America’s sweetheart Betty White was just weeks away from celebrating a milestone birthday when she died on New Year’s Eve.
The “Golden Girls” star would have turned 100 on January 17, and to celebrate her legacy, White’s fans are banding together with a sweet homage to the actress.
White was a fierce advocate for animal rights and worked closely with multiple organizations to help get animals adopted and promote more humane treatment of animals. To honor her memory, her fans are now rallying behind her favorite cause, reports USA Today.
The Betty White Challenge is a movement on social media where fans are encouraging others to donate to a local or national animal shelter, organization, or agency in White’s name to celebrate both her birthday and the cause closest to her heart.
Madeline Bernstein, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles, told the outlet that White is “probably up there laughing. She probably wishes she had thought of that.”
White’s love of animals was so deep that she received the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s James Smithson Bicentennial Medal in 2017 as well as the National Humanitarian Medal from American Humane.
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After Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005, White paid for a private plane to help relocate otters and penguins from the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.
The Audubon Aquarium bird caretaker at the time, Tom Dyer, recently shared on Twitter that after the hurricane, Monterey Bay had called his aquarium, saying they would take the animals. Dyer flew out with them and a veterinarian, and while on the plane, he said the pilot told him the trip cost around $70,000.
When he went to thank the Monterey Bay Aquarium director, he was told that a donor had paid for the trip, asking to remain anonymous.
“It finally leaked years later, and Betty White did it,” Dyer said in his tweet.
“Betty was a huge animal advocate and conservationist. She did not want any fanfare surrounding her part in the relocation; she just wanted to help how she could. We are deeply saddened by the loss of a true friend,” said spokesperson for the Audubon Aquarium, Annie Matherne.
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White’s agent, Jeff Witjas, shared in a statement Monday that “Betty died peacefully in her sleep at her home.”
The beloved actress, best known for her comedic work on numerous TV sitcoms, got her start in radio and television, eventually creating a career that lasted for over 80 years.
Her most memorable roles include the witty Sue Ann Nivens on the long-running “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and the sweet Rose Nylund in the groundbreaking series “The Golden Girls,” which ran for seven seasons.
While White never had biological children of her own, she is survived by David, Martha, and Sarah Ludden, her stepchildren from her marriage to Allen Ludden, who died of stomach cancer in 1981. She never remarried following his death, telling Larry King that “once you've had the best, who needs the rest?”
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