OneRepublic Donates $100K to Build New School in Newtown, Conn.
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Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Starwood Preferred Guest(NEW YORK) — OneRepublic has announced that they’ve managed to collect $100,000 to help build a new school in Newtown, Conn., the site of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December.
Soon after the shooting, which left 26 dead, OneRepublic posted a video on the website IndieGoGo.com asking people to donate money to their newly-established charity fund to help the victims’ families. The band members donated $20,000 out of their own pockets to get the ball rolling, and in just a few minutes, they had another $15,000 in pledges. Their initial goal was $50,000, but in a few days, the total had soared to over $65,000.
On Monday, the band tweeted, “THNKS 2 ALL who donated $$ to our Sandy Hook Elementary Victims Fund-doubled the goal of 50k-sent $100k last week 2 help build a new school!”
They added, “We can’t imagine what the families of Newton, CT have gone thru in the last 3 + months- still haven’t forgotten- hope 2 visit the new school.”
The Sandy Hook shootings affected OneRepublic deeply because their own community in Colorado was rocked last summer by the Aurora movie theater massacre.
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