GENESEO, N.Y. (AP) — A star of the Oscar-winning movie “Nomadland” who played a version of her nomadic self surprised a high school classmate with a $10,000 donation to help build a school in Africa.

Charlene Swankie made the donation in response to a Facebook post from Bill Cook, a retired history professor at the State University of New York at Geneseo who has been raising money to build a high school in South Sudan, the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester reported.

Cook posted about the school on a Facebook page for his classmates at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, expecting gifts of $50 or $100.

But Swankie, a fellow class of 1962 member, was in a position to do more.

“I get this message from Charlene: ‘Oh, I’ll send you $10,000,’” Cook told the newspaper.

Cook was unaware that Swankie had appeared in the 2020 film “Nomadland,” playing a friend and mentor to Frances McDormand’s Fern.

Swankie was one of several nonprofessionals in the cast of “Nomadland,” a tale of life on the road that won the Academy Award for best picture.