UPDATE: Click here to see some additions to this event. I hope you’ll be able to come out for it.
Next Tuesday will be one year since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, causing a path of destruction that will take years to recover from. It will also be my 31st birthday. I’ve posted several times this summer about the effects of Katrina being felt a year later, including this one.
I figured that doing something on my birthday would be a great reason opportunity to raise the awareness of the situation down in the Gulf Coast region again, including the devastation in and around New Orleans. Click here to view pictures taken in June of the damage suffered that remains quite visible throughout the region. Last night after talking with the owner of Confederate Motorcycles, who incidentally will be having a website relaunch party that evening as well, I finally decided what I wanted to do.
There are already activities planned for the anniversary, from radio specials in New Orleans to an event coordinated by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute reflecting on the last year entitled “Katrina, One Year Later….A Town Hall Meeting”. That event incidentally will be held at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
What I’m asking people to do is to come out to WorkPlay on Tuesday, August 29 beginning at 5 p.m., not necessarily to celebrate my birthday, but to help out fellow citizens. Instead of gifts and cake, I’d like to ask people to come out and bring donations for the continuing local effort to assist those families affected by last summer’s hurricanes. The donations will then be delivered to those in need by City Action Partnership (CAP). Click here to see a general list of what items are needed, a detailed list of items currently needed is here! There are also links to pages that say what has already been accomplished from the organization’s main hurricane relief page. You may also bring out monetary contributions to the effort. Tax deductible donations can be made out to Operation New Birmingham with “Katrina Relief” in the memo line. If you cannot attend and still wish to make a donation, please send it to:
ONB/Katrina
c/o City Action Partnership
1801Third Ave. N.
Birmingham, AL 35203
Please spread this around to anyone that you think may be interested in helping out in this fashion by attending, I look forward to seeing some of you there on Tuesday! Enjoy the day!
Cheers.
[…] Andre Natta is organizing a Happy Hour in the midst of several events that day. Once you read his post about the event, you might jump to the conclusion that he just wants to have a bunch of you over to celebrate his birthday. However, I know him better than that. He is PASSIONATE about what he does and *this* effort is focused on remind us ALL about the plight of what’s going on down in New Orleans 360+ days later. […]