Michael Jordan has made yet another huge donation — and this one tops his gift to the Smithsonian. The Charlotte Hornets owner granted $7 million to open medical centers in some of Charlotte, N.C.’s most neglected communities.
Almost 35,000 children and adults will have accesss to emergency and preventative care thanks to the Hall of Famer’s donation, according to the Charlotte Observer. Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Clinics will open in 2020.
“It is my hope that these clinics will help provide a brighter and healthier future for the children and families they serve,” Jordan said in a statement obtained by ESPN.
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Estee Portnoy, Jordan’s spokeswoman told the Charlotte Observer he, “really wanted to do something personally, he and his family, in the North Carolina area, separate from the work we’ve done with the Hornets.”
She said the star began talks to fund the clinics after seeing a 2014 report from Harvard and UC Berkeley. It found poor children in Charlotte have the worst chances of any American city to get out of poverty.
The gift follows his $5 million donation to the National Museum of African American History and Culture last year. Jordan has also given $3 million to groups working to improve relations between police and the Black community following a summer of deadly violence.