Oprah Winfrey started surprising people onTwitter last week by fulfilling their wishes just in time for the holiday season.- It started when one person used a GIF of Winfrey while asking Apple for a new Macbook. Winfrey replied, saying she'd pay for the computer.
- Now Winfrey has also helped fund a nonprofit, agreed to pay for an ER doctor and their family to go on vacation once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control, and send a family to Disney.
Media mogul and billionaire Oprah Winfrey is at it again, using her Twitter account for the last week to surprise and stun fans with gifts.
On December 7, one person using the Twitter handle @loneamorphous tagged Apple and asked if they could send over a new computer because their Macbook was "on its last legs."
They used a GIF of Winfrey crying and dabbing her eyes softly with a tissue, which might have been how the Hollywood icon found the tweet.
The next day, Winfrey retweeted the request with a GIF of herself dancing and a simple message: "Consider it done. New [Apple] MacBook on the way. My pleasure to help you bring us into 2021 dancing."
—Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) December 8, 2020
@Loneamorphous, a creative who makes "music, films, and a bunch of other stuff too," was flabbergasted by the reply.
—amorphous (@loneamorphous) December 8, 2020
People were impressed that Winfrey, who wasn't tagged in the initial request, found a way to work some gifting magic online anyways.
—Chris Williamson (@CWilliamson44) December 8, 2020
The gifting didn't stop there.
On December 5, another Twitter user (@theblackcowgirl, who identified herself in other tweets as Caitlin Gooch) had posted a selfie standing in front of a truck and trailer they use to drive "to different communities to give books to children in need."
In the thread, Gooch linked to the nonprofit, Saddle Up and Read, along with a GoFundMe page, asking for people to help spread the word about the group.
Winfrey replied on December 10, once again quote-tweeting the intial message.
—Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) December 10, 2020
"I'll retweet to help get the word out … and donate to your non-profit, Saddle Up and Read," Winfrey wrote. "I think what you're doing is great: Getting kids to fall in love with reading (and horses). Will call with details. Happy birthday, Goooooooch!"
—goochie (@theblackcowgirl) December 10, 2020
"I'm not even gone pretend like I didn't just pass out," Gooch replied.
Winfrey's tweet boosted the visibility of Gooch's page, bringing another media icon to her page, LeVar Burton, who hosting the longtime children's reading TV series, "Reading Rainbow."
—LeVar Burton (@levarburton) December 11, 2020
Winfrey's generosity continued the next day, when she replied to ER doctor Cleavon Gilman, who was tweeting about the struggles they're facing on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Gilman recently spoke with Business Insider about how he was fired from an Arizona medical center after he tweeted about COVID-19.
"We need to be protected as healthcare providers," he told Business Insider. "This cannot be the standard for which ER doctors are terminated."
"We should be taking care of those taking care of us," Winfrey said. "Thank you @Cleavon_MD for the work you've done and will continue to do. You'll need a vacation once this pandemic is over-and I'll gladly send you and your immediate family anywhere you want to go. I'll be in touch."
—Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) December 12, 2020
And now most recently, Winfrey joined in on a viral thread about one person's shared experience with a neighborhood girl during the pandemic.
Kelly Victoria, whose twitter handle is @saysthefox, has nearly 150,000 retweets on a thread about how she's been pretending to be "Sapphire the Fairy" for a 4-year-old girl, who created a small fairy-sized village by a neighborhood tree.
On Sunday, Winfrey quoted the tweet with a surprise Disney trip offer.
—Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) December 12, 2020
"What a selfless act @saysthefox did for this 4-yr-old: Showed her magic still exists even in the hardest of times," Winfrey tweeted. "If you're up for it, how about a magical trip to Disney with Eliana, her parents, & a friend when it's safe again? On me. Think y'all need to meet Tinkerbell!"
Winfrey, whose current estimated net worth is $2.6 billion, was once known for her "outrageous" giveaways on her eponymous daytime talk show, which went off the air in 2011.
GIFs of her most excitable giveaways have become their own cultural touchstones, such as the "You Get A Car" meme, sparked from the time in 2004 when she gave every person in her show's audience a new Pontiac G6.
Who will Winfrey surprise next with a vacation or
A rep for Twitter told press in a statement about the holiday giving, "Keep an eye on Oprah's Twitter account, it's safe to say there is more coming from Twitter's new Santa."