Watching "Secret Millionaire" will reveal the answer to a question many of us ask on a day−to−day basis: Are there truly good people out there?
"Secret Millionaire," a reality TV show now on ABC after spending a single season on Fox three years ago, depicts a predictable yet praiseworthy plot: Millionaires leave their families behind for a week and are thrust into a poor town or city to volunteer, with only a small stipend on which to live.
As the title implies, their wealth is kept a secret until, after interacting with the local organizations, schools or other such worthy causes, they reach into their deep pockets and donate to the places and people they deem most deserving.
The season premiere follows Dani Johnson, a successful, self−made entrepreneur as she volunteers in some of the poorest areas of Knoxville, Tenn.
In addition to the fact that she is a secret millionaire, this episode has a second twist. We learn throughout the episode that Dani is no stranger to poverty. She and her sister grew up on food stamps and welfare, and she herself was homeless for a period.
She first visits The Love Kitchen, founded by two passionate, elderly twins named Helen and Ellen — a place, Dani says, similar to one she used to go to growing up. The two women and their organization serve over 2,000 people each week, providing hot meals for all who enter and creating a space for friends and families to gather — it is, in effect, a community center.
The next place Dani volunteers is Joy of Music, a school where students of all ages are provided with instruments, lessons and a space to grow. Frank Graffeo, the director of the center, tells Dani that many parents of the children at the center face unemployment, are on welfare and are generally unable to even rent instruments for their children.
Graffeo introduces Dani, and the audience, to several musical prodigies: obviously the school's brightest stars, who have attended the school for many years and are recipients of scholarships.
Dani volunteers last for Special Spaces, an organization dedicated to providing children who are suffering from severe illnesses with their dream bedrooms.
Dani meets Jennifer Swain, the founder of Special Spaces, as she and other volunteers prepare the truck to make over the room of Daisy Silva, a five−year−old girl afflicted with leukemia. The Silva family leaves as the volunteers do their work, and when they return, the smiles on their faces just show how much good was done.
At every one of these sites, Dani volunteered with and encountered people who benefited from the center's work. The struggles of the volunteers easily overshadow many of the troubles an average college student would face, and surely one who is as well off as Dani.
Dani was touched differently, but touched nonetheless, by every site and person she met. She expressed her belief in each site's worth and value as she found it.
The secret millionaire ended the episode by donating a total of $100,000 to the three organizations she volunteered at and to the Silva family for Daisy's treatments. Each check she gave out was met with hugs, gratitude and tears.
"Secret Millionaire," though predictable, gives each of us hope, and some of us a good cry. To see a millionaire — from a class of people that many of us initially judge as only self−absorbed and fixated on rising up the social ladder — take from her pocket and donate truly from her heart is heartwarming and inspiring.
This show also shows a more positive trend in reality TV. Instead of always showing the harsh, vulgar and inappropriate side of people that entertains (such as what you might see on "Jersey Shore"), shows like "Secret Millionaire" and CBS' "Undercover Boss" have conveyed to the American viewer that execs and businesspeople can lend a helping hand to others and that they do care about their less well−off counterparts.
