GREENSBORO, N.C.
Oprah Winfrey headlined a fundraiser at Bennett College, encouraging about 300 guests to support education and give back to their community.
“You can’t continue to move forward unless you give back what you are given,” Winfrey said during a rare public speaking appearance. “It is our calling.”
The famed talk-show host spoke at Bennett College, the Black college for women that is in the midst of a $50 million fundraising campaign co-chaired by poet and novelist Maya Angelou, a close friend of Winfrey, and former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.
Angelou, who sits on the school’s board of trustees, and gospel singer Shirley Caesar, a native of Durham, also attended the gala.
Winfrey said she limits her speaking engagements to events that “really matter” and decided to visit the central North Carolina school because, “Bennett really matters.”
“It is important that this institution continues to thrive,” Winfrey said, “and offer opportunities for women in this country and around the world.”
