Hollywood to star in Swiss charity golf bash

Hollywood legend Samuel L Jackson has teamed up with the Swiss Red Cross to raise money for rebuilding a hospital in Cambodia through a star-studded golf event.

The big-screen star will invite the public to bid to play golf with himself and a host of other celebrities in Switzerland in September. The event aims to raise around €500,000 (SFr666,600), part of which will go to Cambodia.

The proceeds would go some way to funding the SFr3 million rebuilding project of the over-crowded Takeo Referral Hospital in the southern part of the Asian country.

Swiss Red Cross Director-General Markus Kader told a news conference in Zurich on Thursday that the golf event is a model for the wealthy of how to contribute to charity.

“You [Jackson] show by example that success need not only profit one’s own bank account, but should also be used to help people who live lives less fortunate than our own,” Kader said.

The Samuel L Jackson Foundation has raised money for other good causes, mainly in Africa, with a series of celebrity-amateur Shooting Stars Benefit golf tournaments. The event is expanding its presence in Europe by staging it in Bad Ragaz, canton St Gallen, between September 14-17.

“Growing up poor myself, I know what it means to have someone lend you a helping hand,” Jackson told the conference in Zurich.

Other stars rumoured to be heading to Switzerland in September and sponsored by the Helvetia Wealth financial group are Teri Hatcher, Luke Wilson and Scarlett Johansson.

swissinfo.ch