The Silver Rights Movement has come to Washington, D.C. and Anacostia, and the sun could not have shined on it brighter yesterday…
Yesterday, May 4th, 2005, one day prior to the 13th birthday of Operation HOPE (and yes, today is our birthday as an organization!), we stood with District Mayor Williams, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, Assistant Secretary for the EDA Dr. David Sampson, District Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, SBA Administrator Hector Barreto, former mayor and current City Councilman Marion Barry, Councilman Vincent Gray, former HUD Secretary and OHI national board member Jack Kemp, District Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Stan Jackson, myself and Arlen Gelbard, president of E Trade Bank and chief administrative officer for E Trade Financial, along with a host of other VIPs and luminaries, for the dedication of the HOPE Center, Greater Anacostia-Washington, D.C., sponsored by E Trade Financial. Other sponsors included Microsoft, Dell, Intuit, M & T Bank and others.
More than 600 VIPs from community, government (bi-partisan) and the private sector crowded Good Hope Road in Anacostia to welcome "home" the new HOPE Center.
We also conducted a very successful HOPE Bankers Bus Tour of the low wealth, "emerging market" communities in Anacostia and D.C. following the ribbon cutting.
More information and photos to follow in additional posts this week!
Onward, with HOPE