henry l. coaxum jr. - building a sense of hope
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photo by steed media service
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McDonald’s Owner/Operator, Coaxum Enterprises Inc.
During the week of April 21, Henry L. Coaxum Jr. will receive a 2008 Phoenix Award for Small Business Disaster Recovery, but the glow of the shiny hardware will be the last thing on his mind.
As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans in 2005, Coaxum, a McDonald’s franchise owner and operator and president of Coaxum Enterprises, decided to stay put.
Holed up in a Ramada Inn with his wife Karen Nabonne, Coaxum used what resources he could to provide for his employees who were displaced throughout Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and Jackson, Miss.
Coaxum sent mass text messages to his employees, and established a new line of credit for the sole purpose of sending out checks for $300-$400 to workers. On top of that, he even built houses so his workers would have new homes and be able to rebuild their credit and their lives.
“It’s a result of the fact that I grew up poor in Miami, that I had a neighborhood and community that took care of me,” he says of the basis for his philanthropy. “There was always someone mentoring me, telling me that I could make a difference.”
Today, hundreds of people have Coaxum to thank for saving their lives, but he’ll tell you his work is far from complete. “There is so much yet to be done that we just want to be a part of rebuilding our community because this is the community that I love, this is the community that I’m going to retire in and that [I] will forever be a part of,” he says. “There’s no place like New Orleans.”
-gavin philip godfrey
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