Brad and Angelina give Joplin $500,000

JOPLIN, Mo., June 12 (UPI) -- U.S. actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have given $500,000 to help Joplin recover from a huge tornado that destroyed 30 percent of the Missouri town May 22.

Pitt and Jolie are well known for their philanthropy, and Pitt has a connection to Joplin, The Joplin Globe reported.

Pitt's mother attended high school and a local community college in Joplin. Pitt graduated from Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Mo.

"We had a call in the first day or two afterward from an organization representing them," said Brian Fogle, president of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. "They made several subsequent calls, but we learned that they made a donation (Thursday)."

The couple made the donation through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, a charitable group they started.

The money will be used down the road, Fogle said.

"It's been our experience that there is an outpouring on the relief side," Fogle said. "There are great agencies that focus on that. But people don't think about the long-term recovery, so that's what this fund is for."