Congratulations Liz!

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Huntington exec has a hand in aiding Katrina 'hero'

by Carrie Mason-Draffen
December 15, 2008

A Huntington Internet marketing executive beamed as he watched the broadcast of Liz McCartney collecting her $100,000 CNN Hero of the Year award on Thanksgiving Day in Hollywood.

The program, hosted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, featured singers Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys and John Legend. The executive, Ronen Yaari, founder and chief executive of OpenMoves Inc., had donated the services of his company to build a Web site for the St. Bernard Project, which McCartney cofounded. The site allowed the Louisiana group to communicate with its legions of volunteers, who have helped to rebuild more than 150 homes in St. Bernard Parish that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Those efforts helped McCartney win the award. McCartney and her boyfriend, Zack Rosenburg, moved from Washington D.C., to Louisiana to start the project.

"It was really inspiring to see that a single individual could make such a tremendous difference," Yaari said. "And it also empowers us to make us think that we could make a difference for those individuals."

Randi Cooper, the project's communications coordinator, said, "The site has helped us communicate with our volunteer base, which definitely helped gain momentum for Liz winning."

OpenMoves account manager Joi Brooks built the site practically pro bono, Yaari said. The cost was about $12,000, but OpenMoves charged the group just $1,000, he said.

"If we had to pay market value for it, we would not have been able to do it," Cooper said.

The site features the stories of project beneficiaries, "which is incredibly helpful with volunteer retention," Cooper said.

The Web site also features the group's many volunteers, who total 9,000 worldwide, Cooper said. The project maintains the site but still gets a technical assist from Brooks on occasion.

Yaari said he contacted McCartney about a year ago after seeing her featured as a contender for the CNN award.

"She so captivated me," he said.

The initial field of competitors numbered nearly 4,000. That was whittled down to 10 and then to the winner, McCartney.

"It's a great story of somebody on the ground making a difference," Yaari said. "And we are trying to enable her."

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