Rockers Rush donate cash to human rights museum
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 | 2:15 PM CT
CBC News
Iconic Canadian rock band Rush is donating $100,000 from a Winnipeg concert last weekend to the campaign to build the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in the city.
The band is also selling shirts at its Canadian concert locations. The shirts read: "My pals Rush and I support the Canadian Museum for Human Rights."
Money raised from the sale of the shirts will also go to the museum's fundraising campaign.
Gail Asper — who is spearheading the project on behalf of her late father, media mogul Izzy Asper — approached lead singer Geddy Lee about the museum.
"Gail had actually read … an article about Geddy Lee in the past and thought he might be interested in the museum and approached him, and he was," said Kim Jaspers, spokeswoman for an organization raising funds for the museum.
"After the concert, she received a call saying they would like to donate $100,000 in proceeds of the concert to the museum and she was just thrilled, as were we all. This is just such a magnanimous gesture of Rush."
The Canadian leg of the Rush tour wraps up at the end of the month.
The national museum, Canada's first outside the Ottawa area, is expected to cost $265 million to build, and $22 million a year to operate. Organizers hope to have it open sometime in 2010.
To date, backers have raised about $236 million, according to the museum's website.
The federal government has promised to pay $100 million for construction, as well as operating costs.
