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GREENSBORO — Melissa Fourrier was speechless.

You would be too if Oprah — yes, that one — surprised you with $30,000 worth of gifts and paid the taxes, to boot.

“I was couldn’t-catch-my-breath stunned,” Fourrier said.

She got a car. She got diamond earrings. She got a bunch of Oprah’s “Favorite Things” gratis because, well, “The Big O” can do all things.

But how did Oprah Winfrey come to bestow such bounty on this Greensboro woman?

It’s the story of a local woman’s good deed opening the door for a world-renowned figure to pay her back ten-, twenty-, maybe a hundredfold.

It began with Dr. Robert “Robin” Thacker. He got his friend on the show by nominating her as a hero.

Fourrier is the founder and executive director of Foster Friends of North Carolina, a nonprofit that provides mentors and awards money to youth for enrichment activities and services not covered by the state’s foster system.

“Nobody deserves it more than Melissa,” said Thacker, chairman of the nonprofit’s board. “She worked out of here for two years in the dining room. She worked for no pay for years. All she does is work for those kids. ... I was happy I did it. I was happy it worked out that way.”

On Oct. 29, Thacker visited Oprah.com to find a grant for Foster Friends. Like most nonprofits, it’s struggling financially to fulfill its mission in this economy.

Thacker struck out on the grant, but he clicked on a link that asked for stories about heroes. He wrote about Fourrier and her work with foster children.

A few days later, Thacker received a coveted e-mail invitation for him and Fourrier to attend the Nov. 16 taping. With this being Oprah’s last season hosting a talk show, a ticket to any taping is a valuable gift in itself.

“I thought he was pulling something,” Fourrier said. “I said, 'That’s not funny. You don’t joke about Oprah.’ ”

Oh, but Oprah can joke with you.

On the day of the taping in Chicago, Fourrier, Thacker and the other attendees waited outside the studios. People from the previous taping walked by with bulging bags embossed with “Oprah’s Favorite Things.”

Winfrey has hosted a series of these special gift-giving bonanzas over the years.

Fourrier turned to Thacker.

“We missed the Favorite Things show by one taping. Can you believe this?”

“What’s the Favorite Things show?” he said.

“You just get all this stuff.”

“I don’t think it’s gonna be that good,” Thacker said.

Oh, it was good, all right. And then some.

Winfrey duped the audience into thinking they were going home with nothing more than an ornament.

As if. Check out these lovely parting gifts:

• An iPad, whose value starts at $499.
• A $170 pair of UGG Classic Short Sparkle s boots.
• A $398 Coach satchel.
• A $1,900 pair of diamond earrings by Dana Rebecca Designs.
• A 2012 Volkswagen Beetle, which the rest of the mortal world can’t even spy until next May.

Total value of this haul? At least $31,000.

Ah, but alas, there’s the tax bill for all this loot, right?

Nope! Winfrey threw in checks to the IRS to pay the gift taxes.

It all came with a great, big, fat promise that neither Fourrier nor Thacker could say anything until the show’s airing.

That was Monday at 4 p.m.

About 30 friends and family gathered at Fourrier’s home for a viewing party complete with frosted sugar cookies, spelling — you guessed it — OPRAH. They could finally celebrate with Fourrier and see her gifts.

“It feels real now,” she said after the party. “It didn’t last week because we couldn’t tell anybody, but I’m overwhelmed.

Nothing this nice has ever happened. Ever. Ever. Ever.”

At the end of the episode, Oprah said the show was not really about the gifts, “although the stuff is fun and you’re gonna love driving that Beetle.”

“Really for me, it’s about hope. It’s about knowing that something really magical and joyful and wonderful can happen to you when you least expect it.”

Thacker and Fourrier hope to parlay this unexpected publicity into more awareness for Foster Friends.

In five years, the organization has distributed $90,000 worth of awards to foster children attending Guilford County Schools, Fourrier said. The nonprofit is expanding into Forsyth County.

“We have a curriculum that we follow that’s based on helping them develop a positive self-identity, really good feelings about who they are, what makes them special, and healthy relationships and exposure,” Fourrier said.

“These kids are amazing. We need to get more people interested in what happened to kids when they can’t be with their families and what they need, so that they don’t end up on welfare or in jail. If you invest in their lives now, it’s a better chance that that won’t happen.”

Contact Dioni L. Wise at 373-7090 or dioni.wise@news-record.com