40 Ways in 40 Days: Remembering the Survivors of Katrina (Day 7)

Yes, I know it's already Wednesday on the east coast. Here we go.

Day 7, Way 7

This is going to be kind of a hit-and-run because I only have half an hour. It's not that I didn't put the time in; I've been poking around looking for stuff relating to Mississippi on and off all day, but most of the stuff I found wasn't that exciting. For instance, there's Camp Coast Care, another Lutheran project doing pretty much the same type of work as Christus Victor but on a larger scale. I spent some time trying to find something about how to help the Mississippi public education system--which I'm sure was an emergency situation even before the hurricane hit, this country being what it is--but I'll tell you, they don't make it easy.

Here's the Mississippi Department of Education's Katrina Recovery Information page. Most of the information on that page is only relevant to people whose children are actually in the Mississippi public school system; but there is a link to their Hurricane Help and Support Site. This links to a list of school districts that need help, complete with contact information. If you don't want to contact the disticts directly to find out how you can help, they promise you a link to the Mississippi Hurricane Katrina School Relief Fund. That link actually takes you to the main page of the Mississippi School Board Association. Scroll the hell down and you finally get a link to this much-vaunted relief fund, which opens a PDF file of the form you can print, fill out, and send in with your check. If you teach public school yourself and are interested in the Adopt-A-School program, there's a link that will hook you up with that...or rather, a PDF that includes the same list of districts and contact numbers on the MDE's Hurricane Help and Support Site. Nowhere on the MSBA page does it say anything about when this information was last updated. So I would drop an email to one of those contact numbers before you send anyone any money, just to make sure these funds are still being administered.

Inspired by one of the comments on yesterday's entry, I thought I would check out what Oprah is doing about this. Indeed, Oprah's Angel Network is on the case. At the Oprah Katrina Homes page you can sponsor an individual family by buying them a house...if you've got $50,000 you can spare. Don't have that kind of petty cash lying around the hosue? Well, you can still get on board via the Katrina Homes Registry. This is set up to make it look like a bridal registry. (For those who have never tangled with such a thing, couples who are getting married will 'register' a list of desired items with a particular retail entity and the guests can access it to find out what they want and make sure no one else has already bought it.) However, basically the "registry" concept is there to give people an idea of what their donation might go for and what kind of amount will translate into what kind of housewares; the small print informs potential donors that the little pictures "do not represent items to be purchased." Anyway, Oprah's heart is in the right place and you can't say she's not doing good in the world, but the whole site gives off that weird Cult Of Oprah vibe that just kind of gives me a bit of the heebie jeebies. I feel like I've gone undercover and am attending a secret ritual ceremony celebrated by the Initiated High Priestesses of Heterosexual Femininity.

But it's already Day 8, so I gotta stop here and just say that finally, today, I decided to go with the classics: Habitat For Humanity and the NAACP have teamed up to build new houses for people in Mississippi. You can donate or volunteer. And in case you were worried that helping build houses for people is a dorky loser activity for people of extreme lameness, Jon Bon Jovi is there to help make volunteering hip.

Jon Bon Jovi. Not only can I not believe he's still hip, I can't believe he's still in good enough shape to be building duplexes in Mississippi. But hey, if Bon Jovi can do it, then so can we.

Have a nice day,

The Plaid Adder

Day 6, Way 6: Turkey Creek Community Initiative

Keep it up, Plaid Adder! :headbang:

:)

:kick: