Clooney, Winfrey and Spielberg donate money for March Against Gun Violence

The actor George Clooney and his wife, Amal, a human rights lawyer, said Tuesday that they would donate $500,000 to a nationwide protest against gun violence planned next month by teenage survivors of a Florida high school shooting, inspiring similar gifts from other big-name Hollywood figures.

In a statement, the couple said they were “so inspired by the courage and eloquence of these young men and women” from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The police say the suspect — a 19-year-old former student, Nikolas Cruz — killed 17 people in a rampage with a semi-automatic weapon there last week.

“Our family will be there on March 24 to stand side by side with this incredible generation of young people from all over the country,” the Clooneys said. “And in the name of our children, Ella and Alexander, we’re donating $500,000 to help pay for this groundbreaking event.”

“Our children’s lives depend on it,” they added.

The survivors of the Stoneman Douglas school shooting have emerged as influential new voices in the gun debate, urging lawmakers to adopt new gun control measures in protests outside schools and national television appearances that have been shared widely online.

After the Clooneys made their announcement, other Hollywood leaders said they would match their donation to help the March for Our Lives, including producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and his wife, Marilyn, Oprah Winfrey, and Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw.

“These inspiring young people remind me of the Freedom Riders of the 60s who also said we’ve had ENOUGH and our voices will be heard,” Winfrey said on Twitter.

Sarah Chadwick, 16, one of the students organizing the nationwide protest, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that she and other organizers were “so appreciative” of what the Clooneys had done. Plans for the march were announced over the weekend.

“Five hundred thousand dollars. That’s not pocket change,” Chadwick, a junior, said. “That’s a lot of money, and we’re so thankful he donated it to our cause.”

In their statement, the Katzenbergs said: “We will join Amal and George Clooney on March 24 to stand alongside these remarkable young people. We are also donating $500,000 to March for Our Lives to support this historic event.”

In announcing their $500,000 donation, Spielberg and Capshaw said, “The young students in Florida and now across the country are already demonstrating their leadership with a maturity that belies their ages.”

The Clooneys’ announcement came six months after they donated $1 million, through their Clooney Foundation for Justice, to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization in Montgomery, Alabama, that tracks extremist groups.

Stan Rosenfield, a spokesman for George Clooney, said the couple’s donation on Tuesday was made by them personally and did not come from their foundation.