“That’s unbelievable,” O’Dwyer said after being given the check by Teen Nick. “This is going to do a lot of good for a lot of people.”

O’Dwyer was one of many who organized relief fundraisers and supply donations through social media and cellphones in the weeks after the tornado outbreak across the Southeast in April. He and others managed to fill vans and, eventually, 18-wheelers with supplies to deliver to small towns.

The first round of supplies came to Tuscaloosa, where O’Dwyer lived as a freshman at UA, but he and others decided it would be better to deliver to towns not getting as much attention, such as Phil Campbell, Haleyville and Ider, along with Trenton, Ga., and Montpelier, Miss.

After a large initial round of supply donations and deliveries, he and another Georgia resident, Lani Nichols, established Magnolia Disaster Relief, a nonprofit organization aimed at disaster preparedness and relief for small communities. O’Dwyer said he would talk with the organization’s board about how to spend the money, but said it could help a family in Webster’s Chapel who lost almost everything after a tornado hit their home.

“It’s a lot of money so it’s going to help a lot,” he said.

O’Dwyer and some of his friends came to Wilhagan’s Sports Grille downtown on Thursday under the assumption that TeenNick was producing a segment about Magnolia Disaster Relief and needed footage to show college life, he said.

But during the middle of recording O’Dwyer and friends playing a game of pool, celebrity Nick Cannon entered to surprise O’Dwyer with the check and gave him a plane ticket to meet another celebrity interested in the organization.

Cannon, a comedian, musician, actor and current host of the NBC show “America’s Got Talent,” is chairman of TeenNick and credited with launching the HALO Awards.

“Instead of being excited about being reality stars, (teenagers) should be excited about being community stars,” Cannon said Thursday.

The past two years, the HALO Awards, which stands for Helping and Leading Others, honored four teens each show for community and volunteer work. The awards have been presented to the winners by celebrities such as NBA star LeBron James, singer Justin Timberlake and singer Mariah Carey.

The show will likely broadcast on TeenNick in November, according to parent channel Nickelodeon.

Source: TuscaloosaNews