Ludacris surprises South Florida high school with $75k in musical instruments
Rapper Ludacris surprises students at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School with $75,000 worth of musical instruments.
HIALEAH, Fla. - A well-known rapper rolled out a surprise for a South Florida high school students Wednesday.
Ludacris made the unexpected visit to Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School, reports WSVN 7News, to announce a donation of $75,000 worth of musical instruments.
For students, being in the same room as a celebrity guest was a surprise, but the donation caught them off guard.
“I’m ecstatic. I have honestly no emotions. I can’t even put it into words. I’m just so excited, so grateful, so blessed,” Michelle, a student, said to WSVN.
In 2015, StubHub and Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation partnered to bring millions of dollars in instruments to Title I schools with strong music programs. They also partnered with Ludacris.
“You can feel the energy. You can feel how much love there is in this room,” said Ludacris, “not only for their band director and their band teacher, but surprising them and giving them $75,000 worth of equipment, which is obviously something great to boost confidence. It feels phenomenal. It feels great.”
He told WSVN he has to pay it forward -- and lead by example.
“I always say, ‘With great power comes great responsibility,’ and I literally just landed about an hour ago, and this is the first place that I came to,” he explained.
The surprises didn’t end there. Ludacris also gave the school’s band director, Kevin Segura, two tickets to Sunday’s Super Bowl game in Miami Gardens.
Segura told WSVN that the big donation to his students means the world to the school and its staff.
“This means, you know, that we’re actually going to have music education here at HML,” he said. “You know, because of budget cuts, we don’t have the instruments that we need for all the kids.”
Ludacris also brought his mother for the surprise donation. She heads the Ludacris Foundation, which supports children in Atlanta, Georgia.
As for the students, they could barely contain their excitement.
“Honestly, it was crazy. Like, I’m sill speechless about it, especially with the instruments,” Juan said to WSVN. “Just seeing Ludacris. I’m very excited.”
“It means so much to the program, so that we can expand, so we can grow, so we can do more, so I’m really, really happy about it all”
