This photo of me and former President Bill Clinton, in Gulfport, Mississippi, brings back powerful memories of and around our on-the-ground partnership there to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Together with H & R Block, and under the day-to-day leadership of Operation HOPE’s own Fred D. Smith, who runs HOPE Coalition America, we delivered $12 million in tax refunds and $8 million in EITC refunds to Katrina victims in just over 4 months time.
To date, HOPE Coalition America, who now has offices serving Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, and a call center in Poway, California, thanks to help from our friends at First American Corporation, specifically Anand Nallathambi, has helped helped more than 80,000 victims of Hurricane Katrina to date, providing them with "emergency economic disaster response" assistance.
HCA has helped more victims of Hurricane Katrina than the federal government and I believe, the American Red Cross. A special thank you to Mark Ernst, CEO of H & R Block, Bernie Wilson, SVP at Block, Anand and Craig DeRoy, president of First American Corporation, Landon Taylor, SVP at First American Corporation, Lance Triggs, Fred Smith and Jena Roscoe from Operation HOPE, and of course Trooper Sanders, domestic policy advisor to President Clinton, the Clinton Foundation family, and last but certainly not least, former President Bill Clinton himself.
One person, with a lot of help from his friends, can indeed change the world… Be that one person.
This is the "silver rights" movement in action.
Onward with HOPE
John Hope Bryant