E-mail hints at big donor’s identity
The anonymous donor who gave $1 million to help victims of the Santiago fire came forward Wednesday -- sort of.
“The Inter-Canyon League is overjoyed to announce that a cash donation of one million dollars was received yesterday from Kane Ranch. The Ranch owns and oversees open-space properties in and around Silverado,” Vice President Bob Hunt wrote in an e-mail. The league set up the Santiago Fire Relief Fund to help the tight-knit canyon communities harmed in the fires.
According to several canyon residents and firefighters, Kane Ranch in Arizona is run by David Gelbaum, a reclusive Newport Beach billionaire.
Gelbaum has spent hundreds of millions of dollars funding outdoor education programs as well as buying and preserving large, ecologically sensitive swaths of land, including Kane Ranch and a second ranch in Arizona near the Grand Canyon.
Requests for comment from Gelbaum were not returned.
Hunt noted that hundreds of gifts and volunteer efforts have been made in Orange County’s canyons since the fire, which charred more than 28,000 acres and burned two dozen homes.
“Be it carrying sandbags for a neighbor you never met before, or gifts of goods and much needed money, it all comes from caring hearts,” he wrote. “We are blessed.”
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