Actress Kristen Bell contributes $10,000 to fundraiser for Lawrence nonprofit

Actress Kristen Bell posted this photo to her Instagram account on Friday, June 3, 2016. The actress donated 0,000 to support the Lawrence non-profit Sun Cedar.

Shine Adams said he could use the help of a good detective, like maybe Veronica Mars, to learn how a well-known actress learned of Adams’ fundraising efforts for a Lawrence nonprofit that helps at-risk community members.

Kristen Bell, probably best known for playing the titular character in the film and TV series “Veronica Mars,” as well as the 2008 movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” donated $10,000 to a GoFundMe drive that is to help Sun Cedar, a program that gives a fresh start by employing at-risk individuals to make cedar air fresheners and other products. The fundraising effort is to help Sun Cedar move into new space at Lawrence’s Penn House.

“That is an interesting little mystery,” Adams said of the star’s donation. “As far as I can tell, it was somewhat random.”

There was one tenuous connection, Adams said. Zia McCabe, one of Sun Cedar’s founding board members, was a member of The Dandy Warhols, whose song “We Used to Be Friends” was used in the opening credits of “Veronica Mars,” he said. However, McCabe didn’t know Bell or even who played the title character of the show.

It was more likely that Bell learned of Sun Cedar through a Huffington Post story about the program that he started two years ago, Adams said. He does know she purchased some of Sun Cedar’s products last year.

With Bell’s contribution, the GoFundMe drive has raised 38 percent of its goal of $75,000, Adams said. The crowd-sourced online drive, which can be found at gofundme.com/cedarhouse, will continue through June.

Money raised in the drive will help Sun Cedar move from its temporary garage location into a larger workshop at Penn House and to renovate and spruce up that agency’s 40-year-old home at 1035 Pennsylvania St.

Adams told the Journal-World last month it was hoped the new location would provide Sun Cedar a stable environment in which to grow.

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