Anne Curtis collects spare change from plane passengers, shuts down critics who say it’s for ‘publicity’

Image: Instagram/@annecurtissmith

Apart from acting and hosting, Anne Curtis has her hands full with the advocacies she holds dear. Last April, Curtis participated in the London Marathon with Marawi City in mind, which saw her raising funds with UNICEF Philippines for the afflicted children of the Mindanao city. Curtis is a known celebrity advocate of the program, and made sure to match the people’s donations after the race, with her initiative raising a total of P1 million. 

This time around, Curtis found herself again using her platform as an influencer to do good. Yesterday, July 2, Curtis shared a picture of her on Instagram that showed her collecting loose change during a flight. Curtis was wearing a blue UNICEF shirt as she held up a bag for people to put their change in.

“On last night’s flight from CDO I personally went around collecting change from the passengers for the Change for Good program of @unicefphils and @cebupacificair,” wrote Curtis.

On last night’s flight from CDO I personally went around collecting change from the passengers for the Change for Good program of @unicefphils and @cebupacificair 💙 I was able to collect 3 full bags! Salamat sa Lahat ng passengers and thank you for renewing this program with us! I truly hope this becomes a LIFETIME partnership! To all CEBUPAC passengers, next time you’re on a flight and the lovely F.A’s come around with this bag know that you are helping children that benefit from the first 1000 days program of UNICEF 💙 Your loose change goes a looooooong way. Salamat po!

A post shared by Anne Curtis (@annecurtissmith) on Jul 2, 2018 at 7:02am PDT

Upon revealing to her fans that she was able to collect three full bags of spare change, Curtis wholeheartedly extended her gratitude to all the passengers who donated. “Salamat sa lahat ng passengers and thank you for renewing this program with us.”

But despite this good deed, there were some people who found something wrong in what Curtis did, with one saying much of the acts of kindness of celebrities are for “publicity.”

“I was going to comment on here that how about Anne just give her own money to help UNICEF?” wrote one netizen (@pinaynailonggainny). “Instead of going around collecting money from low income citizens? Tsk tsk… can’t help but think that these act of ‘kindness’ that celebrities do is all for publicity…”

Curtis quickly defended herself, and wrote back, “With all due respect madam, trust me, I do my own part and donate from my own pocket on many other occasions for UNICEF and for my foundation Dream Machine BUT for this specific project, the main goal is using where I am to INSPIRE others to do good and donate any loose change – ONLY IF THEY CAN.”

Curtis then told the netizen that she was able to visit the municipality of Bobon in Northern Samar, where she saw for herself the children and mothers who benefited from the program.

“So, yes I am, proud to be part of project that is making a difference in this world and will continue to use all my social media platforms to raise awareness and inspire others to make a difference in this world and help our fellow country men.”

“At least may ginagawa kami,” added Curtis. “Hindi nganga and puro complaining on social media po. We are actually making a difference.”  /ra

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