A year to the day that Paris Hilton told CNN’s Larry King she intended to become a better person after her stint behind bars, it has been announced that the socialite has become a woman of her word.

Hilton, 27, made an unspecified but “extremely generous” donation toward the construction of a 460,000-sq.-ft. Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases, which is expected to be completed in 2010 at the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the pediatric facility’s officials said.

“The children I have met through my involvement with Childrens Hospital have truly touched my heart,” Hilton said in a statement, the Associated Press reports. “I am proud to make a donation and lend my name to the fundraising effort to help children who are facing terribly serious illnesses.”

Among topics Hilton discussed with King, she said she’d like “to help raise money for kids and for breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.”
– Stephen M. Silverman