Common Donates Money To Help Teachers Buy School Supplies

Common

Common Donates Money To Help Teachers Buy Supplies

Kudos to Common (real name Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.)! The Oscar-Award winning artist recently surprised a group of New York students by donating $10,000 to help their teachers buy supplies like calculators and science kits. The rapper-actor partnered with the nonprofit AdoptAClassroom.org and Burlington Stores to give Renaissance School of the Arts in Harlem the funds last week. Common stated,

I always felt like one of my biggest duties and purposes is to hit the youth with something that’s inspiring, hit young people with something that can motivate them to be in their greatness.

I’ve teamed up with @AdoptAClassroom and their partner @BurlingtonStyle. To celebrate, we just adopted all the teachers at Renaissance School of the Arts in East Harlem by donating funding to school supplies for their students. Find out how you can help provide kids with the supplies they need to succeed. Link in bio to learn more. #ad

A post shared by Common (@common) on Jul 20, 2017 at 3:45pm PDT

Common also said he started writing poetry and songs at age 12.

I was always into writing but I didn’t know how good I was until my mother told me that and one of my ex-girlfriends in high school, she was like, ‘You always used to write good love letters.’

Common attended the event with his mother, Dr. Mahalia Hines, an educator and member of the Chicago Board of Education. She said she remembered spending her own money to buy essential materials for her classroom.

A lot of the materials you needed to teach, we weren’t given the money to do it so you just went out and bought your own. If you had to have notebooks … you bought them because there were many lessons you definitely would have not been able to do without them.

Click here to learn more about the program.

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