went to his home, knocked on the door and introduced himself to the future president. Bush and Coverdell became close friends and over the next fourteen years Bush and Coverdell would help each other on a number of occasions. In 1980, Coverdell was finance chairman in Georgia when Bush first ran for the Republican nomination for president. In 1988, Coverdell was the Southern steering committee chairman for the Bush campaign. Coverdell's efforts paid off in 1988 when Bush carried Georgia's twelve electoral votes. When Bush was elected president, Coverdell sent a letter. "If I can help, I'd like to help," Coverdell wrote. Bush appointed Coverdell to head the Peace Corps. Peace Corps Director (1989–1991) Coverdell was sworn in as Director of the Peace Corps on May 2, 1989, in a ceremony in the Oval Office. At the same time Coverdell stepped down from the Georgia State Senate, a post he had held for 15 years and resigned as president of Coverdell and Co. Inc to devote his time to the Peace Corps. Coverdell's primary initiative as Peace Corps Director was the creation of the "World Wise Schools" program. The program linked students in the United States with Peace Corps volunteers serving around the world. During the time Coverdell was in office, the World Wise Schools program connected volunteers with 5,000 classrooms in the United States. Coverdell was well regarded among the Peace Corps community. In the fall of 2000, after his death, a tribute was held in his honor at the Peace Corps Headquarters to honor his life and legacy. Peace Corps enters Eastern Europe Coverdell sent the first Peace Corps volunteers to Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. On June 15, 1990, President George H. W. Bush hosted a send off for volunteers headed for Poland and Hungary. "The key you carry with you will be the English language—what Paul calls the language of commerce and understanding. And just as national literacy has long been the key to power, so today English literacy has become the key to progress. Like your liberty, your language came to you as a birthright and a credit to the dreams and sacrifices of those who came before. And today you're investing that birthright in the ancient dreams and the new ideas of faraway peoples and their own nations reborn. Your investment is America's investment in the consolidation of democracy and