by Andy Dehnart / January 31, 2011, 8:54 AM
Jeff Probst’s charity The Serpentine Project has been the recipient of money earned from the end-of-season Survivor auctions for the past two years, and that has taken the charity from one funded by Jeff himself to one that now has about $400,000.
Variety reports that “Probst funded the nonprofit org, which currently serves six youths, almost entirely by himself,” but the auctions “[have] put an estimated $400,000 in Serpentine’s coffers, which pays for college tuition, books and rent.” Besides the prop auctions, tickets to Survivor Gabon’s finale were auctioned off in November of 2008, and the charity also benefited from a Samoa set visit auction.
The organization exists to help former foster kids transition into self-sufficiency, and recently merged with The Alliance for Children’s Rights, which calls itself “Los Angeles’s pre-eminent free legal services organization dedicated solely to protecting impoverished, abused and neglected children.” The Serpentine Project’s executive director, Elizabeth Lott, wrote on the organization’s web site that she is “optimistic that amazing things will come from our merge” because “our ability to make a real impact on aged-out youth will grow exponentially.” (You can donate to it on its web site.)
The CEO for the Alliance for Children’s Rights said in a statement announcing the change that “Every year approximately 1,500 youth age out of Los Angeles County’s foster care system at 18 years old. Half of these youth will end up homeless or incarcerated, and only three percent graduate from college. Jeff’s vision to change this reality is perfectly aligned with our programs and his support will be a catalyst to empower more foster youth to self-advocate while helping thousands who will come after them.”
Probst told Variety, “We told them, ‘If we merge with you, we can create a little pocket within your organization where we can really do deep. And we can piggyback on all of their great resources.”
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