Oprah Winfrey and Bon Jovi Make $1M Difference

Reuters/Harpo Inc.

Two of Hollywood’s rich and famous have come down from their thrones to make a difference.

Chat show queen Oprah Winfrey recently visited the small black town of Whitesboro in Middle Township to be a keynote speaker at a community reunion held during the Labor Day weekend.

Her connection to the tiny place was that Whitesboro was her longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham’s childhood town.

At the end of her speech, Winfrey surprised the townsfolk by announcing she was planning to donate $1 million to the town’s scholarship fund.

She then made her first installment of $220,000 to the town’s fund that usually amasses around $15,000 each year.

Meanwhile, rocker Bon Jovi announced that he was donating $1 million to a $15-million project reserved for the construction of affordable housing in his home state of New Jersey.

The 51-unit building to be erected in Newark, NJ’s largest city, will house the homeless and people with special needs.

The venture was announced by Governor Jon Corzine, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, along with Bon Jovi and fashion designer Kenneth Cole.

Bon Jovi is providing the funds from his aid organization and from a clothing-line collaboration with Cole.

The New Jersey native's Philadelphia Soul Charitable Foundation has provided 140 homes around the U.S.