Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has teamed up with State Farm in hopes of raising $1 million for California Wildfire relief efforts. Rodgers, who is from Chico, California and played his college ball at the University of California, has already donated $1 million of his own money, but State Farm has also vowed to donate $1 for each retweet that the following video post receives.
"In Northern California, where I was born and raised, the city of Paradise burned to the ground, and many of the residents who got out are now displaced to my hometown of Chico and across the north state," Rodgers says in the video posted on his Twitter account. "I personally reached out to my friends and the mayor of Chico to find out how to be of the most help. And raising money for both immediate needs and the long-term recovery is what is needed most right now."
https://twitter.com/_/status/1065265967897415682
According to reports, the Camp Fire in Northern California has already claimed 81 lives, making it the deadliest fire in California history. As of Monday, there were still 699 people missing. To date, the fire has destroyed 12,637 residences, as well as 483 commercial structures and 3,718 other buildings. Nearly 4,000 firefighters are fighting the blaze.
Following the Packers' win over the Miami Dolphins on November 11, Rodgers donned a Santa Monica Fire Department hat in support of all the fire fighters on the scene. He told reporters, per ESPN:
"Growing up in Chico, I spent a great deal of time up there, I played a lot of football and basketball and sports up in Paradise, basically lived in Magalia at one point, which is an even tinier town off of Paradise. The devastation there, is tough. Hearing the stories of people running down the highways to avoid the fire. Knowing that people burned alive in their cars. It's heartbreaking, for sure, and then you have a fire in my adopted home of Southern California, so it's been a tough week for sure, and myself and the guys from Northern California, our thoughts and our prayers are with those folks. Not only the great firefighters fighting the fire, but all the people displaced. In my home area, Butte County, and then obviously down south in the L.A. area."
