So should I call you Robert or Mr. Dunham?
Well, it's your show.
Whatever works for you.
Oh, it's my show now.
Thank you, Robert.
We'll tell Ellen quickly.
[LAUGHTER]
Now, I saw a photo of you cutting a kid's hair in class,
right?
Mm-hmm.
And this went viral.
[EXHALES] Yeah.
Yeah.
So how did this happen?
How did this come about?
So in Richmond, we have this thing.
It's called the Moving On Ceremony.
And some people call it a graduation ceremony-- whatever.
But we have a Moving On Ceremony,
and we do it every year for fifth grade.
And so as we were preparing, I just saw that some of my kids--
some of my male students were not ready.
And I said to them, hey, are you guys
going to be good for tomorrow?
And they was like, oh, Mr. Dunham, we got it.
I said, no, you guys look jacked up.
So I'm just saying--
[LAUGHTER]
Like, are you sure?
Right, right.
They said, no, we got it.
I said, OK, whatever.
So I went home and really didn't think about it.
And I woke up the next morning and I just
had this really funny feeling.
And so I just started throwing my clippers in the bag.
And my wife, she said, where you going with those clippers?
I said, babes, somebody's going to come in here jacked up.
So we've got to--
I'm telling you right-- somebody's
going to come here jacked up.
You've got to tighten things up.
Yeah, tighten-- yeah, I've got to fix that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so I get to work and I'm getting
everything ready for the show.
And next thing you know, one of my students walks in.
And just like I said, jacked up.
Hair akimbo.
And I said, I knew it.
I knew you were going to come here.
I said, come on, man.
Let's just get this right.
Yeah.
And so the next thing you know, my colleagues started
coming in the room and saying, Mr. Dunham,
can you take one more?
I was like, this is not the barbershop.
Like, what's wrong with you guys?
And it's like, oh, we've got another one, and we've got--
and the next thing you know, I'm just sitting--
It's like a Krispy Kreme line out the door now.
I'm like, what is going on, man?
And I'm just sitting there and I'm just lining everybody up,
and doing something that--
How many haircuts did you end up giving?
I think I did about seven that day.
No kidding.
Yeah.
And when it went viral, what did that feel like?
Was that--
I don't know.
I guess I freaked out a little bit.
[LAUGHS]
Sure, sure.
Because I really didn't expect any of that to happen.
And so it's just been surreal, man,
just to see that going viral like that.
Well, that makes me so happy that you
were celebrated for that, because it's
a very beautiful gesture.
Now, you said that your classroom is sometimes
like a sanctuary or a getaway for these students.
Yes, definitely.
And what do you mean by that?
So I have students that just come from some of the worst
type of situations.
And it's not their fault, but it's just
things that just happen.
And so what I always wanted to make sure
that my classroom was, it was just a place
that they can come to my classroom
and forget about everything that's going on.
You just come there, and you can literally
forget about all your problems.
Yeah.
And I just wanted to have that type of place--
that type of learning environment.
That's beautiful.
Now, you mean a lot to your students,
but one in particular you had a real big impact.
Yeah.
Who's that?
OK.
I hope nobody was one of these kids.
But basically, he was just really angry all the time,
and I could not figure why.
And it was just--
nothing I was doing was reaching him, and just every single day.
And I just got to a point I didn't know what to do.
And I had a conversation with my wife.
I said, babes, I really don't know what to do with him.
He's mad all the time.
Yeah.
And she says, baby, he's not mad at you.
It's something going on.
And she says, once you figure out what's going on
and you connect with him on a different level,
everything will just stop.
This beautiful woman right here?
Yes, absolutely.
That's my wife.
Oh, man.
How you doing?
[APPLAUSE]
Yes.
That's my boo.
[LAUGHS] I did good, right?
You did real good.
Yeah.
I think we both are out of our pay grade.
Yeah.
I don't know--
Yeah, congratulations.
I don't know how I pulled that one off, I'll
tell you right now.
I don't-- no idea.
[LAUGHTER]
And so I finally found a way to reach him.
And at the end of the year, he writes this letter,
he folds it up, and he gives it to me.
He says, Mr. Dunham, this is for you.
And I didn't read it immediately,
because I just thought he was going
to write whatever in there.
And I got in the car and I opened the letter
and I started reading it.
And I got choked up, because this
was a kid that told me four or five times that he hated me.
Yeah.
But then he literally gives me a letter saying,
Mr. Dunham, you were one of the best teachers I've ever had.
And thank you for everything that you've
done for me this year.
And one of the things he did say-- he says,
all the times you said you was going to call my mom,
you never did.
And I thank you for that.
[LAUGHTER]
I never did.
Well, listen, I'll tell you--
[APPLAUSE]
A teacher, Mr. Woods, saved my life.
I was dyslexic.
I couldn't read.
I was going to learning disabled classes.
And this guy figured out that I was good at math.
I just needed one thing to be confident about.
And he believed in me, and he had me start
teaching the other kids math.
And all of a sudden, I was like, oh, I can do this.
Wow.
That man-- I'm not sitting here without that man.
You're that man to this guy.
Thank you.
So I'm so happy for you.
Thank you so much.
Now, listen.
[APPLAUSE]
We're going to come back a little later in the show,
and I want to hear about what your dream is
for your community.
And hopefully, we can help with that.
Absolutely.
So we'll be right back.
Now, you got something going in your community.
You wanted to help the kids.
So what did you start?
What did you do?
So I had gotten so many letters and emails
from across the country about just how my story had just
impacted them so much.
It was a random act of kindness.
And I was sitting down one day.
I said, how do I keep this going?
Because there's going to be another group of kids who's
going to need the same thing, and I
want to make sure that I'm able to do something to help them.
And so I decided to start a nonprofit organization called
"Be the Change RVA."
And what we decided to do-- myself and my wife and my older
brother--
we started this organization where literally, we just
started partnering with all of the local barbershops
in the community and having them donate their time,
providing free haircuts.
Yeah.
And that's what we started doing.
[APPLAUSE]
And we just had an event recently,
where I partnered with one of the barbershops
and we gave away over 70 backpacks,
getting the kids ready for school.
And we did about 40 haircuts that day.
Yeah.
You're three times better of a person than me.
It's so impressive.
Now, listen, you--
Only three?
[LAUGHTER]
It may be 23.
Yeah.
Now, you've given back to your community,
and we would like to give back to you.
Now, your car broke, right?
[SIGHS]
And you recently came into possession of a Honda Odyssey
van.
Yeah.
You put $1,500 down.
I went through your finances.
You still--
[LAUGHTER]
You still owe $8,500 on this thing.
Yeah, that's--
OK?
That's absolutely true.
Well, Ellen's friends at Shutterfly
would love to help you.
They love to help people.
So what we'd like to do is give you a check for $10,000
to pay off that Honda Odyssey.
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
Let's see.
Boom, boom, boom.
Mr. Dunham, it's not over.
You've gotta save a couple tears for this,
because we also heard that you've been saving up
for a trip to Disney World.
Oh.
Shutterfly is going to make that happen as well.
We're going to give you another $10,000 for that trip.
Let's bring out the check.
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
Oh, man.
You deserve this.
You so deserve this.
Oh, man.