Last week, Oprah Winfrey sent a letter to Atlanta educator Ron Clark, who has made two appearances on her show. Delighted, he was even more so, when an extra piece of paper fluttered out of the envelope. It was a $365,000 donation for the innovative private school he opened in 2007, in what is one of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

Clark, who has to find private donors to pay most of the $14,000 annual tuition for each student, unable to believe his luck, exclaimed: 'We teach school all day and fund-raise at night. To have an unsolicited gift come like that is incredible.'

Surprising his students with the news, Clark says the money from Winfrey's foundation, will allow 26-students to attend the 80-student middle school for one year. Not every one knows, but the Oprah Winfrey Foundation handed out $4-million to educational programs in
2008.

It was a YouTube video of Clark's students performing a political rap written by them during the presidential elections that happened to catch the public eye, and made Clark and his students stars overnight.

Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey is getting ready for Barack Obama's 20th January Inauguration. Her show will broadcast live from the Kennedy Centre, and promises to be a huge production. Along with Gayle King, her best female friend, Oprah will co-host a party after Obama has been sworn in as President.