--- title: Taylor Swift Donates 15,000 to Firefighter Who Rescued Own Family description: Taylor Swift continues to push the boundaries of setting good examples canonical: https://time.com/3918995/taylor-swift-firefighter-donation/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-12T17:18:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:24.195Z og:title: Taylor Swift Donated $15,000 to Firefighter Who Saved His Own Family og:description: A Texas volunteer firefighter responded to a head-on collision, arriving on the scene to find his own family og:url: https://time.com/3918995/taylor-swift-firefighter-donation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt954fa706300d5863/698786cee20a87975aa85eb4/468100706.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2197 og:image:height: 1236 og:image:alt: 2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taylor Swift Donated $15,000 to Firefighter Who Saved His Own Family twitter:description: A Texas volunteer firefighter responded to a head-on collision, arriving on the scene to find his own family twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt954fa706300d5863/698786cee20a87975aa85eb4/468100706.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Taylor Swift Just Donated $15,000 to the Firefighter Who Saved His Own Family > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: 25 Iconic Taylor Swift Instagrams in 25 Seconds [Watch (HLS stream): 25 Iconic Taylor Swift Instagrams in 25 Seconds](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/I8WlXTNY.m3u8) (0:35)  _Published 2014-12-11. 25 Iconic Taylor Swift Instagrams in 25 Seconds_ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jun 12, 2015 5:18 PM UTC  Taylor Swift arrives at the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards Taylor Swift arrives at the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards Steve Granitz—WireImage by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jun 12, 2015 5:18 PM UTC The [poetic, noble land mermaid ](http://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/articles/leslieknope-list-mermaid.gif)known as Taylor Swift has taken a break from selling out stadiums and [going Instagram-official ](http://www.refinery29.com/2015/06/88995/taylor-swift-calvin-harris-instagram-photo)with Calvin Harris to help out a family in need. A Texas volunteer firefighter named Aaron Van Riper recently responded to a head-on collision, and when he arrived on the scene, he found out that the victims[ were his own wife and 7-year-old son](http://www.people.com/article/firefighter-saves-own-family-head-on-collision). “It’s my family. My wife was laying there on the ground,” Van Riper told [ABC 13 KTRK](http://abc13.com/family/victims-of-head-on-collision-leave-responding-firefighter-in-shock/773371/). “\[By\] the look of the car, I don’t know how either one of them lived. There was nothing left of that car.” The boy has been released from the hospital, but Van Riper’s wife, Amber, remains there after a nine-hour surgery on her pelvis. A friend of the family set up a[ GoFundMe page](http://www.gofundme.com/wfzscs) to raise money for medical bills, and on Wednesday night, a donation for $15,000 came in signed “Taylor Swift.” (_Billboard_ [confirmed ](http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6597781/taylor-swift-donation-firefighter-family)that this donation really did come from the one and only Tay-Tay. BuzzFeed also [confirmed ](http://www.buzzfeed.com/reggieugwu/taylor-swift-donates-to-firefighter-family#.sypJ6K64P)that it’s not a hoax.) Oh, Taylor, you [beautiful, talented, brilliant, powerful musk-ox](http://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/articles/leslieknope-list-ox.gif). ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3918995/taylor-swift-firefighter-donation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3918995/taylor-swift-firefighter-donation/"},"headline":"Taylor Swift Just Donated $15,000 to the Firefighter Who Saved His Own Family","datePublished":"2015-06-12T17:18:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:24.195Z","description":"A Texas volunteer firefighter responded to a head-on collision, arriving on the scene to find his own family","url":"https://time.com/3918995/taylor-swift-firefighter-donation/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt954fa706300d5863/698786cee20a87975aa85eb4/468100706.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt954fa706300d5863/698786cee20a87975aa85eb4/468100706.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards - Arrivals","caption":"2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards - Arrivals","creditText":"Steve Granitz—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3918995/taylor-swift-firefighter-donation/","name":"Taylor Swift Just Donated $15,000 to the Firefighter Who Saved His Own Family"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"25 Iconic Taylor Swift Instagrams in 25 Seconds","description":"25 Iconic Taylor Swift Instagrams in 25 Seconds","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/I8WlXTNY/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-11T16:58:18.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/I8WlXTNY.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3918995/taylor-swift-firefighter-donation/","duration":"PT35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3918995/taylor-swift-firefighter-donation/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```