'Secret Millionaire' shocks Joy of Music School with donation

In April 2010, Joy of Music School Executive Director Frank Graffeo was contacted by a Los Angeles producer who claimed to be working on a documentary about volunteer work.

As it turns out, the producer was working on ABC's new show "Secret Millionaire," in which the rich go undercover for a week in a town, living on a small budget and volunteering at local charities. At the end of the week, the millionaire reveals his or her identity and gives the charities large donations.

The Joy of Music School - which provides free music lessons, as well as instruments, for children who cannot afford them - was one of three local nonprofits to receive donations during an episode filmed in Knoxville this summer and that will air Sunday.

Although the foundation had no idea at the time, Graffeo and Musical Director Julie Carter knew something big was going on.

"The problem was for me, when they came in with their crew, it didn't look like a spec doc," Carter says. "They came in with their crew and everything was top of the line. ... Plus, the crew was extremely efficient. That told me that they had been doing this a lot."

"We thought this is big, this is really big, but we don't know what it is," Graffeo says. He suspected a celebrity host might be involved, though the producer explained that wasn't the case.

The Joy of Music School was told a small production company with an under-construction website was running the show. The show's producers explained the back story - a mother and her children had come to Knoxville to live on very little money in low-income housing and wanted to do volunteer work.

This did not ease Carter and Graffeo's skepticism on the first day of shooting.

"There were 25 crew members in the building, four wireless digital HD cameras. ... They're not going to invest all this money and have someone who doesn't know what they're doing come here and volunteer," he concluded.

On the last day of filming producers scheduled a meeting with students, teachers, the crew and volunteer Dani Johnson. "I didn't notice it at first but when (Johnson) walked in she was dressed a whole lot differently," Graffeo says. "Her clothes were expensive, and she had jewelry on."

During this meeting, Johnson explained who she really was - a millionaire entrepreneur, author and speaker - and handed over a check.

"We all said 'What?' " Graffeo says. "And we all started crying and hugging. Of course they have a camera in everybody's face, and you're thinking, 'Who's going to see this documentary?' "

Carter says she was "elated, absolutely elated" at that moment.

Johnson says she was impressed with how the Joy of Music gives its young musical talent a chance to succeed. "They are grooming them for success," she says. "This is amazing to me.

"The Joy of Music is introducing them to a totally different life."

Graffeo was surprised by the large donation.

"I thought that the production company was going to give us a token of their gratitude at that meeting," Graffeo says citing something more realistic like "four guitars or something."

And the check came at an opportune time. "It made up for what would've been a difficult year," Graffeo said. "We would've finished well below our budgeted income if she didn't make that donation."

"From that point forward I was contacted by Dani and her people with some degree of regularity," he adds. "She's really interested in what we do. It touches her personally."

"Teaching kids music, especially if they've got a gift for it, it does something for a person that you can't calculate," Graffeo says. "It was gratifying to see her resonate with our mission."

Knoxville.com TV beat writer Terry Morrow contributed to this report.

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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