Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas has reached an impressive fundraising milestone with his charity nude calendar – ‘Bottass’ – making $150,000 in sales for charitable causes.
‘Bottass’ was inspired by the Finnish driver’s nude photo taken in Aspen, Colorado last year.
Over 5000 copies of that photo were sold, raising €50,000 for charity and Bottas has taken things one step further this year with a full calendar of nude pictures, aiming to raise money for cancer research and Movember.
On Thursday, Bottas took to social media to update his followers on the progress made by his calendar.
“Thank you so much for all the support in November,” he said.
“With the donations and with the calendars we have together raised a substantial amount for – meaning WE have really helped and will effect and save many people’s lives.
“Final figures to be calculated in the next days, but we are talking around $150k of funds raised!”
Ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend, ‘Bottass’ had already sold out of an initial print run of 10,000 copies and had already raised around €60,000 (approximately $65474).
This prompted Bottas and his team to commit to another print run as the Alfa Romeo driver set out a target of raising €100,000 (approximately $109123).
Bottas’ update on Thursday shows that he has blasted past his initial target and with the final figure yet to be realised an even more significant figure may arise from his incredible efforts to raise money for charity.
The calendar is certainly a head-turner and has caused quite a stir, not least at all with Bottas’ mother, who texted him voicing her concerns before he son revealed his true intentions behind it.
“Well, I did get a message from my mum,” he said.
“Like, ‘What is this?’ She doesn’t really understand English either that well, and she saw some of the videos that I posted, and she was quite confused and protective.
“Like, ‘Are you sure that’s the path you want to go?’
“So then I explained the charity thing, and so it’s fine.
“I’ve had questions, people asking like, why did you do that?
“Like why do you want to show your ass?
“But then when I explained the charity aspect and people kind of get it.
“And we had so much fun, you can imagine, making that, taking those pictures.”
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