Kevin Mazur/Getty Images15 years ago, Hawaiian waterman Keith Baxter saved Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder and two of his friends after an outrigger canoe accident off Maui that stranded them for two hours before the rescue. Now the members of Pearl Jam are giving back to Baxter in his time of need.
The band donated $70,000 to a GoFundMe campaign set up to help pay for Baxter’s medical costs after he incurred a life-threatening injury in a boating accident earlier this year. The band’s gifts — $14,000 from each member — bring the campaign’s total raised to date to $140,000, almost double what the Baxter family hoped to raise.
The GoFundMe page shows five donations last week of $14K each, four anonymous, one from guitarist Stone Gossard.
Baxter’s wife, Karen, confirmed to surf and outdoor website The Inertia, that the money had indeed come from the band. “Yes, it’s all true,” Baxter wrote “Pearl Jam (Eddie, Stone, Jeff, Mike, and Matt) matched what was originally raised ($70K) through Gofundme.com.”
Baxter’s rescue of Vedder became widely known in 2013 when Vedder brought Baxter’s daughter Ashley, who had first heard the cries of Vedder and his friends at sea, on stage at a show in Seattle.
The elder Baxter suffered a severe leg injury earlier this year when a rusty anchor nearly severed his leg, resulting in a bone infection that has proved resistant to treatment so far, reports The Inertia.
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