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A barbershop in North Carolina, USA, raised money to pay off the debts of some senior high school students so they would be eligible to graduate.
Season Bennett, the owner of Headlines Barbershop in Charlotte, was pushed to act after billionaire Robert F. Smith vowed to pay the loans of the graduating class at Morehouse College, as per WBTV on May 28. Bennett figured she could do something from the corner where she stood, and decided to call up the high school down the street.
“I thought, ‘Wow, that is just such a powerful thing for anybody,’” Bennett said in the report. “So many students go into so much debt just trying to get an education. It seems like that’s just basic in our culture. You need to get at least your high school diploma.”
Bennett reached out to the East Mecklenburg High School and learned that 14 senior high school students had unpaid fees amounting to $4,500 (approx. P230,000), which would prevent them from graduating.
Bennett did not ask what the unpaid fees were for and told the school she did not need to know. She, however, eventually discovered the high school students’ unpaid fees were because of the band program.
“I know some people were thinking, ‘Oh, maybe there was damaged property,’ or these kinds of things and I said, ‘These kids are doing something good, they’re on the band, they’re having school spirit.’”
American football linebacker Thomas Davis, also a Charlotte local, got in on the initiative after his daughter told him of the students’ debts. Davis has since reached out to Bennett and offered his assistance to her to make sure all the students would graduate.
“I just think about the quote by Martin Luther King,” Bennett said. “When he says, you don’t have to see the whole staircase, you just have to take the first step.” Cody Cepeda /ra
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