Two years and three months after John Travolta’s son Jett died, I wondered what had happened to the foundation that was set up in his memory. The answer: not much. According to the only tax filing so far for the Jett Travolta Foundation, John and wife Kelly Preston have parked a shockingly mere $39,530 in the account. Of that money, $28,000 was supposedly given as grants to someone. But there’s no detailed information in the tax filing, as required. Also, $1,200 was given to an unidentified child with “medical needs.”
The small amounts are a little surprising considering that Travolta is very wealthy, by his own account, with multiple homes and a flotilla of airplanes.
The Travoltas, of course, have put a prominent Scientologists in charge of the foundation: Kevin R. Rush is the treasurer. Rush, has worked his way up to Operating Thetan 8, which means he’s high on the list for members who can seek out alien life. Rush is otherwise identified as the CFO of JTP Films, Travolta’s production company, social networking site Linked In. The phone number for the foundation rings to the JTP offices. The other officer of the foundation is Robert Bernstein, a Jacksonville, Florida lawyer who specializes in estate planning and taxes.
So what happened to the Jett Travolta Foundation? On its website, the foundation states: “The Jett Travolta Foundation is a charitable organization recognized as tax exempt under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Jett Travolta Foundation shall endeavor to use its resources specifically to assist and provide relief to children with vision, hearing, mobility, communication, behavior learning impairments or other special medical, environmental, health or educational needs. It may also use its resources, and make grants to educate the public about the need for a clean environment, provide relief and assistance to children who are victims of natural or man-made disasters, and to fund children’s educational programs.”
So far it’s hard to say if any of that has happened since no documentation is included with the filing. And since John Travolta admitted to the Bahamas Police that Jett suffered from Autism, maybe it would be better to spell that out in the mission statement.
