Article By Catherine Tavier // EEW Magazine // Philanthropy

Two football players’ act of kindness recently went viral and grabbed the attention of some very powerful and generous individuals.

As previously reported by EEW Magazine Online, do-gooders Kristopher Graham and Antwain Garrett, who stood up for a boy being bullied for repeating the same outfits every day, were blessed for their kindness in a big way by superstar Will Smith and daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

To the utter shock of Kristopher, Antwain and Micheal Todd, who were all being interviewed on a Friday, Sep. 20 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Will, 50, showed up. When he got there, he praised the teen athletes who gave away some of their own clothes and a pair of shoes to a boy they barely knew.

Will Smith poses with Micheal Todd, the high school boy on the receiving end of an act of kindness (Credit: Michael Rozman / Warner Bros.

“I saw the video,” said Will, who watched with his wife, Red Table Talk host, Jada Pinkett Smith. He said the two of them were thinking, “That is fantastic!”

So the Gemini Man star said he decided, “There is no way that I’m letting this pass without making contact with these kids.”

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To help the youths see how significant their actions were, the Oscar-nominated actor told them, “What you did felt small to you, but I promise you that is exactly how human beings are supposed to interact with one another.”

He added, “It’s not more complicated than that. Somebody is having a hard time, and you help them. It’s that simple.”

Kristopher, who is one of the upperclassmen at Martin Luther King College Prep in Memphis, said, at first, he joined the other school kids that laughed and teased Micheal for his lack of wardrobe changes. But then he had a change of heart and wanted to help out.

“Once I went home and thought about it, I wanted to apologize to Micheal, but I wanted to give him something in the apology,” Kristopher told Ellen, 61.

When Micheal was on the receiving end of kindness instead of bullying, he said he was “surprised, shocked, happy, [and] tried to keep a straight face instead of showing my smile.” Smiling or not, he admitted, “It was the best day of my life because I was bullied my entire life.”

Will Smith shows up to personally thank Kristopher Graham and Antwain Garrett for helping out their classmate (Credit: Warner Bros)

“What was really big also was the self-correct,” Will said of Kristopher’s heart change. “You saw that you were laughing and you were part of it, and you stopped and self-corrected.”

As a reward, Will reciprocated with his own act of kindness, only significantly bigger.

“I talked to the people at New Balance, and this is an act of kindness that I don’t want to soon be forgotten,” he said. “We’re gonna get gear for everybody at your school, all 600 kids at your school.”

Then Ellen, as she is known to do, sweetened the deal even more with $10,000 checks for each student, courtesy of Shutterfly.

The beautiful outcome that began with the generosity of two boys demonstrates the truth of Luke 6:38 NLT: “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”