7.29.11 Nothing But Nice
Allan Guei stood at the half-court line with a chance to win $40,000.
A pretty unlikely scenario for a kid from a place as tough as Compton High School. But some time earlier a Los Angeles ad executive named Court Crandall had an idea to motivate inner-city kids like Allan. He got some corporate sponsors to kick in the $40K, and then challenged all the kids in the school to try to win it. Here was the deal: any kid who could achieve a 3.0 GPA would be eligible to take a half-court shot to win the money.
Over 100 kids achieved over 3.0 GPA to become eligible. From that list, 8 were chosen randomly to take a shot. 7 tried and missed. And then Allan Guei stepped up. And drained it.
It wasn’t entirely surprising. Allan is a pretty good basketball player and the star of the Compton team. He’s so good, in fact, that he was being looked at by a bunch of college recruiters. Shortly after winning the $40,000, Allan got another huge prize: a call from Cal State – Northridge letting him know he had won a full-ride basketball scholarship. His cup runneth over.
Amazingly, this didn’t make him happy. In fact, it bothered him. He thought about his good fortune, and then considered the other 7 kids, who didn’t have his basketball skills. He thought it was a little unfair.
Shortly thereafter, all of the runners-up received a check for $5000.
Allan said, “I’ve already been blessed so much, and I know we’re living with a bad economy, so I know this money can really help my classmates.”