Kiefer Sutherland raises $100,000 in 24 hours for Nova Scotia fire evacuees

For Kiefer Sutherland, shifting the emphasis of his Nova Scotia trip from selling whisky to raising money for fire victims was “just common sense.”

Sutherland is a co-owner of Red Bank whisky and was scheduled to visit Halifax liquor stores to promote the brand.

“I flew in from London, England, to Montreal and from Montreal to here, then I spent the first night here, talking about what our plans were, then we went to New Brunswick the next day and P.E.I. the day after that, and got back here (Friday),” said the actor, who heard about the wildfires in the province when he arrived a few days ago.

“I couldn’t be more happy to see rain. I thought it was going to be quite light, but it’s been sustained and we’re understanding it’s had a great impact on the fire. Hopefully, that’s true.”

Sutherland said the first response of the four owners of Red Bank was that it wouldn’t be appropriate for his store visits to go ahead when thousands of people were being forced from their homes. But they quickly decided to “reposition” the events to do some good.

“We’ve worked for four years, kind of developing the whisky, deciding on the flavour and the recipe, everything from labelling to where do we start. Needless to say, we’re excited to be here in Nova Scotia as a company, the whisky itself. Having said that, we walked into the province at the height of a natural disaster that was having a profound effect on 20,000 people plus, and obviously that has to take precedence,” said Sutherland, who decided to hold private tasting events as fundraisers, one on Friday night and a second on Saturday.

“A lot of the people coming are successful, and we would have an opportunity to raise some money for people that have been displaced in Nova Scotia,” he said on Saturday afternoon, having raised more than $35,000 at Friday’s event, and expecting to get the total to the area of $100,000 by the end of the weekend.

“The event (Friday) night was a hundred and some odd people … and the people were amazing. I don’t say this lightly, but the sense of community here is really, really extraordinary and people are genuinely concerned about their neighbours,” said Sutherland, who auctioned off some signed items. “There was some music played and people spoke, I spoke, and for me it was an opportunity to meet people in the community that support our company.”

Saturday’s event was for a group of just 15 people. Money raised will go to a fund administered by the Red Cross.

In a statement Sunday, Red Bank Whisky said the fundraising efforts had surpassed the $100,000 goal.