Sydney, 2021-12-09 16:09:00. Ryan Reynolds kicks off 2021 sweater campaign for SickKids
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds is starting another holiday campaign for The Hospital for Sick Children — and this year he’s making sure frontline workers don’t feel left out.
It all started in 2018, when the Vancouver-born star was tricked into wearing an ugly Christmas sweater to a party by fellow actors Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.
In photos posted on social media at the time, Reynolds is seen wearing a jacket with a large shiny gold bow while Jackman and Gyllenhaal laugh. Reynolds later found out that the party wasn’t an ugly jacket-themed event.
Since then, Reynolds has used the same jacket design in a campaign to raise money for the SickKids Foundation in Toronto.
More than $300,000 was raised in a few weeks in 2021 after the release of an animated video that parodied his vacation prank. The animation tells the story of a red and green jacket with a large bow that every customer gives away, except for one man looking for an outfit for a party that defines “fun” outfits.
This year, Reynolds kicked off the campaign with a short 50-second YouTube video calling on people to donate to SickKids.
In the video, the actor is seen wearing the notoriously ugly jacket with a tag that says “To Hugh and Deb”.
“In the past two years, my beloved, aesthetically challenged holiday jacket has become a symbol of how much we all care about children and SickKids Hospital,” Ryan says. “But this year, I want to get to know the doctors and nurses, too.”
“And that means that, with all due respect to a certain iconic trio from the ’90s, I want a face scrub.”
The video then shows frontline workers unpacking boxes to find shirts that have the same pattern as Reynolds’ ugly jacket. The shirts are green and have a giant golden bow on them. They even have the signature blank name tag for the jacket.
SickKids said 5,000 employees will receive replicas of the T-shirts and a number of patients will also receive festive sweatshirts.
The campaign is set to run until Christmas Eve, and individual donations made before midnight will be met by Samsung Canada, up to $100,000.
“Every kid who should be at SickKids during the holidays appreciates all the joy we can give them,” says the foundation’s website. “So please–help Ryan, give generously this holiday season.”
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