Sources: CNBC; Huffington Post; Mediaite
On August 6, 2015, comedian Jon Stewart took to the desk of The Daily Show for the last time. However, he didn’t leave without giving one charity a gift they’d never forget.
Over $2.2 million was raised for New York Collaborates for Autism (NYCA), after Jon Stewart teamed up with charity fundraising company Omaze to raise money through a meet-and-greet raffle. Omaze and Stewart raised $2,235,520 for NYCA, from a total of 47,048 people across 78 countries.
The online giveaway gave one lucky winner and a friend the opportunity to come see the final show and meet the comedian. All they had to do was donate $10 or more to enter the lottery, which Stewart promoted on his show. The winner and his wife donated $100. The highest donation received was $35,000, while the average donation was $45.50.
The Daily Show has also made a huge difference in the lives of veterans, helping many gain access to a program they were unfairly kept from using.
The Choice Program, which was put in place to speed access to medical care after it was revealed that some patients had been waiting months for treatment, allows veterans who live far from VA facilities to get out-of-network care closer to home. But to be eligible, you have to live 40 miles from the nearest VA facility using “as-the-crow-flies” miles.
“That is the least meaningful way to judge how hard it is to get somewhere for non-crows,” Stewart said on the August 3 Daily Show as he highlighted the struggles of some veterans to obtain the health care they needed.
The rule kept many who lived far from hospitals by roads from using the program. But on Tuesday, seemingly in response to what Stewart called his “damning piece of investigative joke-a-lism,” the Department of Veterans Affairs changed the rule and will now use actual driven miles based on Google Maps rather than “as-the-crow-flies” miles. The change in language will double the number of veterans eligible for the Choice Program.
Stewart plans on going far, far away from this ridiculous world to hang out with animals on a farm in New Jersey.
Farm Sanctuary, a animal rights nonprofit that advocates for the humane treatment of farm animals, announced that Stewart and his wife, Tracey, recently bought a farm in New Jersey where they would take care of cows, chickens, pigs, goats, etc., rescued from cruelty.