By Tim Saunders on
Country star Toby Keith took on a role of a different kind this week – charity handyman!
The 47-year-old singer was on hand at Ally's House oncology unit to begin renovations of the cancer ward by knocking out walls.
“Have you all ever tore up a wall before?” Keith asked some of the patients who were able to help. “We’ll learn how.”
The country singer then proceeded to smash down walls with a sledgehammer.
The demolition is part of the unit’s $500,000 renovation to make way for a new playroom, family resource room, and palliative care area.
“You’ve got to generate a lot of revenue to pull something like this off,” Keith told The Oklahoman. “Every year we get bigger and stronger and raise more money, so we’re getting close now, after 5 years, to creating what we wanted to create. But this is the first step.”
Ally’s House was established to help Oklahoma kids with cancer and their families and was named after the daughter of one of Toby Keith’s band members, who died of kidney cancer at the age of two in 2003. Since then, the singer has held an annual charity golf tournament that has raised over $2.3 million for the charity.
“I see these kids all the time, they’re all God’s little gifts to the world,” he said. “It makes it all worth it.”
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
