Tyler Perry's Good Deed for Christmas

I'm on Tyler Perry's e-mail list and he sent this e-mail today regarding his gift to some children in an orphanage.  His gift was really special and I admire him for giving back.  For those who may have missed it, here's Tyler message in total.  Merry Christmas and a blessed and prosperous New Year to all!

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FROM TYLER PERRY:

Hello there,

Merry Christmas to all! Sorry I haven't written in a while, but these holidays are tough for me since my mother died last year. But I'm getting through it. Thank God!

I wanted to write today to ask you a question: If someone said to you, "Go and get anything that you want free of charge!", what would it be?

Well, listen to this: Every year I do a lot of Christmas giving to battered women shelters, feed the hungry organizations, homeless shelters and so on. Well, this year, Cassi Davis, who runs my foundation, found an orphanage. I didn't even know they had orphanages in the US. Anyway, this place is amazing and these kids' stories really show you how strong the human spirit is. They are from the ages of 14 to 18. It is unfortunate, but as kids get between these ages the probability of them being adopted is highly unlikely. Hence this great orphanage that houses them until they're adults. This place has so much history it should be a movie.

Anyway, I took all of these children to a Target. I gave each one a shopping cart and told them to go and fill it with whatever they "WANTED".

Now I thought this would be easy. I had no idea that these kids had a different idea of wants and needs than most kids in this country. I'm thinking they are going to go for the video games, toys, make-up and things that teenagers are into. Well, they didn't!!

I was shocked because most of them went for cases of water and juice. I thought, "Water and juice?" Then they went on to undershirts, underwear, deodorant, soap, etc. You get my point. All the things we take for granted were huge for them. HUGE!

As they shopped, my staff from the studio escorted them through the store.

A lot of us were tearful watching these kids. They were happy, but so confused. They couldn't wrap their brains around being able to have anything they wanted. How sad is that? They didn't know that they could have it all. One child sat in front of two shirts for a long time. One was 10 dollars the other was 30. He was wondering which one to get. It took one of my folks a long time to explain to him that he can have them both.
After a lot of cajoling and pushing, he finally got it and so did the other 23 kids. To see their little minds start to believe was a powerful thing. To go from one level of belief to believing you can have it all in moments was something to see.

They came to the checkout with their red Target baskets looking like overloaded Santa sleighs. Boy that did my heart good! I could see my mother smiling in my mind about this. They were so happy. I wish you could have seen the joy on these kids faces. It was contagious. I caught it, and it helped brighten up these rough days for me. It was just wonderful. I left them on a high BIG TIME! It made me remember to be thankful for the little things. I hope it does the same for you...

Merry Christmas,

Tyler
　
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