While I was at the tent city in Pinellas County I met this wonderful man who was getting ready for an interview. He didn’t have his own nice clothes to wear so he borrowed some clothes from the clothes closet. They don’t have clothes that fit everyone perfectly so they make do. Virtually no one in the camp knew how to knot a tie, the final step in getting ready. I was able to help the gentleman with his tie and speak with him for a few moments and offer some encouragement.

While we spoke, the staff became increasingly concerned that he was going to be late for his appointment because the person who was supposed to take him wasn’t back yet. There were no cars for rent in Tampa when I got in so I took a car service which was waiting for me to the camp. While I was finishing my tour of the camp I asked the town car driver to drive this gentleman to his interview.

Did I mention that this man had been employed continuously for years. With Wise Potato Chips, Snapple and many other big companies. You can see his resume in the photos in the post below this one.

I left before I found out what happened but I got a call from Miss Sheila the woman who runs the city two days later and she said that he was confident and felt great that day and as a result, he got the job. He’ll be out of the tent city in less than six weeks. To the naysayers (and there have been a few) these are not people who are content to live in tents in sweltering 90 degree, humid Florida heat, they are people who because of a bad economy and loss of employment ended up here . . . and they are eager to get out.

Small businesses like the one that hired this man will be the savior of this economy and of so many people like this. Part two of Kickstart America is training small businesses so that they can grow and add new jobs. We’ve got a lot of work to do yet and are just getting started. But I wanted to see that even a little help can go a long way.

One of the things they are interested in doing is putting in a call center or something in some of the temporary buildings where they could employ some of these people right at the tent city. If you know anyone who is considering developing a basic call center, please let me know, I’d love to bring that resource here.

It is nice to see success stories like this. People just need a little help and encouragement sometimes to feel good and feel empowered. I’m not suggesting I had anything to do with him getting the job, he did that on his own, but it was nice to be able to help (with your assistance) wherever we could.