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Ellen DeGeneres, General Mills Partner For '1 Million Acts Of Good'

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A popular talk show host joined forces with a popular Minnesota cereal to recognize and reward kindness.

Ellen DeGeneres stopped by General Mills recently, and WCCO's Amelia Santaniello got a chance to talk with her about her show's partnership with Cheerios and more.

There was nothing but cheers and applause for Ellen at their Golden Valley headquarters during her visit.

Her show and Cheerios are teaming up to encourage people around the world to participate in "One Million Acts Of Good."

"It's basically a great partnership because that's what they want to do and that's what we do every day," Ellen said. "So we're helping spread the message for them. We're encouraging people to just come to us and say, 'What are you doing?' … I give them my home phone number and they call me at home."

Ellen DeGeneres and Amelia Santaneillo
(credit: CBS)

She's kidding about that of course -- but she is serious about wanting to make the world a better place.

"You see the outpouring of love, and usually after a tragedy you see it the very next day. But I would like to encourage it to just be every day without a tragedy. I want it to be just a kinder world."

Ellen is raising awareness during Breast Cancer Awareness Month but have guests participate in the "Beautiful Entrance Challenge."

Minnesota-native Jessica Biel recently surprised Ellen with an amazing entrance reminiscent of "Dirty Dancing," and from that another act of kindness was created.

"I want to challenge all my guests to top that and I'll decide how much money that's worth and we'll donate it for breast cancer research," Ellen said.

Her desire to make people happy and feel good should be no surprise. Her roots are in comedy, where she will return for the first time in 15 years with a stand-up special on Netflix.

"This time around I'll actually sharing what my life is, and I'm opening the door a little bit for people to see who I am and how the show has affected me," she said.

If you're doing good and want to share it, just go to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" website.

Ellen says you may be rewarded or not -- but your real reward is knowing you're helping somebody else, and you're participating and making the world a kinder place.

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