Mariah charters a private jet to help a Florida family
Mariah Carey isn't afraid to spread the love. The 40-year-old pop diva jumped at the opportunity to be involved in an episode of the highly successful ABC reality series Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Mariah chartered her private jet and flew into Crestview airport in Florida before making her way to Pensacola where she met with the Gaston family who will have a new home built for them. She didn't even stop to change her outfit - dressed in black tights and an oversized T-shirt with "You Like This" emblazoned in purple across her chest.
Finis Gaston, who works as a volunteer cheerleading coach at Baker High School in Pensacola as well as working in the school's cafeteria, was completely shocked when Mariah turned up at the school unannounced. "I almost threw up," he said. A 7th grade student added: "We saw the camera crew come in the cafeteria and thought they were just going to interview him again. Then Ty (Pennington, the host of ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition) ran in and everybody started screaming. Finis was in shock and everything."
Mariah had her photo taken with the family and then posted it on her Twitter account saying: "So amazing down here at Baker HS with Extreme Home makeover. Loving Ty, Micheal, Tracy, Johnny, all the kids at the school plus the Gaston family."
Extreme Makeover Home Edition travels the country searching for families who have fallen on hard luck and who are in need of a new home. They then build a brand new house with help from local companies and volunteers in just seven days.
Finis was raised by a single mother who also took care of his niece and two nephews. When he was 16, he became his school's first male cheerleader. He hoped to go to college and become a social worker and was offered a full football scholarship to Alabama A&M University. However, the year before he graduated college his mother died and he returned home to take care of his niece and nephews so they wouldn't be put in foster care.
He opened a gymnastics school called Finest Tumblers, but he had to shut it down when the building was recently sold and had no money to raise the four children. Now Finis and his family will have a new home thanks to Extreme Makeover. "I feel everything I've prayed for is going my way. I've been on my knees a lot of nights praying everything will go our way for my family," he said. The episode will air on ABC in the United States on December 12.
Maybe Mariah is hanging out with young children in anticipation of the rumoured - but not yet confirmed - birth of her first child. The rumour mill has been swirling again after Mariah's husband Nick Cannon told OK Magazine they have picked out names for their baby.
"We've been naming our kids since the day we met," he said. "I can't give you that though, you're trying to get me in trouble with my wife!" He also said that Mariah is "going to be amazing (as a parent). I will be a good dad too, but she's such a nurturing spirit, she'll be good."
The only announcement of a new release that Mariah is currently willing to admit to is the tracklist for her upcoming Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, which is due out on November 2. (Mail Online)
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