Oprah's spirit insipres gifts from SJ woman

By Truong Phuoc Khánh
San Jose Mercury News

Oprah Winfrey made the news Monday when she sent 300 audience members home with Bank of America debit cards worth $1,000 and a mandate to spend the cash on others.

Michelle Hall, 46, of San Jose was in the audience Thursday when the show was taped in Chicago. Hall came home mulling over all the worthy causes that could benefit from the talk-show host's largess.

``She didn't care if we gave $1 to 1,000 people,'' Hall said, ``or $1,000 to one person.''

After reading a Mercury News article Saturday featuring Unity Care Group, which works with at-risk youth, Hall is going shopping.

This week, the non-profit group is opening two apartment complexes for former foster children who have been left homeless because they are 18 or older and have been emancipated from the foster care system.

``It opened my eyes to a problem I hadn't thought about, these foster children, when they aged out,'' Hall, a mother of three, said. ``I was impressed with what this organization was doing.''

As members of the Almaden First Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hall and the youth group she leads have decided to split Oprah's gift between Unity Care and the San Jose Family Shelter, which provides temporary shelter for homeless families.

For Unity Care's bare apartments, they're buying comforters, towels, bed sheets, drinking glasses and dinner plates. For the homeless families, they're going to refurbish a room.

``I wanted to make sure,'' Hall said, ``that the $1,000 she was entrusting to me went to worthy causes, and went to our community.''

Needless to say, the non-profits are thrilled with Oprah's by-proxy gift, whose only restriction was that recipients must not be friends or relatives.

``It's like a gift from God,'' said Unity Care's spokeswoman, Monalisa diAngelo. ``The thing we need most is educating the public of what's happening with these kids. And this is just a perfect opportunity.''

Winfrey issued her ``pay it forward'' challenge on her nationally broadcast show Monday.

``Imagine the love and kindness you can spread with $1,000,'' said Winfrey, who has been known to give away cars to stunned audience members or pay off their debts.

On a smaller scale, Hall has been helping others, also.

Throughout the years, Hall has participated in church-sponsored humanitarian projects, from assembling hygiene kits for those living in developing nations to providing Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless.

Hall said she chose Unity Care and the homeless shelter because ``they seem to touch more lives for a longer period.''

Hall and her fellow audience members also were instructed to record their gift-giving on Sony DVD Handycams lent by Winfrey, with the tapes set to be aired on a future show.