Today Show Makes Surprise Visit to The Salvation Army Freedom Center
Hoda Kotb, co-host of the fourth hour of NBC’s Today Show, made a surprise visit to The Salvation Army Freedom Center in Chicago to fill a “bucket list dream” for Major Merrill Powers, Executive Director of the Harbor Light Center.
Nominated by his wife, Major Nancy Powers, Merrill had no idea he had been chosen as the winner of the Today Show’s Bucket List Dream contest. That is, until Hoda and Bobby Flay made a surprise appearance at The Salvation Army Freedom Center’s Open House on the afternoon of July 20. Bobby Flay whipped up an incredible potato salad with Merrill and they even announced a generous donation, courtesy of Butterball, of 150 turkeys every year for 10 years for the Thanksgiving meal that Majors Powers serves to people in need from the Chicagoland area.
Afterward, Major Powers was honored for his legacy of serving others in God’s name through the substance abuse treatment services provided at The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center. Tears of joy and thanks to God were shed by many in the audience as, one-by-one, former clients of the Harbor Light Center treatment programs came forward to share the many ways in which Major Powers and the program had transformed their lives.