PEARL JAM Gives $70,000 To Man Who Once Rescued EDDIE VEDDER

PEARL JAM has given a donation of $70,000 to help a man with his medical costs some 15 years after the man himself actually rescued singer Eddie Vedder in a boating mishap. According to The Pulse Of Radio, Vedder and five friends were sailing in Hawaii a decade and a half ago when strong winds capsized their boat. Although the craft was turned right side up, Vedder and two women were left stranded in the water when the winds pushed the boat out of their reach.

After two hours of treading water, Vedder and the women's cries for help were heard by a girl named Ashley Baxter and her father Keith, who were boating nearby. The Baxters found Vedder and the women, got them aboard, then went after the windswept boat and rescued the others trapped on that craft as well. The whole ordeal inspired Vedder to write "Future Days", a track from 2013's "Lightning Bolt" album.

Recently, Keith Baxter was in his own boating accident in which he nearly lost his leg and was left with a bad bone infection. By chance, his daughter ran into one of the women she and her father had rescued that day. The woman, Kacky Ovrom Chamberlain, helped set up a GoFundMe page that raised $70,000 for Baxter's medical expenses.

Chamberlain then reached out to Vedder, which led to the members of PEARL JAM matching the fundraising with their own $70,000 donation, bringing the grand total to $140,000. The GoFundMe page now shows five donations of $14,000 — four anonymous donors, one from PEARL JAM guitarist Stone Gossard.

Vedder made headlines earlier this week when he sent a check for $10,000 to a struggling single mother so that she could buy Christmas presents for her six children.