Sure, you’ve heard of Oprah Winfrey (do you know of anyone who hasn’t), but how many of you are familiar with the name Kosciusko? Kosciusko, Mississippi, the birthplace of the “Queen of Daytime.” It’s a place the talk show host readily admits that she doesn’t visit very often, however, that will soon be changing.
Oprah just announced she would be traveling back to her hometown in a few weeks to dedicate a 32,000-square-foot-state-of-the-art Boys & Girls Club she helped sponsor through The Oprah Winfrey Foundation. The facility is estimated at $5 million and houses a gymnasium, computer lab and garden.
“We know how valuable her time is and happy that she is giving us a little of it to come down here,” Kosciusko’s mayor recently told local reporters.
According to city officials, the facility will be a major addition to the city of 7,334 and will be named after the woman who helped make it possible. The Oprah Winfrey Boys & Girls Club of Kosciusko and Attala County will be used mainly for after-school activities. However, employees at the new facility say: “After homework is finished, children can participate in arts programs or take advantage of the building’s gymnasium.”
In addition, workers say the facility’s garden will be used to teach children to grow their own food. On the day Winfrey visits the children will get the opportunity to prepare some of the food in a kitchen area, designed by Winfrey’s personal chef, Art Smith, who also will be on hand for the dedication. But, that’s not all (after all, this is Oprah were talking about); event organizers say children will also have “access to audio and visual equipment to film themselves and other chefs preparing food.”
The new facility has been a work in progress for a number of years. The project originally took root in 1998, after Oprah visited Kosciusko to dedicate a Habitat for Humanity home she funded. Community leaders say it was then that Oprah decided that a Boys & Girls Club would be the most beneficial thing she could do for the city’s young people.