On Thursday, December 19, Atlanta-born actor and comedian Chris Tucker surprised over 300 Henry County students and families by providing them with bags of gifts for Christmas.

  Families showed up to Henry County Middle School for a visit with Santa and snacks, but were surprised when Tucker himself walked through the door.

  “My foundation, The Chris Tucker Foundation, we raise money all year to do things like this. If anybody needs something, we want to help out. It’s a blessing,” said Tucker. “It’s a great feeling to make anybody happy. The little we can do, if that makes them happy, it makes me happy.”

  Tucker and the Chris Tucker Foundation gathered all of the gifts together for the families in less than six days after hearing about this opportunity.

  “My mom told me what was going on [here] and I said ‘yea, let’s do it,’ because we were looking for stuff to do for the foundation for this holiday, so it worked out perfectly. That’s what we raise money for; that’s why we do our golf tournament every year; that’s why I call my friends and ask them for money for things like this and all the hard work pays off when we can do something and bless somebody else,” said Tucker.

  Tucker’s mother and sister were also in attendance, handing out gifts and helping to spread some holiday cheer.

  Yolanda Owens, gift recipient, was overwhelmed by the gesture of kindness from Tucker, but expressed gratefulness for the extra help she received this holiday season.

  “They just gave me a bunch of gifts for my little boys and I really wasn’t expecting this,” Owens told the Times.

  “This is overwhelming. I’ve never seen anything like this happen before. This is a blessing and I am actually really thankful,” said Owens. “This is my first time coming to an event where I felt like I needed help for my kids for Christmas and they are so welcoming and they make me feel like I’m family.”

    The Henry County Department of Family Services goes above and beyond in their efforts to ensure that they are connecting with families in their community. Such is the reason for this year’s holiday event, providing gifts for Henry County families. 

  “It is our goal that we are connecting with our families and the Henry County school community, beyond day-to-day learning,” said Nicole McDowell, Henry County Director of Family Services.

  “We contacted [Tucker] six days before the event so we could do something for the children before they left for Christmas and he called us back the very next day,” said McDowell. “We had some other resources for the event and we would have been able to do something, but by no means could we have done it to that magnitude and have had as much of an impact on our families without [Chris Tucker’s] help.”

  All of the Henry County district staff joined in to help families during the event.

  “We would like to give a heartfelt thank you on behalf of the Family and Student Support, the Board of Education, the superintendent and the entire Henry County school community. It was just such a blessing that he joined in with us to help our families,” said McDowell.

  Before leaving the event, Tucker expressed his hope that the families and children in attendance will always look to pursue education and keep God first in their lives.

  “Continue going to school, high school and if you can’t go to college, continue learning and continue whatever [your] passion is. Mine was in the entertainment business,” said Tucker. “What-ever [you] want to do, work hard at it, keep God first and all your dreams will come true.”

  The Chris Tucker Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to making a positive impact in youth and families locally, nationally and internationally through implementing innovative initiatives and funding life-changing programs. Tucker’s vision is to engage community leaders as well as other organizations and work collectively to address critical needs affecting our future generations.