Jimmie Allen Says COVID-19 Front Line Workers Have 'Been Heroes for Years' (Exclusive)

Jimmie Allen is the latest star to team up with Crown Royal for the brand's Purple Bag Project, [...]

By Hannah Barnes

Jimmie Allen is the latest star to team up with Crown Royal for the brand's Purple Bag Project, which focuses on organizing care packages for troops serving overseas and American heroes. To help meet the goal of filling one million care packages, Allen hosted an Instagram Live #GenerosityHour stream on Thursday, where fans aged 21 and older could use the hashtag #PurpleBagProject. For each post using the hashtag, Crown Royal will pack one care package for American heroes.

Those heroes include servicemen and women overseas as well as first responders and those serving on the front lines of COVID-19 in the United States, and Allen shared that while front line workers and first responders have received more media coverage due to the coronavirus pandemic this year, they've always been heroes to him.

"I feel like it's one of the things where the first responders and people have been heroes," he mused. "It's just, sometimes you don't realize how much you need people or you appreciate them until you're in dire need of them. And it's a shame it took that long for a lot of people to see that. But it's just things you take for granted a lot of times."

"When you go to the hospital and you run to the emergency room or see a doctor's office, the people you see every day... the nurses to the CNAs [certified nursing assistants] and the doctors, respiratory therapists," the 34-year-old continued. "So many people that you take for granted. We're going through COVID now, but these people have been battling so many things for years. The flu, swine flu, H3N2, pneumonia, cancer, so many things that we don't notice because the media doesn't always give attention to things when it becomes semi-normal. But these people in my book, have been heroes for years."

Allen shared that he was inspired to sign on for the project because of the fact that his father was a Marine and because of how much he loves Crown Royal. "I drink Crown Royal all the time," he noted. "A lot of times when I do my Instagram live, I'll have a Crown Royal bottle and I like to use it and stuff like that even way before that. So for me, it was great. It makes sense. Now we get to do something for the military with my favorite drink out there, so it definitely made sense to me."

"Crown Royal might be in my top favorite," the singer continued, adding that he previously participated in the Purple Bag Project at an awards show. "We went to the table. We wrote a note, put your stuff in a bag," he recalled. "I love the concept."

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