Ellen DeGeneres is receiving a humanitarian award, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is reaping the benefits.
Producers of the People’s Choice Awards announced Monday that DeGeneres will be recognized as the Favorite Humanitarian at Wednesday’s ceremony. The honor comes with a $200,000 donation from Walgreens, which DeGeneres is directing toward the hospital.
This isn’t the first time Ellen has steered a large sum to St. Jude. In 2014, a selfie she tweeted from the Oscars award show generated such a stir on social media that Samsung, sponsor of the show, directed $3 million to two charities of DeGeneres’ choice — $1.5 million each to St. Jude and the Humane Society of the United States.
St. Jude, founded in 1962 by entertainer Danny Thomas, doesn’t charge patients or their families and operates solely on donations and grants. Treatments developed there have helped boost the overall survival rate for childhood cancer from 20 percent 50 years ago to 80 percent today.
