The Rock and Chris Brown have responded to Kevin Hart’s challenge to donate $25,000 to the Hurricane Harvey relief fund. In fact, Brown quadrupled his donation, volunteering $100,000 (£77.1k) to the relief efforts after Hart called him out in a second fundraising video. Hart challenged the likes of Beyonce, Jay Z and Justin Timberlake to donate $25,000 each to help those affected by the devastating damage caused by the hurricane in Texas in an Instagram video over the weekend. Responding to Hart’s charitable efforts in his own Instagram post, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson said:
‘Kevin Hart, you issued the Hurricane Harvey challenge, I appreciate you brother, I just donated my $25,000 to the Red Cross.’
Adding how he and his family survived category five Hurricane Andrew in 1992, he said:
‘I’m not going to call out my celebirty friends, you guys already know what to do in donating money,’ before issuing a plea for fans to give what they can to the cause. Brown posted a similar video to his Instagram page, saying in it: ‘What’s up big bro, Kevin Hart. I accept your challenge. We need to come together.
‘I’m donating $100,000. So man, this is for everybody out there in Texas, the relief and everything. I accept the challenge and I implore and encourage everybody else, who can change and make a change for this, to please donate and help out. Love you all.’
He has chosen not to donate his money to The American Red Cross, however, writing in the caption of his video that he is ‘skeptical about red cross so my donation will go to the people!’ Following his first Instagram video on Monday, Hart posted a second message revealing he has upped his donation to $50,000 (£38.6k) instead.
The actor, who has set up a fundraising page which currently stands at $193,170 (£148,970), also called out more celebs to help him, including Brown, Usher, Ludacris, Nelly and Drake. Kevin’s original video began:
‘Serious moment right now. I’ve just been caught up to speed with everything that’s going on in Houston with Hurricane Harvey and this shit is unbelievable.’
‘I think we participate in a lot of challenges on the internet, some meaningful, some meaningless, but we’ve all done it. I’ve been a person who’s partaken in every one of them.’
Kevin then revealed his plan to set a challenge for his celebrity friends, adding:
‘At this point I’m gong to start a real challenge. I am challenging a lot of my celebrity friends to follow my lead and donate $25,000 to Hurricane Harvey, to The Red Cross, okay.
‘At this point, it’s a serious matter. I think people are in bad shape and they need help. I’m going to lead the charge by stepping up in this way.’
And then he listed some names who he is hoping will join him in the relief effort, adding:
‘I challenge The Rock, Steve Harvey, Chris Rock, Dave Chapelle, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Jerry Seinfeld, and I think when you all do it, you should tag someone else. $25,000 is coming from me. Prayers go out to Houston,’ he signed off.’