- All right, everybody we are back,
and today I'm finally getting to meet
some of our favorite guests from last season, face to face.
My next guest is known as the Black Fairy Godmother.
That's because she's made it her mission
to essentially grant wishes for women in need
all over the country.
And it all started because other women stepped up
to help her, when she was down and out.
Take a look.
- I had nowhere to go, nowhere to turn.
Many charities and nonprofits had rejected me,
they turned their back on me.
So I decided to go on social media
and make a post to get help.
And I posted in numerous groups,
and one particular group had so many women
that just came my way to help me and my son
get formula, diapers, emergency groceries.
And from there on, on,
I said I have to pay it forward somewhere.
And just because of those women,
I'm now in my third year of nursing school.
- Oh, that's amazing.
Congratulations.
Wow.
(audience applauding)
Oh my gosh,
well, Simone, didn't just go to nursing school,
every day she's changing lives for the better.
Let's welcome, Simone Gordon, everybody.
(audience applauding)
So it's great to see you in person.
- So great to see you.
- You look beautiful. - Finally.
- I love the ponytail, the earrings, the dress,
everything looks so great.
And I have to say, how is nursing school going?
- Nursing school is going great,
I graduate in May.
- Oh my gosh.
(audience cheering)
Wow, are you so excited?
- I'm so excited, it's a-
- It's like light at the end of the tunnel?
- Yes. - Yeah.
- It's a challenge,
but challenges also leads to great beginnings.
And now I'm gonna actually add a health benefit
to the foundation, so it's wonderful.
- Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
So for those who might not have seen you last time,
tell us more about what the Black Fairy Godmother Foundation
does for people?
- The Black Fairy Godmother Foundation
help marginalized families across the U.S. with crises.
There's plenty who may need food.
There's plenty of women
who are going through domestic violence situations.
And some people even are experiencing medical essentials
that they need, far as chemotherapy.
So what we do is we receive so many DMs on Instagram,
and our Instagram is blackfairygodmotherofficial.
So what we do is we redirect them to our website
where they have to fill out an application.
We vet them, and then we'll put it on our Instagram,
and let the angels handle the work on Instagram.
- Oh my gosh, let the angels handle it.
I love that.
So how have things been going
since we first met through a screen?
- Since we met through a screen,
well, thank God that we're face to face, I love that.
My inbox have exploded, in a good way.
So many businesses, companies, and people all over the world
are pitching in to help.
We were able to help 324 families
across the U.S. have a magical Christmas.
- Wow.
And that's so important.
There's nothing like when you're a parent,
and you wanna give your kids everything.
And then when you can't, you know, you don't have the funds,
it's amazing what you do.
I understand that your foundation
got quite a large mystery check as well?
- Yes, I thought it was junk mail.
It was just a white envelope,
and you think, oh it's just coupons.
- Oh my God, I'm so glad you didn't throw it away.
- You would just think it's coupons,
but I said, let me open it,
you know, it might be something from target.
So I opened it.
So I opened it,
and the Gates Foundation was actually able enough
to give a donation to our foundation.
We helped 11 families who were facing eviction.
We saved a woman's home in Oklahoma,
and we were just able to help 11 families.
So we were thankful for the Gates Foundation
for doing that.
- Wow.
So you have a big event coming up, right?
- Absolutely,
this is our second annual Purple Diamond Awards,
which we help individuals who are facing domestic violence.
- Yeah. - And with that,
all the proceeds from each ticket will go towards
the individual who needs educational sisters,
or who needs to relocate, due to the fact
that they're going through domestic violence,
because there's not a lot of resources and shelters.
So that's what we do.
We go ahead and we adopt these individuals,
and lead them on their very way.
- Man, you give them so much opportunity.
So what do you hope people take away
from all your hard work?
- I don't want people to just notice me.
I want them to notice the awareness,
and what is going on in marginalized communities.
There's a lack of resources.
And even though you may not have money,
you have a resource within your heart to give back.
- Absolutely, oh my gosh,
more people need to be like you, okay.
We have two women here
who say the Black Fairy Godmother
has profoundly changed their lives.
Simone's never met either of them in person.
I'm very excited.
Are you ready to meet them?
- Yes, I'm ready.
- She's really nervous about it.
All right everybody, let's welcome, Deb and Sonia.
(audience applauding)
(upbeat music)
Oh back here, oh my God.
(audience cheering)
Nice to see you.
You are so beautiful.
- Debra, oh wow, I'm gonna kill you man.
