Ryan Reynolds ugly sweater campaign helps raise $640K for SickKids in 2021
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and his “aesthetically challenged” sweater have helped the Hospital for Sick Children raise more than $640,000 this holiday season—about double the amount from the previous year.
For the past three years, the Vancouver-born actor has been supporting the Toronto SickKids Foundation, using a real-life ugly sweater gag as inspiration.
This year, Reynolds took things to the next level, providing t-shirts designed to mimic the famous ugly sweater to about 5,000 front-line workers.
In a short 50-second video posted to YouTube in early December, the actor encouraged people to donate to the foundation.
"The past couple of years my beloved, yet aesthetically challenged, holiday sweater has become a symbol for how much we all care about children and SickKids hospital," Ryan says. "But this year, I want to recognize the doctors and nurses too."
"And that means that, with all due respect to a certain iconic trio from the 90s, I do want scrubs."
The video then shows frontline workers unwrapping boxes to find green t-shirts with a giant gold bow printed on them. They even had the sweater’s signature blank name tag.
The call out was a success, with numerous athletes, politicians and entertainers taking part.
Toronto Mayor John Tory posted a photo of himself in a similar shirt, writing that he hopes Reynolds “will stop making everyone wear this ugly holiday sweater one day.”
The Toronto Maple Leafs got into the holiday spirit, sharing a video of the team gathering for practice while wearing the sweater. In the video, the players are seen using cut-outs of Ryenolds’ face as target practice before encouraging everyone to donate.
Other participants include Andre De Grasse, Bianca Andreescu, and Hayley Wickenheiser, among others.
According to a news release issued Wednesday, the Sweater Love fundraising campaign raised more than $640,000. This included a donation from Samsung Canada, who pledged to match the first $100,000 raised.
In total, over three years, the campaign has raised more than $1.7 million for SickKids.
More than $3200,000 was raised in the 2020 campaign, which featured an animated video of a sweater Reynolds was tricked into wearing by his fellow actors Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.