91) June 20, 2015
In the letter, Richardson names every victim of the massacre, ending the letter simply with “our hearts are one with those who grieve the loss of these individuals.”
The statement was backed by Panthers spokesman Steven Drummond, who spoke to ESPN.
“We don’t want to comment on the specifics of the donation, but know our hearts are one with those who grieve the loss of these individuals.”
The Panthers play in North Carolina, but as The Hill reports, Jerry Richardson has links to South Carolina, as he attended and played for Spartanburg’s Wofford College in the 1950s.
Richardson has owned the Panthers since their establishment in 1995, and has overseen a wide variety of charitable events. The team also founded the Keep Pounding Fund with the Carolinas Healthcare Foundation, a cancer research and patient support fund, which has so far raised more than $1.4 million. Jerry Richardson’s tenure hasn’t been without its rockier moments, the Panthers have previously been criticized for their stance on domestic violence, but this is one action that will be remembered extremely kindly.
[Image by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images]
