Event raises $5 million for Sean Penn’s Haiti org

Event raises $5 million for Sean Penn’s Haiti org
Jason Redmond

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A publicist says $5 million was raised in Los Angeles for actor Sean Penn’s humanitarian group based in Haiti.

The money will go toward Penn’s J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which he set up a few months after the 2010 earthquake to oversee a settlement camp where thousands of people displaced by the disaster lived.

Penn was also named “ambassador at large to Haiti” by Haiti’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Laurent Lamothe, at the Saturday event in Beverly Hills, which was attended by celebrities and chief-of-staff to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Cheryl Mills.

Haiti marked the two-year anniversary of the massive earthquake last week with a string of quiet services and news conferences.

The announcement was made Sunday.