possibility of them losing the soul of america and a beacon of hope for the world and they came to our aid and in that tragedy can triumph -- came triumph. out of that death came resurrection. we found each other, our value. because people loved us so quickly and fully, we found a way to love ourselves again and we found a way come hell or high come and we have had both -- both, i asked the archbishop wanted locus were coming. here is the thing. the world, nation us up. this week, the second purpose is to the people of new orleans say thank you to everyone who helped us because this is a city with a grateful heart.

so please give the people of the nation around of applause. [applause] give them a standing ovation because we are here because of them. thank you, america, people of the world, for lifting us up and helping us out and we will pay about to you tenfold. thank you. [applause] finally, people of new orleans, we know this and the world knows now because president obama said it, we are not finished. we have more work to do. congressman richmond remembered robert frost the other day and said we have miles to go before we sleep. because we will not rest. you will not stop until every neighborhood is back. we won't rest or stop until justice is done in this city. we won't rest or stop until the

city god knows we were imperfect. but this is a beautiful place. there are not many on this planet that have what we have. we could be a beacon of hope for the u.s. the way that we act towards each other and the way we could help america find greatness again. that will be the gift that we give back to this nation. we will not go forward unless everybody comes along. here's the message of the day -- the big chief saying it. we are unbroken. we are still standing. as the sun set, there is no place like home. new orleans, get up on your feet. give yourself round of applause. the people of america on waiting on us to help america and herself again. god bless you all. thank you so much. let's keep going. [applause]

>> it became one of the iconic images of hurricane katrina's affect the new orleans. from the multigenerational family homes every opened a regrow street in 2013 it became an equally iconic symbol of the city's rebirth. here and behalf of the circle group store, these welcome -- please welcome -- [applause] >> hello. my family and i are so need to be a part of this wonderfully thing. like many the woman communities, the neighborhood we serve, the seven award, has changed a lot. it is important that we adopt

and conserve the needs of our customers, neighbors. we are growing and getting busier all the time. i see new faces in the store every single day. i hope that means we are doing some great. circle food stores is one of the only six black owned grocery stores in the country. [applause] but i really don't think it would be as successful in any other city like it is in new orleans. new orleans needed us. norlin supported us. we were born here. we were bred here. the circle food store would be here as long as our city needs us to be supporting our community right back. you have seen this next reform on the hit nbc series "the voice." a mississippi native who has made new orleans her home.

please welcome miss tanya cannon . ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ wake up, everybody ♪ wake up ♪ wake up, everybody ♪ wake up ♪ wake up, everybody ♪ wake up, everybody ♪ wake up

[applause] >> make some noise. [applause] ♪ >> many people were dislocated. there is no way they could all be taken care. we need a fun otherwise people will be totally overlook. >> the days ahead, open your hearts and wallets to help those in need. >> is a long-term reconstruction effort. a lot of people need help. or try to preserve maximum flexibility and impact. one of the things i learned is that it is an amazing variety of seconds dances. -- circumstances.

just figure out what happens to you. >> i remember seeing president clinton touched the ground for the first time. they had been through a lot. they had never seen anything like this. they were odd -- awed by the damage, but buoyed up by the spirit of the new orleans people. ♪ >> i think it was key in helping new orleans recover. we were able to respond almost immediately. we were up and running within two months time. the president's ability to raise nearly $130 million over the course of the fund, we were able to make real commitments so that people could make plans for their lives and for the future. >> the challenge was to get money to the ground in ways that the federal government couldn't

get there yet. they did a great job of getting feet and eyes on the ground and touring the area and able to a keenly the information they needed and getting the resources to the old that they needed. it needed to stand back up. schools were important. >> are giving $39 to colleges, communities, and gynecologists -- $30 million to colleges, committees, and community colleges. >> had we not have that, we would not have made it. >> are not so sure we would have gotten enrolled where we would have liked to. >> we are here to announce a sustainable rebuilding effort for 9th ward. we are calling it making right.

