Help for Katrina Victim Brings Rewards
Feb. 20, 2006 — -- On Labor Day last September, I flew to the Astrodome in Houston where thousands of people who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina were being housed. I brought along a handmade sign that read, "Are you looking for a job?"
Within minutes, I was surrounded by hundreds of people who shared their stories with me. They had lost their homes, possessions, jobs and in some cases, contact with family and friends. These were cashiers, housekeepers, laborers, drivers, prep cooks, dishwashers and janitors. And all of them were eager to rebuild their lives and get back to work.
Their stories were similar, but one young woman struck me with her innocence and fear. Doris Banks, a resilient 20-year-old single mother of a 4-year-old boy, had an angelic face and sweet disposition. She lived in a public housing project in New Orleans and had been working at Taco Bell there when the storm struck. She took shelter in the city's Convention Center before being bused to Houston, with nothing but the clothes on her back.
After a few dozen calls, a Taco Bell in Houston told me they'd hire her on the spot. A landlord in Houston agreed to rent her a beautiful garden apartment -- a major improvement from her former cramped quarters. We went over to a local Wal-Mart and purchased everything she needed for her new home.
Our new friendship generated a lot of media coverage. From that, I got a bunch of letters, and invariably the writers called Banks a "very lucky lady." The majority wondered if Banks knew just how "lucky" she was to have met me.
I found the use of the word lucky quite curious, because I never once thought of her this way. I thought of her as smart. She was smart enough to get up off of her cot and approach me, a total stranger, to ask for help. She could have sat there -- like thousands of other people did -- waiting for help to come to her, waiting for someone to tap her shoulder with an offer of assistance. Instead, she stood up and took a chance herself.
Related Stories
ABC News Live