Sunday, March 4, 2012

MERYL STREEP MAKES $10,000 SCHOOL DONATION IN VIOLA DAVIS' HONOR

 

streep davis

The day after beating out her friend Viola Davis for this year's best actress Oscar, Meryl Streep donated $10,000 in Davis' honour to a charter school in the bankrupt Rhode Island town where Davis grew up.

The gift -- from Streep's Silver Mountain Foundation for the Arts to the Segue Institute for Learning in Central Falls, R.I. -- followed a conversation between the two actresses "about a little school started" by Angelo Garcia, a childhood friend of Davis, Reuters reported Tuesday.

"We've just been screaming from the rooftops" after the gift, Garcia said noting that Davis has "always kept us on her radar."

"We're excited Meryl Streep has gotten the ball rolling for us, but we recognize there's a long road ahead of us," he added.

Cash-strapped Central Falls plans to sell off the public building in which the school is housed. The school has about three months to either buy the building or move.

The school is looking to raise $1.2 million to buy and renovate the building and an adjacent community centre, Garcia said. The Streep foundation's gift will help kick off the fundraising campaign.

The Segue Institute for Learning, founded in 2006, has more than 200 students in grades six through eight this year, and expects enrolment to grow to 240 next year, Garcia said.

Neither Streep nor Davis had publicly commented about the gift.

In 2009, the actresses were both Oscar-nominated for the drama "Doubt" -- Streep in the lead-actress category and Davis as supporting actress. This year, Davis had been considered the front-runner for best actress for "The Help," but Streep won instead, for "The Iron Lady."

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