RICHIE GIVES $45,000 TO SCHOOL
A debt-ridden private school in Watts facing closure by the Internal Revenue Service received an early Christmas present from singer Lionel Richie, who donated $45,000 toward payment of overdue school taxes.
Richie’s check was presented this week to the Sheenway School and Culture Center, a Watts institution for 14 years.
Carolyn Molloy, a member of the school’s board of directors, said Richie’s check will enable the school to keep operating.
Last month, the IRS placed a lien on the school’s building and said the facility would be put up for sale.
Since then, parents and friends of the school have been battling to save it. But they were demoralized when a recent fashion show fund-raiser netted only $1,100.
Richie was notified of the school’s plight from singer Janice Marie Johnson, a Sheenway alumna who now teaches Japanese dance at the school, Molloy said.
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