Master P Donates $500,000 To Keep His Old School Open

In the wake of Sean "Puffy" Combs' recent gift of $500,000 to his university alma mater (see "Puff Daddy Gives Alma Mater $500,000 For Scholarship Fund"), rap mogul Master P has now come forward and donated $500,000 to keep one of his former schools from closing.

Earlier this month, the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans announced plans to shut down St. Monica Elementary, the school P attended from first to eight grades, and merge its 125 students into the Our Lady of Lourdes School by the end of the academic year.

When Master P was alerted of the potential closing, he contacted the local Archdiocese and made three separate contributions. P donated $250,000 to fund the continued operations of St. Monica, $150,000 to Our Lady of Lourdes and $100,000 to St. Matthias, a church attended by members of P's family.

The No Limit entrepreneur also said that he planned to remain active in helping out his former elementary school for the next couple of years, and a representative of the New Orleans Archdiocese confirmed that the monetary infusion would keep the school open for the foreseeable future.

"I graduated from St. Monica," Master P told "The Times-Picayune." "That school's been in my community all my life. That's the church that I'm committed to. When they told me what the situation was, I figured that this was a good opportunity to save some of the kids, to give them the opportunity that I had."