I was and remain deeply honored to be selected by the great Oprah Winfrey back in 2001, to receive her coveted "Use Your Life Award," and to become one of Oprah's Angels. The award came with a donation of $100,000 for my favorite charity – and you know I selected Operation HOPE.
Operation HOPE used that $100,000 funding, which was made possible by the late actor Paul Newman, to launch our Operation HOPE, Chicago program office, which is running strong to this day, having educated more than 40,000 youth in financial literacy empowerment, and recruited and mobilized more than 700 HOPE Corps volunteers in over 200 Chicago Public Schools.
We opened the Chicago office in tribute to Ms. Winfrey, and soon we the great Ms. Winfrey will share the legacy of this leading Operation HOPE "silver rights" office with Mr. Bill Robinson, the man who basically grew this office (along with the help of one Patricia Robles) from an idea to the great performer it is today. The founding program director was my friend and then Operation HOPE team member Trooper Sanders, who is now the domestic policy advisor to former US President Bill Clinton. Of course, Trooper is doing the same superb job for the former president that he did for us. Small world.
Onward with HOPE,
John Hope Bryant