 Weathering the Storm—By Julia Dodge Published: June, 2007  Founder and CEO of Powerful Women International (PWI), Valeri Bocage, tells her story of losing everything in Katrina to inspire women not to worry about things, but enjoy life. Valeri Bocage was visiting a friend in Bay St. Louis, Miss. 40 minutes away from her hometown of New Orleans when the governor appeared on TV and warned sternly "This is very serious get out." "They tell us that every year!" Bocage recalls saying to herself at that time, as hurricanes are all but uncommon in the South. A day later she found herself sitting alone in her friend's house her friend having packed her bags and headed for Colorado with her fiancΘ having stayed back with the hope of reconnecting with her family. She didn't know anyone in town, and had only $30 cash. There was no way to get out, no way to get to her daughter and grandchildren in New Orleans, and now she was watching people boarding up their houses on TV, preparing for what would be one of the worst storms in recent U.S. history. She started to pray. Perhaps it was divine intervention, but her co-worker, Steve, whom she hardly knew, came and got her at 11am the day Hurricane Katrina hit. Two hours later, Bay St. Louis was nearly underwater, and Bocage was off to Florida in Steve's truck, and all her possessions at home in New Orleans were lost. This all would be a sad story, if she would just stop laughing. "I've been through much in my life, however, I always find the silver lining in the darkest clouds and worst situations," says Bocage, who cannot tell this tale with a straight face. She recalls a few weeks after the storm arriving at a friend's house in Austin, TX. Her friend had cleared out a room for her, even the closet for her things. Laughing hysterically, she reenacts hanging her only three items of clothing, which she had acquired from church donations, in the closet. "I just have this!" she exclaims. It has been almost two years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and Bocage has found herself thriving somewhere she had never thought she'd be: San Francisco. "I created the story that Katrina threw me into the Land of Oz, and I don't want to go. I landed in the right place," she says. Originally arriving in San Francisco after accepting a position with her current employer, Landmark Education, Bocage is now the CEO of Powerful Women International (PWI), a networking and empowerment organization dedicated to empowering women into achieving their goals. "I just want to see people happy. Whatever I can give, whoever I can connect them to, I'll do that," she says. And her positivism is contagious since PWI began in October 2006, there have been numerous networking breakfasts and luncheons, creating a comfortable atmosphere for women, and some men, to share their feelings. | ||
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