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Oprah Looks Like Million to W. Side School
The 800 guests [webmaster note: including IIT's Dean Peter Johnson] at the Providence-St. Mel celebration dinner at the Hyatt Regency were all atwitter when they heard Miss Oprah
Winfrey would attend and address them.Introduced by co-chairs Karen Pritzker and Winfrey's fiance, Stedman Graham, Winfrey spoke-and left most of the audience in tears. A few were speechless. School Principal Paul Adams was in tears, speechless and feeling faint. Winfrey said she held a sale at Harpo Studios in an effort to clean out her shoe closet-charging $10 a pair for shoes, $5 a pair for sneakers. It resulted in more than $600, and she said she wanted to donate the money to Adams for the West Side school. She handed him a little strongbox that contained the check. Then she mentioned there was another check in that little strongbox-for $1 million. Pandemonium. Hysteria. Lots of tears. |
Adams, principal of the independent school for the past 21 years, was pale and couldn't speak. He lost his prepared speech, but as he said a few moments later, he no longer needed a speech because he couldn't talk. In just three years, Pritzker has chaired three dinners and attracted great committees to help raise more than $1 million for the scholarship fund of the school, located in one of the most violent neighborhoods in America. Graham said he believes in Providence-St. Mel because "education is its primary focus, and the kids are being trained, they are going to college, they know they have a future, and it doesn't matter what color they are or where they come from." He said, "It's about developing skills they can use in the future, and giving something back." At the end of the evening, there was good news and bad news. The good news: $1,000,675 received from Miss Winfrey, and $300,000 raised at the dinner, which was underwritten by the Pritzker Foundation. The bad news: REFCO's Tom Dittmer, a major force on the school's board of trustees, will move to the Big Apple in April. |
