February 3, 2020
Ludacris Surprises Miami High School Students with $75,000 in Music Instruments
Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges made a big surprise to Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School and donated $75,000 in music instruments, according to WSVN.
Ludacris and his charity arm, The Ludacris Foundation, collaborated with StubHub’s #TicketForward program to announce the donation. The StubHub program has a three-year commitment in partnership with Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, to put $3 million worth of instruments into public schools.
“You can feel the energy. You can feel how much love there is in this room,” said Ludacris, “not only for their band director and their band teacher, but surprising them and giving them $75,000 worth of equipment, which is obviously something great to boost confidence. It feels phenomenal. It feels great.”
To add good fortune to the pot, Ludacris also gifted the school’s band director, Kevin Segura, with two Super Bowl tickets for the NFL championship game in Miami.
“It’s a very happy day for us,” said Segura. “This means, you know, that we’re actually going to have music education here at HML,” he said. “You know, because of budget cuts, we don’t have the instruments that we need for all the kids.”
“It makes me feel great. I feel with power comes great responsibility. I always say that. I think it’s my duty to make them understand how powerful they are and what they can accomplish,” Ludacris said.
“When you look at music education and funding, it has continually gotten stripped. We know that finding those programs with instruments donation and to keep these programs driving is an incredible thing to be able to do,” Jeff Poirier, StubHub General Manager tells CBS Miami.
“We have instruments being held together with tape, they don’t move, they’re banged up,” Segura said. “So these instruments are going to improve our sound and going to motivate kids to want to do band so hopefully I can build up this program to what it once was back in the day … I’m really, really excited that I’m going to the game. I didn’t think I was going so this was a nice surprise for me.”