The People’s Choice Awards crowned Sandra Bullock the favorite humanitarian for her career-spanning philanthropic efforts, including her dedication to New Orleans’s Warren Easton Charter High School. Just six months after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the Oscar-winning actress showed her support by adopting the school, which sustained 4 million dollars in damages during the storm.

She donated hundreds of thousands of dollars for renovations, telling People magazine years later that she “felt such a profound need to do something for them.”

Her generosity helped the charter school – the first public high school for boys in Louisiana – afford renovations, new band uniforms, athletic equipment and a new health clinic in a city that’s close to her heart.

She pointed to the tireless dedication of the school’s students, teachers and tough principal.