There's an amazing school in Detroit
that's getting national attention right now. At Spain Elementary School in Detroit
many of the students are poor or homeless, but
that is not their only obstacle. Almost all of their technology does not
work, their entire roof is falling apart, their gym is completely shut down forcing
the students to take P.E in the hallways. Some of their students actually have to wear coats in the classroom
because there is no heat.
When I heard about this I
knew that I wanted to help. Jeannie is in Detroit. Let's check in with her. Jeannie, hi, Jeannie, who are you with? >> Hi, Ellen.
>> Hi. >> Ellen, I'm with the most amazing man, the principal of Spain Elementary School,
Mr. Alexander. Say hi to Ellen.
>> Hello, Ellen. Of all the people in the whole world,
I am the happiest principal on Earth. I love you, we love you, I love you again. >> Well, I love you back.
>> This is the best. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> I love you back. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> So listen principal Alexander you were
really good at keeping a secret. You were the only person who knows
we are there and we are doing this.
Your school is amazing. And we wanna go surprise them right now. Jeannie take us to the cafeteria. And we will surprise-
>> Okay here we go, let's go.
>> The students are in there. >> It's all off your shoulders. >> The staff, the teachers,
they are gonna be so surprised. >> Hello Spain Elementary.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Hi everybody. >> [APPLAUSE] >> Surprise!
>> [APPLAUSE] >> Hello, Spain Elementary. I wanted to surprise you. I love your school I
love what you stand for.
So, I just wanted to say hi. And I heard there's a teacher
there named Ellen Morgan. Where is Ellen Morgan? >> Where's Ellen? >> Aah! >> Hey, Ellen! >> So, you and the other teachers
don't have books for you students. What do you do because of that? Explain that to everyone.
>> Well, what we do, we make copies,
because they can't take them home. We make copies for our students, but that
gets pretty expensive, so we also have some of our parents volunteer, and
the parents will make copies for us. But we do whatever we need to do, we don't complain we just do
it because we love our babies. >> [APPLAUSE].
>> So amazing.
All right, is Kelly there also? >> Kelly get over here. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> [APPLAUSE] [LAUGH] >> So, Kelly, your students have to wear coats in
the class because it isn't warm enough. How do you teach in these conditions,
how do you do that? >> Well I make my focus about my students
being engaged, enthusiastic, and wanting to learn,
keeping smiles on their faces. We get up and move around when
we need to and their passion for learning increases my passion for
teaching.
>> Well, you know Lowe's,
the home improvement store, you know that? They wanna help you and for more than a
decade Lowe's has supported public schools through its Toolbox for Education program. Today they're gonna give
every single teacher and every staff member a $100 VISA gift card. >> [APPLAUSE] >> [APPLAUSE] >> Also, we know that you have one computer per class, and
just about all of them do not work, so Lowe's wants to give
you $50,000 in technology. >> [APPLAUSE] >> Also, we know your school needs a new roof, so Lowe's has volunteers
called Lowe's Heroes.
And these employees will come to your
school and give you hands-on assistance. You pick what ever you want them to fix, because they're gonna give you
$200,000 in materials and labor. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> [APPLAUSE] >> We just surprised Spain Elementary-Middle School
with $250,000 from Lowe's and we are gonna start a GoFundMe page. Go to our website if you wanna donate.
I hope everybody joins and
I hope everybody >> [APPLAUSE] >> I have one more surprise for you. And I had it here and
I don't know where it is. That's right. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> You are so great to take time to do this.
Because, really, he's so busy,
he's rehearsing, he's getting ready for a tour and it means so
much to you to help underprivileged kids. >> It does. >> I mean every time when you're on tour, I know you do things that
people don't even know about. >> Every show we give a dollar to Pencils
of Promise from each ticket sold.
And, yeah, we got some surprises for
these beautiful people as well. >> Yeah they're amazing,
these kids are amazing. So, Principal Alexander,
I know you're a performing arts school, but is it true you have, this is crazy. It's a performing arts school,
you have no money for music classes.
>> This is so true, Spain is one of
the finest performing arts schools in the city of Detroit, but because of
cutbacks, we don't have a violin teacher. We don't have an orchestra teacher. We don't have a drama teacher. But my teachers so willingly volunteer.
My special ed teacher, Miss Lockhart, she volunteers and teaches
our children dance on her free time. And Miss Johnson, she does the drama for
our students on their free time. So we are so proud of them to help
us out because we don't afford, we can't have any teachers at this time. >> We're so proud of them,
so proud of them.
>> I have a very talented
young man right here, who >> [APPLAUSE] >> I think that you have a gift for them right? >> We're actually gonna give a dollar for
every ticket to your school and. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> That's a lot of tickets. That's a big auditorium. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> So, that is a lot of money from Justin's
concert that he is gonna be in Michigan.
I still think you need more hep, our
friends at Lowe's agree, Lowe's wants to donate one more thing to you to provide
an even safer learning environment. They're gonna donate another
$250,000 to your school. All together that's
a half a million dollars. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> Amazing.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Half a million dollars. Thank you Lowe's, thank you so
much, we love you. Go to our website if you wanna help. Just anything, even a dollar,
anything you can do.
Go to our website to help them out. We'll be right back. Justin Bieber, everybody!.
