Today, young celebrities make news for their twerk-tastic performances, multiple arrests, and stints in rehab. Taylor Swift, however, made headlines this week for her kindness towards a fan who was severely injured while traveling to one of the singer’s concerts.
Grace Markel, was struck by a car as she was walking to a Taylor Swift concert with her parents. The 7-year-old suffered multiple injuries but recovered enough to attend Swift’s Nashville show a month later.
Swift heard about Grace’s accident and invited her young fan backstage for a surprise meet and greet. Swift sat for pictures with Grace and signed her shirt, “I heart Grace! Taylor,” before she left to wrap the final show of her Red tour.
Grace’s story is just one of many examples of Swift using her stardom to help others.
Back in 2012, Kevin McGuire, a 19 year old with leukemia, asked the “Everything Has Changed” singer to his prom. Due to conflicts in Swift’s schedule, she changed their date to the Academy of Country Music Awards. The pair was forced to reschedule yet again, when complications with McGuire’s leukemia prevented him from attending the award show.
Swift never forgot about McGuire. This past April, the pop singer took McGuire, now a cancer survivor, on a date and brought him and his family as her guests to the 2013 AMC Awards.
In 2012, Swift donated $10,000 to the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The students were the victims of a cruel practical joke, where social media users overwhelming voted for the school in a contest to win a live performance by Swift. Rather than genuinely supporting the school in the contest, these voters thought a deaf school winning the contest would be funny. The school was eventually deemed ineligible for the contest, so Swift gave each student a ticket to her concert, in addition to her cash donation.
Finally in 2011, Swift turned her final rehearsal for her Speak Now tour into a benefit concert for tornado victims in the Southeast. More than 13,000 people came to the concert, and Swift raised over $750,000 for charity.
Swift proves time and time again that she is as generous as she is successful.