Oprah's Big Give heads to Miami, where host Nate Berkus introduces Joe and Gavin Maloof, the billionaire brothers who own the Sacramento Kings basketball team and the hip Las Vegas Palms Resort and Casino. "They live big, and trust me, they give big," Nate says.
"Gavin and I heard what you were doing," Joe says. "We wanted to be involved, so we brought you a little something." The "little" something? A briefcase filled with $700,000!
In the $100,000 Giveaway Mission, each contestant has only 24 hours to donate their share of the $700,000…but there's a catch. They can't give away cash, they can't spend more than $500 on any one person and they can't give more than $10,000 at any single location.
To top it off, because the challenge is so big, two contestants will be sent home this week.
Rachael's first stop is at Target, where she recruits 20 unsuspecting customers for a Big Give shopping spree. "You have five minutes to get $500 worth of stuff in your cart," she says. "Are we ready? Get set. Go!"
Carts fly as the shoppers grab as much merchandise as they can. Five minutes later, Rachael has spent $10,000 of her cash.
Kim heads straight for a gas station, where she treats every customer to a full tank of gas. "I hate to pay for gas," Kim says. "So I thought I would take care of everybody's gas and get them fun stuff from the convenience store." In 10 minutes, she spends $2,000.
"This challenge was tailor-made for me," Kim says. "It's going to be the brightest I've shined so far."
Since he can't give cash away, Cameron converts a chunk of his money into traveler's checks. Then, he stops at an auto body repair shop, where he pays the service bills of every car with an open ticket—a total of $8,000. Plus, he gives $500 to each of the men working in the shop.
While he's there, Cameron meets a customer whose bill he is paying off, as well as the man's son, Manuel.
"Nobody has ever done that for us," Manuel says. "This is the best day of my life."
The spirit of giving is in the air when Oscar, an employee at the shop, agrees to pay for every oil change that comes in the next day. "We'll definitely try and pass it on!"
Brandi wants to give big to CHARLEE, a nonprofit organization for 18- to 23-year-olds who have outgrown foster care but still need a helping hand.
One major way CHARLEE supports its members is by providing them with public transportation passes, so Brandi heads directly to the transit station, where she purchases $10,000 worth of bus and train passes.
"I think it's necessary for every human being to have the basic needs—food, shelter, healthcare," Sheg says. "I decided to find a supermarket in an impoverished area and buy as many groceries for as many people as possible."
At the supermarket, Sheg announces over the loudspeaker that he will be paying for the groceries of the first 100 people who come to the cashier. While people hesitate at first, the store soon erupts with shoppers rushing to the checkout line.
"It's like winning the lotto," one customer says. "But with food!"
For his give, Eric goes to the fire department to see if anyone can suggest a worthy cause. The fire captain tells Eric about Ralph White, a police officer who recently died and whose wake happens to be that day. Eric heads to the wake, where he meets Ralph's son Shannon and offers to help out with funeral costs. Because he cannot spend more than $500 per person, Eric waits for other family members to arrive so he can give more. But as time passes, Eric begins to worry that the clock is ticking and he has hardly given away any money.
Promising to return the next day at noon and honor his word to pay for the funeral, Eric leaves the wake to try and spend the Maloof brothers' money in other places. "I'm definitely feeling some anxiety—$100,000 is a lot of money, and we've only got a short amount of time to get it all out there," he says.
After spending most of the first day lost, Kim decides to buy $10,000 worth of pet supplies to donate to a local animal shelter. She buys everything from food to toys, but the shelter closes at 4 p.m., and time is running out. On her way there, she gets lost again. Kim is ready to throw in the towel on the day and the challenge until she hears of a different shelter that stays open until 7 p.m.
"I'm going now to Dade County Animal Shelter, where they really do need this. And they're open until 7," Kim says. "I realized this day isn't lost."
After Cameron buys computers for children at a foster home, he makes his final stop at a boating store, where he meets several people from the Shake-A-Leg organization. The group teaches paraplegics how to do boating activities, and they are in dire need of a safety boat. At the store, Cameron negotiates the cost of the boat down to $10,000, which he is able to pay in full with the money from the challenge.
"I woke up this morning for a normal Friday. And we're coming home with a boat," a Shake-A-Leg volunteer says. "That's pretty exciting."
With only a couple of hours left, Brandi meets a rose vendor on the street. She buys almost $2,000 worth of flowers and hands them out to people in passing cars. She even recruits a stranger to help out!
"Even if I just did this, it would be worth it all," Brandi says. "That was the best time of my life. I brightened so many people's days."
After her trip to Target, Rachael finds out about a fashion show being held by the Christopher Ricardo Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which works primarily with children. The organization is in need of trampolines and bikes, as well as air purifiers.
As time runs out in the challenge, Rachael rushes across town to get to the event. With 15 minutes until the end of the day, she announces that she is giving the Foundation $10,000 worth of supplies.
After taking the principal of Miami Edison Middle School on a $10,000 shopping spree, Stephen calls his father, George, who lives nearby. The two decide to pair up and give big as a team.
