Leach was one of hundreds who showed clear symptoms of Bieber fever after the 17-year-old teen pop sensation staged a private show Friday at low-income Whitney Elementary School. The concert was filmed for an episode of “The Ellen Degeneres Show” and came two months after Bieber promised the school’s 650 students a $100,000 donation.
“He really came for us. I’m so glad that he really came for us,” said fourth-grader Kynedi Harris, holding a fluffy white stuffed dog picked from a truckload of toys Bieber distributed at his show.
Tucked in a downtrodden neighborhood on the east side of Las Vegas, Whitney Elementary has garnered publicity, including a September segment on Degeneres’ show, for providing needy students’ families with food, clothes, money for utility bills — and just about everything in between.
Principal Sherrie Gahn said more than 85 percent of the school’s 600-plus students receive free or reduced-price lunch. The school also has one of the highest homeless student populations in the Clark County School District.
Gahn, who said she used to see students pocketing ketchup packets from the cafeteria in hopes of having dinner at night, told “The Ellen Degeneres Show” she made a pact with families after she arrived about eight years ago.
'For the kids, it shows that someone loves them and cares about them to follow up,' Principal Sherrie Gahn told the Las Vegas Sun after the concert.
'When you live in an existence where everything seems so hopeless, it's an amazing gift they will never forget. It's beyond their wildest dreams.'
Gahn revealed that she made a pact with parents of her students, telling them that she would use donations to help them if they kept their children in school.
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