Kirk Douglas, Wife Offer Schools Grant
Actor Kirk Douglas and his wife, Anne, launched a foundation providing $2.5 million in grant funding to rehabilitate deteriorating public school playgrounds.
“When my wife came up with this plan to help the playgrounds I said to my wife, ‘What can I do to help?’ She said, ‘Make a movie and get more money,’ ” Douglas said Tuesday at Vine Street Elementary School in Hollywood.
The Anne and Kirk Douglas Playground Grant will give up to $25,000 to schools that can demonstrate an ability to obtain matching funds in the form of money, material services or labor equal to half their requested grant.
The program was conceived by Anne Douglas after she read about deplorable conditions at many city schools.
“Giving children a secure haven at their schools is the very least we owe them,” she said.
Mayor Richard Riordan and Mike Roos, president of Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, joined the Douglases at the news conference.
“The drive that led Anne and Kirk to get involved and create this compassionate, problem-solving program for young Angelenos is the spirit that is turning Los Angeles around,” the mayor said.
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