The expert of gift giving, Oprah Winfrey, dropped by Another Jersey Secondary School on Friday to shock understudies and personnel with a pizza party, as well as declare she’s giving $500,000 to their after-school program.
Oprah got expression of a program at Wide Side Secondary School in Newark called “Lights On,” which was made by the school’s head, and varsity b-ball mentor, Akbar Cook.
Keeping understudies off the road by giving them a protected put to hang out on Friday nights was made. From 6:00 p.m. to 12 PM, schoolmates can play b-ball, computer games, tabletop games, shoot pool, work on cheering or record music in a protected climate, as per WPVI.
“I haven’t lost any more kids to gun violence since the start of the school year,” Principal Akbar Cook told WPVI.
Cook posted on social media of the two together holding hands.
“Everybody always talks about the grades. You can’t start to talk about the grades unless they feel safe, unless they feel seen, unless they feel respected, unless they feel valued,” said Winfrey at the event.
Cook mentioned it would be the first of many photos, declaring himself blessed in one photo and declaring Oprah “family” in another.
“That’s a half a million dollars to encourage you to keep doing what you’re doing, because what you’re doing is moving in the right direction,” Winfrey said in a video she posted on her Facebook Page, while surrounded by screaming students. “I saw what your great principal was doing, and I thought, what can I do?”
The Lights On program first gained notoriety last September after Cook came up with a unique idea to help students who were getting bullied for wearing dirty clothes.
He installed washing machines in the locker room, giving students who couldn’t afford to wash clothes, or were missing class in fear of being bullied a reason to come to school.
“My kids feel like they don’t have anyone,” Cook told NJ.com. “And you just took time out of your busy schedule to show me and my babies love. I’m floored. I’m truly humbled.”
This is the second major celebrity to donate money to Cook’s cause. Ellen DeGeneres had him on her talk show twice, giving him $50,000 on both occasions to support his “Lights On” program.
