Photo by Victor Holt
Oprah Winfrey is pictured with at-risk youth who have benefited from the services of the U.S. Dream Academy. Winfrey was on had at the organization’s annual gala fundraiser to make a $1 million contribution.

The gala, held on May 24 th at the Grand Hyatt, brought together luminaries from the world of politics and entertainment to support the U.S. Dream Academy. Founded in 1998, the mission of the academy is to empower at-risk children and youth to maximize their potential by providing them with academic, social, and values enrichment through supportive mentoring and the use of technology.

“I am here tonight because I believe in dreams, and because I live in God’s dream for me. I am living proof that dreams can become a reality when you allow yourself to surrender the dream of your life to the greater dreamer. God can dream a bigger dream for you than you can dream for yourself,” said Oprah Winfrey.

In addition to Winfrey, noted guests in the audience included Senator Hillary Clinton, entertainers Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., Donnie McClurkin, and members of the children’s Dream Academy choir who delighted the audience with their musical performances and brief impromptu speeches thanking the audience members for supporting the academy.

Master of Ceremony Wintley Phipps, the president and founder of the U.S. Dream Academy, began the evening with the bestowment of the President’s award. This year’s recipients were Dr. Dorothy Height, president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women; George Johnson, chairman and founder of Johnson Products Company, and Harris Rosen, president and owner of Rosen Hotels and Resorts.

“So long as God shall let me live, I hope to be able to help create a world and a society in which children can feel free to grow up and to dream. It’s great to know that in this world we will have this great academy. I join you in saying thank you from the bottom of my heart,” said Dr. Dorothy Height.

“God did not intend for me to be poor. If I believed in God and believed in myself, I could have the power to overcome poverty. If my desire to succeed was strong and I worked hard with my entire mind, heart and will, He would show me the way. I want the young people in the audience to know that the power that comes from believing in God and yourself is limitless,” said George E. Johnson.

Johnson urged the adults in the audience to continue to support the U.S. Dream Academy with their talent and financial resources, and to reach out to their friends to do the same. Quoting his mentor S.B. Fuller, Johnson added that young people can and will defy the odds if they will take what they have and make what they want, and that they can achieve more than they can imagine if they dare to dream and are creative and diligent in seizing the opportunities at hand.

“The great society we have dreamt about is not an impossible dream. We have a template that works. All we need now is the will to make it happen,” said Harris Rosen.

Following the awards presentation and a lively musical performance by host Wintley Phipps and the members of the choir, Winfrey made her entrance and set the tone of the evening with a moving speech built upon the theme that we must all do what we know how to do.

“There was an entire village of people who inspired me and challenged me and made me believe that there was a great big old world out there beyond the front porch in Mississippi and beyond the poverty line in Milwaukee. My grandmother who taught me to read Bible passages at the age of three and then to recite them in public had no idea that she was planting the seeds of a billion dollar broadcasting career. She just did what she knew how to do,” said Winfrey.

She added that a whole host of other people also just did what they knew how to do by imprinting their own integrity, grace, and sense of courage without knowing the impact their words and actions and their way of being in the world would have on her life.

“You cannot begin to fulfill humanity on earth unless you extend yourself in kindness, in grace, in guidance and giving to somebody else. Every one of us has a charge to do what we know how to do,” said Winfrey.

Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Winfrey said that “Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great. Because greatness is determined by service”.

Winfrey praised the work of the U.S. Dream Academy, and cautioned the parents of this nation, boldly stating that Americans are delusional when it comes to what is happening with our children. Citing the disturbing statistic that one out of three ninth graders in this country will not graduate from high school, she cautioned that we cannot continue to succeed if our children are failing.

“We’re going to have a country of poor, uneducated, undisciplined, unprepared children because we didn’t do what we know how to do. It is part of our divine duty and our reciprocal responsibility as life goes around and comes around. It is our cosmic calling to do what we know how to do to make a difference in the lives of those who are unable to do for themselves”, said Winfrey, adding that her calling in life is to be the voice for children who have not the voice to speak for themselves.

“We as an extended family of Americans can come together, dig a little deeper, work a little harder and change what is happening to American children in this country,” she concluded, then gave action to her words by presenting the U.S. Dream Academy a check for one million dollars.