Bryant_ridge_brown_podium_1Some things you do just stick in your heart, mind and spirit, and you know that you are helping to make a difference. I waste a lot of the wrong sort of time for many of the right reasons, by January 21st, 2004, was not one of them. On this day I stood with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and DHS Under Secretary and FEMA Director Michael Brown for the signing of our national partnership MOU for HOPE Coalition America, an initiative of Operation HOPE.

The next time we stood with DHS it was on September 27th, 2004, at the Treasury Department in their Cash Room, for the signing of a second agreement, our national partnership MOU with Citizen Corps and FEMA, designating Operation HOPE and HOPE Coalition America as one of its national community partners. EFFAK. It can be found on countless websites around the country as a free downloadable PDF file, including the Department of Homeland Security’s own Ready.gov.  Check it out, and LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK WHEN YOU DO!!!

Following the signing of partnership documents, Operation HOPE, FEMA and Citizen Corps announced the release of something I am proud to say I created, with help and support of course from DHS, Citizen Corps (thanks Liz DiGregorio, Karen Yeager, Lara Shane and the entire DHS team…) and FEMA of course my team at Operation HOPE (Fred Smith, Lance Triggs, Jena Roscoe, Rachael Doff, etc); and its called an Emergency Financial First Aid Kit, or an

With HOPE,

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