>> members of the initiative have made tens of millions to strengthen communities in new orleans and the gulf coast region. these commitments are working to improve post-disaster recovery, housing, education, and economic opportunity. it was fully funded and implemented -- they will have an estimated total value of more than $10 million. >> we started building in july of 2006. what we're showing is the new home design. sustainability and affordability. >> new orleans has rebounded tremendously. they still progress to be made you'd see jen members continue to work in the region on rebuilding and disaster. this as well as community development. >> i think it is an important --

important to recognize that their people who left new orleans will never be able to come back to those homes that were destroyed. we have to keep building on the foundation's to the future generations will be able to say that they were a part of this building process. >> ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to our honored special guests 42nd president of the united states bill clinton. [applause]

>> thank you very much. thank you. i know you have been here a long time. the good news for you is i lost my voice when i woke up this morning. [laughter] but i'm very honored, mr. mayor, that you invited me to come here and make a left me with his effort to commemorate come on a come and celebrate the progress that has made and rededicate ourselves to finish the job. i want to thank the people that i worked with a decade ago,

including the tenant governor, thank you. i thank leader nancy pelosi. representative maxine waters from telik ornette. and all the others who are here who were there and those -- in those dark days. when president obama was here, he talked about going to houston to the dome to look at all the people who were gathered there. i actually escorted him. he was a young senator from illinois.

hillary wanted to go. she was a senator from new york. wait, wait. this is important. and tried to make a really important point here. [laughter] it is important for you to love her, but i went to tell you -- i agree -- hillary wanted to go because she had been a senator for new york on 9/11. she never forgot what mary and other members of congress of both arteries did to step up to try to help near you again after the awful tragedy of that day. there we were. i could tell how moved then senator obama was. i could tell how overwhelmed hillary was.

i was thrilled when president bush asked his father and me to have effort that you just read about. i was thrilled when the then republican leader of the senate of mississippi said that nobody in the gulf coast area had done as much for this area in the u.s. senate then hillary had because she loved it so much. i was thrilled when barack obama started running for president, he made a commitment to continue the assistance to new orleans and to the golf. a total of $70 million here to he cap his word. and so did those whose of or did him. -- who supported him. why am i telling you this?

i had a big event it over them. i didn't have any more choice about what i was try to do down here than the man on the moon. what you saw on those pictures -- i thought i was still a young guy. i was 59. now i'm nearly 70. i first came to new orleans before most of you were born. when i was three years old, i came on a train to see my widowed mother was in nursing school. i grandmother rocked me down. we stayed across canal street. i think it was one of the old hotels get it is a first time i had an in a holding that had more than two stories. the first time i have ever been in a city of any size.

do the math. that was a long time ago. i remember that day and night as if it were yesterday. last 15 come i came back and aspiring jazz musician. as going to play dixieland tunes on my clarinet and just tunes only saxophone. i knocked on the window of the great jazz trumpeter. in the parking lot of the place he owned. i said, they won't let me in here and i'm 15. i don't think, but i came all the way to new orleans to hear you. he took me in. you never get over stuff like that. and all of the years afterwards -- who knows how many miles around through the french quarter. i came here 10 times. trying to help new orleans.

i didn't have any choice. these other people did out of conviction. they saw how brave you were. we honor on this night in a solemn way those who lost their lives and those who love them. we honor them on this night. he who often at great risk to themselves save lives over and over again. some of them going days without sleep or decent food. exposing themselves to disease. this is something that is illustrated that when we forget about all of the differences and concentrate on the task at hand, what we have in common, are basic humanity is much more important than our differences.

new orleans is a place that has made a reputation on its interesting differences. louisiana is the only state with laws based on -- the only state with anything that looks remotely like the french quarter -- and nothing sounds like the french quarter -- and the food doesn't taste this way anywhere else. there are no mardi gras indians anywhere on the place on earth except new orleans. what makes this sing like a beautiful -- all of a sudden none of our differences matter. you had a republican senator say

something nice about a democratic senator, god forbid. able working in the mud aside by side without regard to reese, religion, or politics. all of a sudden we were reminded that wherever in the world people work together, especially if they are creative, good things are happening. wherever in the world they spend all their time finding good things are not happening. tonight after all this time, it is tempting this to say, gosh, i'm glad all of this stuff happened. it is nothing compared to the business -- there was a lot of fixing the infrastructure. i'm grateful for this. we had to get the money out to the colleges and universities so they could reopen. [applause]

there was no money for so many, especially for mental health. there wasn't any category. we put so many there to have some mental health services. -- money out there to have some mental health services. i watched on c-span two days ago the community forum after president obama spoke. we've got to build up these community institutions. they put $40 million of it. we recommend people to decide how best to rebuild and to shape their futures. if we could talk about all of that -- but what i want you to think about is what 30 the

-- what do we owe those who did everything they possibly could to bring new orleans back and give it a better future? i have listened and i have read everything that i could find in the last month. here is what i think. our pessimistic -- i think the people are pessimistic and haven't looked at what has been accomplished against enormous odds. the people underestimate the continuing disparities a race and income and accessing jobs, capital.

