President mentions Red River boy in State of the Union address Play Video

Posted: Jan 28, 2010 10:22 AM
Updated: Jan 28, 2010 8:46 PM

As President Obama gave his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, he spoke of the decency of the American people and mentioned a little boy in Red River Parish who sent money to the president and asked him to give it to the people of earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

"It lives on in the 8-year-old boy in Louisiana, who just sent me his allowance and asked if I would give it to the people of Haiti," the president said as he talked of the "that fundamental decency that has always been at the core of the American people."

That little boy is Amirikis Louis Smith, a third-grader at Red River Elementary School in Coushatta. He is donating $50 from his savings.

Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover said Amirikis, whose grandfather is a minister in Shreveport, gave him the letter to give to the president. Glover said he handed it to the president last week at a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting at the White House.

 Glover said the donation will go to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, which is headed by former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and is raising money for Haitian relief.

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