Stephen and George buy almost $30,000 worth of appliances and electronics, including stoves, refrigerators, freezer, microwaves, computers and iPods, to give away door-to-door in an impoverished neighborhood. "We're going to hand out all this stuff to about 30 or 40 families," Stephen says. "And then we're going to be out of here. We're going to have all the money spent."
"Today was probably one of the most momentous days of my life," George says. "Working with my son was fabulous and brought us much closer for the day and, hopefully, for the rest of our lives."
For his second stop, Eric heads to COPE North, a school where young mothers can bring their children while they continue their education. Eric buys the school items off its wish list, including treadmills and bikes, but the shopping takes longer than expected, and Eric doesn't make it back to pay for Ralph White's funeral.
Because of time constraints, Eric's last focus is gift cards. Although he knows he is being judged on creativity, he figures this is a quick way to spend a lot of money.
"It bummed me out that I didn't have time to make it to Ralph White's funeral," Eric says. "So the last thing I did was make a pretty large donation to the Police Athletics Club, which basically bought athletic gear for all the Little League kids, and that was pretty cool."
At this elimination, the judges must send home two contestants. Because Kim, once again, wasn't able to find her way in time to truly give big, she is left holding an empty envelope. And the judges send Eric home as well—they were disappointed that he failed to make it to Ralph White's funeral and thought the gift cards were a last-minute effort.
"Eric just didn't do what he said he would do for the family in the funeral home," judge Jamie Oliver says. "And Kim, I love that girl, but she was a total disaster in this task. If you want to be the Biggest Giver, you've got to think big, but most importantly, you have to deliver big."
Oprah's Big Give judge Tony Gonzalez says he and his fellow judges had a difficult time this round. "Especially since you had to get rid of two of them," he says. "It was unfortunate."
The primary reason for Kim's elimination was because she couldn't give much after she got lost driving…again. "If I had known I'd have to drive at all, I might not have auditioned. I'm a terrible driver, and I'm not good with directions," she says. "I wish I could have hired a chauffeur!"
Kim says she didn't get a GPS unit for her car because she felt like it was outside of the rules of the game. "Part of the challenge was to find your way around in a city you didn't know," she says. "For me, it was like facing a demon, and I survived that. I feel pretty good about it even though I didn't give as much as I would have liked."
After her time as a Big Giver, Kim says she's no longer the thoughtless, self-centered person she once was. "My life has been changed forever. Now I don't worry as much about what to wear. I worry more about living in the moment," she says. "I'm volunteering, and I've really gotten involved. My new favorite hobby is spending time with children and mentoring."
The Episode 4 challenge was hugely frustrating for Eric. "[When] somebody gives you $100,000 and you have 24 hours to get rid of it, you want to make the biggest impact possible," he says. "That's a huge responsibility. You want to do the best job you possibly can."
Tony says Eric's elimination came down to some really bad luck. One of Eric's ideas was to find a creative way to use gift cards, which didn't work the way he'd hoped. "My idea was to unite the community—the fire department, the police department, people that live there," he says. "The fire department was going to go out in the neighborhood and pass out the gift cards."
More disappointing was his failed plan to pay for police officer Ralph White's funeral. "To this day, that absolutely destroyed me that I couldn't do that," he says.
Despite being sent home, Eric says he hopes Oprah's Big Give accomplishes its goals. "It literally re-emphasized the fact that there are so many people out there in need, but there are so many people out there that want to help. They want to get involved, and they just don't know how," he says. "Shows like this will inspire people to give back."
One reason Eric is so upset about not being able to pay for police officer Ralph White's funeral is because he was so touched by his story.
In 1944, Ralph and four other African-American cadets changed history when they were sworn in as Miami's first black police officers. They had to take their oaths outside because black people were not allowed inside police headquarters. After receiving their badges, these brave pioneers patrolled the streets on bicycles and were not allowed to arrest white suspects.
Despite the injustices he endured, Ralph served his community proudly and honorably for more than 30 years. He lived to be 90 years old.
The Maloof brothers, who started Episode 4 with their $100,000 challenge, were also moved by Ralph's story. In fact, they are so inspired they decide to help his surviving family—wife Josephine, daughter Avis and son Shali—by reimbursing the $20,000 cost of the funeral!
As
Big Give viewers witnessed, giving away money isn't so easy. The Maloof brothers handed out $100,000 to seven contestants, but after 24 hours of nonstop giving, there was still a lot of money left over. So Joe and Gavin Maloof decided to spread that extra cash around Miami.
First, they opened $5,000 bank accounts in the names of 20 babies in the hospital who had medical complications. "When they're 18, they'll have a nice savings account for their college education," Joe says.
But that still leaves about $30,000. "We thought, 'Well, why don't we just give it to the audience?'" Joe says.
That comes out to $100 for each audience member! "You can spend it on yourself," Oprah says. "But you'll feel better if you share it with somebody else."
Special thanks to all those who helped during this episode of Oprah's Big Give