- You all can have a seat,
if you like to sit on the couch right there
or right next to her one there, one there,
wherever.
I like that you're both in blue,
you compliment each other well.
Well, let's start with Deb.
So you're a volunteer with Black Fairy Godmother, right?
- I am.
Has it been two years?
- How did you get involved?
- Her network was just such an amazing,
just an amazing model to get food
where it needs to go.
And so Simone's network receives the needs,
the list of what families need.
And then she sends me the information,
I'm gonna cry, and it goes directly,
100% of the donations put food on family's tables.
- And people love knowing that, yeah.
- Without having to get in your car, drive to a shelter,
I mean, or that.
- Yeah.
- That's also part of her work.
But driving to a food pantry or something like that,
you may have special needs in your family.
You may not have transportation.
- I was gonna say you might not even be able to get there,
yeah. - Exactly.
- Yeah. - You might have a sick child.
It's been a pandemic.
It seems like forever.
- Especially for like older individuals,
if they didn't, or were too scared to go out.
I know a lot of people were helping out the elderly
with that as well.
- Yes, yes.
- Yeah, cause we've all needed help.
Like I have in my life, I've needed a helping hand.
I think we all need that at certain points.
- Of course.
- And Sonia, how did you connect with Simone?
- So I connected with her actually a couple years ago.
I am a 52 year old woman now, but I needed help.
And as a 50 year old woman at that time,
needing help with your rent,
I mean, how many people want to go to their mom
and say, you know, like, I can't pay my rent,
or your friends?
It's embarrassing.
And I had never met Simone.
We've actually,
this is the first time we're meeting obviously.
And she reached out to me and she said,
"Hey, you know, I'd love to help."
And I told her, I was very embarrassed about it.
And she said,
"well, they call me the Black Fairy Godmother."
And I said, well, I've never had one.
- But I'll take it.
- But I'll take one.
And immediately, I got the assistance, you know,
and I am so grateful.
I couldn't tell you how much, how grateful I am.
- How much stress that takes away.
The relief, yeah.
- Yes, and you know, you never think,
like you were saying, Kelly,
you never think that you would be in that situation.
- Oh, I'm not above anything.
I've been in that situation since I was a kid,
like when I was younger.
- Okay. - Anybody can be
in that situation, you are not special in some sense
that you are not susceptible to just falling on hard times,
that happens to anyone, at any moment.
I think this pandemic has proved that,
people thought they had these secure jobs,
these secure lifestyle.
- Yes. - That all got ripped away
from a lot of people, you know,
and that can happen at any moment.
That's why you've always gotta lend hand,
cause you never know when you're gonna need that hand.
- That's absolutely correct.
- And well, I know each of you have something
to say to Simone, so Deb, why don't you go first?
- It's been a hard year.
- It has.
- You know?
- Yeah, it has.
- And beyond the Black Fairy Godmother,
which she's just the epitome of compassion to me,
you know most of us, I would like to believe have empathy.
Empathy is a feeling,
but compassion is action.
And she wanna make things happen.
- Yeah. - You know?
And you do make things happen.
- I do.
- And we need those people.
- And she is selfless, and the integrity.
(audience applauding)
- Yeah, oh my gosh, so Sonia, how about you?
- Well, first of all, I am so.
- I can trade places.
- Oh my.
I don't even know if I'm allowed to hand you this.
Let's ignore this, COVID police.
- That's okay.
- Okay.
- Thank you so much for just,
from one black woman to another,
for standing up and being there for our community
when no one else would.
I appreciate you so much,
and I don't think that you get the full appreciation
that you deserve.
And thank you actually, to Kelly Clarkson, this show,
for bringing her on because she deserves this you all.
(audience applauding)
She deserves it.
- Thank you baby.
- Thank you.
- Well, and you're welcome.
But what's amazing too, is we love,
we feel like, you know,
we always highlight, and I always say this,
you have to highlight the bad, so we progress
and we get outta these places, we progress, we need that.
And we have to see the bad, but it's we miss the good,
because we're all busy looking at the bad, you know,
and there's a lot of beautiful people
doing beautiful things.
There's a lot of beautiful people out there
that once they see you on this show, they're like,
I wanna do that, I wanna help people.
So that domino effect is what we're really into
and what we're about.
And we're not alone, Conagra believes
that everybody deserves access to nutritious food as well,
so when they heard about all the great work
you're doing to feed people in need, they wanted to help.
So they're donating $10,000 to your foundation to help out.
(audience applauding)
(audience cheering)
- Oh.