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Jun 10, 2009 10:42 pm US/Central
Kanye West To Perform For Chicago H.S. Students
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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David Abrams convinced Kanye West to perform for local high school students that get good grades.
CBS
It seems like an impossible task. How do you convince a big time Grammy winner to give you and your friends a free concert? What would you say? How would you even get in touch with them? CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago's Suzanne Le Mignot has the story of a local student who did just that, and the superstar who said "yes."
Highland Park High School sophomore David Abrams had an idea. Students who improve their grades should see a free concert as a reward.
"The wheels just started turning from there," Abrams said.
With that goal in mind, Abrams and New Trier sophomore Zack Harris founded S.H.O.W. - Students Helping Our World.
Consumed with his passion of seeing young people stay in school and succeed, Abrams sat at his computer writing letters to recording artists.
"We sent out millions of different letters to millions of different artists," Abrams said.
A few weeks passed. Then Abrams heard from Chicago's own Kanye West.
"I literally could not speak, and I think I just said, 'thank you so much,'" Abrams said.
"When David called me and said I want to do this concert and help kids stay in school, I knew that Dr. West, our founder, was smiling down on us and I knew that we had to do this event," said Kanye West Foundation CEO Joseph Collins.
The singer will perform at the Chicago Theater as part of the Kanye West Foundation. He started the organization with his late mother, Chicago educator, Dr. Donda West.
The Grammy winner even taped an announcement that was played at several school assemblies.
"Get y'all G.P.A up. So, I'll be out there soon," West said in the announcement.
Abrams and Harris' organization chose schools from the north, west and south side of the city.
"When we started looking at these schools, we made sure there was a great number of kids we could target," Harris said.
With Abrams in the audience, West talked about the upcoming event on "The View" and the impact it's already having on students.
"The next day, they had a 93 percent attendance in a school that never had that before," West said.
"This is just planting a seed because I feel like this show, this partnership with Kanye West, could be limitless," Abrams said.
That's because Abrams wants to involve even more schools next year in their partnership with the Chicago Public Schools. On Thursday, the students from Von Steuben, Mather, Senn, Robeson, Harlan and Manley will not only hear West perform, but they will have a 30-minute question and answer session with the star, too.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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