Jon Bon Jovi Donates $1 Million To Sandy Cleanup Effort

It’s been months and months since Hurricane Sandy came inland and devastated homes and businesses along the Eastern seaboard. In the months since, plenty of people have come together to rehabilitate homes and businesses and pick up the pieces following the major disaster. The New York Aquarium has re-opened. The famous tourist boardwalk at Seaside Heights has been cleaned up and deconstruction is ongoing on the rides that went to watery graves during the superstorm. Things are certainly looking up for communities, but it takes a lot of dollar bills to fix devastation of Sandy’s ilk, which is where Bon Jovi comes in.

Bon Jovi is a native of the Garden State, and a man who takes great pride in his hometown, as well as the state he lived in while growing up. On Monday, the rocker appeared with Governor Christie to announce a $1 million dollar donation to relief efforts related to the hurricane and superstorm. According to CNN, Bon Jovi headed to his hometown of Sayreville to hand the large check to Governor Christie’s wife, Mary Pat, who actually heads up a relief fund that has brought in $38 million dollars so far.

This isn’t the first time a celebrity has stepped in to aid in relief. Right after Hurricane Sandy occurred, a slew of famous musicians put together 12-12-12: The Concert For Sandy, a televised concert which aired on numerous networks and brought in money for the Robin Hood Relief fund, an organization that has also doled out money to the victims of the major storm. Other celebrities, including Jimmy Kimmel, opted to put together random charity events to help post-storm efforts. Kimmel, for instance, opted to sell his desk in order to raise money for clean-up.

Bon Jovi spoke out at the event to talk about how he visited Jersey after the storm and wondered how he could help some of the people who were hit hardest by the event.

Governor Christie later took to Twitter to discuss today’s event and talk about rebuilding communities.

The latter may have been more of a political move than the former, but to his credit, Christie and his wife have gotten several celebrities invested in cleaning up New Jersey. Bon Jovi is now an honorary trustee member of the New Jersey Relief Fund, as is Bruce Springsteen. The more money that gets poured into funds like these, the quicker the state can fully get back on its feet.