i think they underestimate how important it is to keep living in the future and not in the past. [applause] i think we need a new unity here in new orleans tonight. hello who did the best we could -- all of us who did the best we could and those were still doing that, i saw one of the panels. thanks a lot. we have done a heck of a job. we have moved mountains and made miracles. it is astonishing. we are proud. i think the people who represent the neighborhoods where there are still too many houses who

know all of those young people are most 25,000 of them between 16-24 in this general area who are neither in school nor at work. they understand that not everybody who wanted to come home could come home. they didn't think there would be enough opportunity -- could be elated by the fact that a high percentage of high school graduates are going to college can be elated by the fact that the project is building houses twice as fast as ever before thanks to toyota making to making cars. i visited one today. he can be happy about all of that. there's a difference to being happy and being satisfied. there's a difference of being proud of having major best efforts and being satisfied that

is all we can do now. let your best efforts did -- what your best efforts did she make you burst with pride and make you great all to all of the people who pitched in to help you. and grateful to the good lord for providing this last decade. it should not stop you from trying to erase the last manifestation of the color line of economic differences of the education differences of the health care differences. [applause] you can be proud, new orleans. i don't want anybody who feels that about what hasn't been done to minimize what happened. i will give to you if i had described 10 years ago on this day exactly what would occur in the next 10 years that we could observe tonight, 90% of you in 90% of the people in new orleans

with have said, thank you. i didn't know we could do that. you should be happy. you should celebrate. it is the nature of the way we feel and the nature of the history of our country. the allies that our job is always to perform a more perfect union. we could be glad for what has happened. what we always believed from the time of our founding that we could do better. the good news is during all of this fixing up and rebuilding and imagining new futures like that house i saw today that the volunteers were working on --

[cheers] they are going to pay about half the utility bills. they're going to be able to make their mortgage payments. their power bills will be less. they will be able to take care of their family and bring people in for dinner on the weekends. it will be great. that means we can take the next step. you will not lose the history of jazz in dixieland. you will not lose the flavor of your gumbo. dance your way down the street at the end of a burial. you will not lose who you are if all of a sudden without regard to our race we have the same chances in education, jobs,

income, health care, and the future. [applause] 66 years ago there was a three-year-old boy who saw things in the city i had never seen. 53 years ago, i was too young to get in the kindness -- because of the kindness of the musicians who decided to take a chance. 40 years ago, the same your healer in i got married, we were -- year hilary and i got married, we were dispatched to new orleans.

i have seen the city in every state of repair disrepair that has existed for more than 50 years. even as a kid i was paying attention. the celebration must be living by rededication. the people who died left behind memories and loved ones and legacies that deserve to be fully redeemed by erasing the lines that divide us. my take on this is to have a good time. give yourself a pat on the back. you have earned it. dance to the music. you earned it. tomorrow wake up and say, look

at what we did. god bless you. [cheers and applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, mr. bill clinton. ♪ >> after katrina, the young boys in the city were just lost. i remember seeing how much crime was going on it it is a hot city. i knew some of the kids were looking for some sort of guidance.

if they don't have someone to guide them, they may go down the wrong path. my sister and i were on a rooftop in downtown new orleans looking at the superdome. i wanted to give back. it was my job. i had some extra time. i wanted to have my own program. i wanted to do something my way. we decided to start. we have been around since 2011. we are growing. their fathers have been murdered. or are in long-term incarceration. they quickly to have no connection to their father. their ages 10-13. a boy could be with us from five years to eight years. this organization and nurtures the boys we have now in the

program. we talked to them all the time about education and job opportunities and what they do now in school to be a success. it will affect their happiness in the future. we talk about crime with them. if they get into the wrong now, it goes on the permanent record. we want to prevent them from having a long rap sheet. folks who have been incarcerated -- we want to make sure they don't choose the wrong thing or hang around with the wrong crowd. a lot of people talk about the issue we have with our youth. if we don't do anything about it, it will only get worse. 10 years from now, i feel the boys will be graduating. they could be doctors, engineers, business owners. it is one thing to be productive in a community.

we want them to also give back. resilience is being able to overcome obstacles and to realize it it can get better. [applause] >> representing son of a saint, please welcome -- [applause] >> at its core, it is all about making the boys in our program feel like they are part of family. we want them to feel safe and cared for. it is why we open this house. 10 boys each year. 40 currently participating.

they can begin to develop the crucial skills needed to succeed in life and beyond that, college. they could create a brighter future for themselves. i'm proud to say that our oldest boy who has been with us for five years has entered xavier university. [applause] under a $20,000 scholarship this year. [applause] four others have earned scholarships to catholic high schools. our mission is simple -- we want to do our part to help these young men into leaders who will contribute to a better new contribute to a better new orleans for the future.