"Your heart is a legend". KungFu movie superstar Jackie Chan calls for action to help children's educaion & to protect wildlife

Happy and harmonious Lunar Year of the Dragon 2012!
"Build a School For a Dollar" - In the past 5 years, Jackie's fans have donated over US $90,000 and Jackie has matched this donation for a total of over US $180,000, enough to build 2-3 schools...

Jackie Chan's Diary January 17, 2012 "...a story that I wanted to share with you. Maybe you remember the little boy, Will Shadley, who starred in "The Spy Next Door" with me several years ago. He's twelve years old now and living in California and has been spending a lot of his time doing charity work..."

(quote)

The project is called Build a School For a Dollar: In the past five years, fans have donated over US $90,000 and Jackie has matched this donation for a total of over US $180,000, enough to build two schools and halfway to building a third. The project continues... When Jackie Chan isn't making movies, he is very busy working to help other people, especially children. Jackie has been involved in charity work for 20 years, establishing his Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation in 1988. In October of 2004, Jackie founded the Dragon's Heart Foundation to help children and the elderly in poor and remote areas of China. The Dragon's Heart Foundation builds schools in these remote areas and also gives aid to the elderly and handicapped. In the past four years, Jackie has taken many trips to remote areas of China to bring supplies and most of all to bring love and support to poor children and the elderly. There are many children who don't have enough money to go to school and Jackie wants to help them get an education. He uses money collected through the Dragon's Heart Foundation to help the children. But do you wonder where Dragon's Heart gets donations from? They get money from people like you; people who just want to help kids who want to go to school. Jackie collects the money and then builds the schools! So far the Foundation has built twenty-one schools and elderly residences in Guizhou, Xichang, Shandong, Erdos, Changchun, and Yanbian! After the May 12, 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, Jackie promised to use money from the Dragon's Heart Foundation to help rebuild schools in the devastated areas.

In August, 2006 when Jackie came back from a Dragon's Heart charity mission to Guizhou, China, he thought of a fun way for you to help poor children go to school. The project is called Build a School For a Dollar. You may wonder how anyone - even Jackie - could build a whole school for a dollar. Of course no one can. But if you put your dollar together with someone else's dollar and a whole bunch of other dollars, you could have enough money to build a school! And that's our plan. As an added bonus, Jackie has promised to match your donation. That means if you donate a dollar, Jackie will donate a dollar. If you donate ten dollars, Jackie will donate ten dollars!

Jackie Chan's Diary January 17, 2012 "As you know, I've been very busy filming my new movie so I haven't had much time to write my diary. Additionally, I am not allowed to talk too much about the film and I wouldn't want to spoil it for the audience anyway! However, I always think about my fans and hope that they're happy and well.

Recently I heard from my webmaster and she told me a story that I wanted to share with you. Maybe you remember the little boy, Will Shadley, who starred in The Spy Next Door with me several years ago. I haven't seen Will in a while, but my webmaster keeps in touch with his mom and so that's how I found out what Will has been up to lately.

He's twelve years old now and living in California and has been spending a lot of his time doing charity work, helping the homeless people of Los Angeles. On Christmas Eve, Will and the other volunteers for an organization called "H.A.T." (Helping All Transient) donated over 500 sleeping bags to the homeless on Skid Row in L.A.!

What impressed me the most was that Will works directly with the people, bringing the supplies right to them and meeting them face to face. Will's Mom, Shari, says that Will was influenced by the charity work that I do, but I can't take the credit for his good work. Will has been helping people since he was just 5 years old.

When Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, Will, along with his sister and his mom, bought hygiene supplies and made 75 hygiene bags to send to a Mississippi church for people who lost their homes. I think that everyone can take a lesson from Will and see that it's possible to make a difference in someone's life by volunteering their time and energy. I'm really proud of Will and the good work he's doing!"

(unquote)

Photos courtesy Jackie Chan Wallpapers, AskMen, and Go For A Movie