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Scott Kirkland/FOX(LOS ANGELES) — ABC Radio has confirmed that YouTube star Logan Paul has made good on his pledge, donating the first installment of a million dollars earmarked promote suicide prevention and mental health.
A representative of the National Suicide Prevention Hotline confirmed they’d received a $250,000 donation from the Internet celebrity.
The donation is part of Paul’s major mea culpa following his vlog on December 31, in which his crew video recorded and posted the video of the hanged, dead body of an person who had committed suicide in Japan’s so-called “suicide forest.”
Paul was flamed online for the segment, which showed him goofing with the corpse against a tree trunk in the background — behavior he attributed in an apology to shock, and not knowing how to express what he was feeling.
Paul took a hiatus from posting, only returning this week with a heartfelt video. The post saw him turn the camera away from himself and onto someone who attempted suicide almost two decades ago. Suicide facts and figures pepper the screen in the new video as Kevin Hines explains why he jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in a failed suicide attempt 17 years ago, when he was just 19.
Paul then explains he’s spent the past three weeks since the online backlash meeting with those who have struggled with depression, trying “to understand the complexities of suicide.”
“I know I’ve made mistakes,” Paul said. “But what happens when you’re given an opportunity to help make a difference in the world.”
The National Suicide Prevention Hotline answered some two million calls from troubled people last year. [D]onations [like Logan’s] help us strengthen our growing infrastructure, support local crisis centers, and provide support for the counselors answering Lifeline calls,” said Frances Gonzalez, the organization’s director of communications.
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