Some Gave All

 

From: Arla Gwen

Something that a sickening majority doesn't understand is that time is the most valuable gift one can ever give. Donating money is the easiest act of kindness...

Back in the 1960s and 70s, when he was perhaps the biggest movie star in the world, Steve McQueen had a habit of demanding free items in bulk from studios as a condition of appearing in their films, usually regular, day-to-day items like blue jeans, electric razors, and other common hygiene products. McQueen would then donate the items to the California Junior Boys' Republic (today just called Boys' Republic), a reform school in Chino Hills, California.

As a troubled youth who had endured a tumultuous, abusive childhood, and had numerous brushes with the law beginning as early as age 9, McQueen had been remanded to the school by his mother and stepfather as a teen, and credited it with helping him turn his life around. He was also known to visit the school periodically to spend time talking to the boys and playing pool with them, even after becoming an A-list star.

McQueen was not a saint — he absolutely had his vices and his unlovely character traits — but he wasn't all bad.

To the people asking why he didn't use “his own money” for charity, um, he did. The items were part of his negotiated salary, and none of the studios had to provide them if they didn't really want to.

More importantly, you negative Nancies don't seem to grasp that McQueen also donated his time to the boys at the school, which to me is more valuable than money. Any rich asshole can throw money at a cause, they do it every day. They don't all actually hang out with troubled kids and try to make a personal, positive impact on them.