"What ever happened to the New Orleans thing? Makes me weary sending a scan of my artwork to never hear anything about it again."

I received this comment on my personal journal on an entry regarding new year resolutions.
I owe a huge apology and an explanation.

There have been a great many failures in my life. In love, in friendship, in education, in work, and in philanthropic outreach. I've learned from each experience what not to do and what I should've done, but certainly not to give up. Because as many failures as I've suffered, I've seen how those failures have shaped me to refine my endeavors, pluck from me those things of idleness and irresponsibility - changing me from a selfish child into a less-selfish adult. It's a constant series of battles that one may win or lose, but the winning is in continuing the fight: against self, against injustice, for all those causes.

My boys George Bernard Shaw and Lloyd Jones believed that "a life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing" and "those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try nothing and succeed."

C2A fell to pieces for a number of reasons. There was difficultly getting people to send in their release forms, we didn't have enough support financially to realistically produce the projects in the amount of time it needed to happen, and manpower was incredibly low. There were lots of people saying they wanted to help, but very few who actually did as they said. But these aren't the only faults. I was a perfectionist and a staunch believer in the whole "if you want something done correctly, do it yourself" theory and didn't fully trust the few people who *did* offer help. So I took on the project and after a few sleepless weeks, it proved to be too much for me. I tried to pass it on in its entirety to another person, but a few weeks later, it overwhelmed her as well. It took me out of the "helping" game for a while...I was discouraged and felt like I couldn't accomplish anything. But after a few month of reflecting on the problems I faced, both internal and external, I was ready to shake off the hopelessness of admitted defeat and I embarked on the journey called "The Factory." The story of a coffee shop, outreach, people saved and loved, and real true gritty life which lies in the digital pages of my journal. It's a story not yet concluded.

I didn't want to write this...to call attention to my shortcomings...to dredge up any hurt or disappointment or anger many of us have put to bed. But I'm hoping out of this comes a modicum of closure and a spark of hope.

I deeply apologize for the setback and discouragement C2A was and caused and all my part in that. I apologize frequently. But I won't apologize for continuing to strive to do good and effect change, despite being completely imperfect and I hope you won't either. Everyone who was involved in this community had passion, even if only for a time. Please don't let the "failure" of this one project leave such a bitter taste in your mouth that your ambition and willingness to make a difference dies. Do what we didn't. Change the world.

"This thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down." - Mary Pickford

COME JOIN OUR SQUAD! ALL AGES ALL SEXES! MEETING EVERY SUNDAY AT CITY PARK AND SOLOMON AT 1PM IN MIDCITY. PEACE!

At http://www.goodsearch.com , every search you make gives about a cent to an organization you can choose from among 23,000, including disaster relief.

Hello everybody. Hope you have a nice day. I'm writing to you in such a cause, that I need a bit (or may be more;)) of help. There is such a site http://www.sos-ru.com. This site has it's goal to help those people, who are in need and may be lost their last hope. The concept of it is that these people who seek for aid can make an announcement, so that people who want and can help would get in touch with them or just make a donation for their good. Our world is such an unfair thing, that it happens more often that people's cries for help remain unheard. But when the miracle happens and a little girl survives because somebody helped her, in such cases you begin to believe that the thing is worth to be. And to increase the number of miracles I want this site to become more effective. For this purpose the administration of it desided to make fully efficient english version of it. The site in his most part is to help russian people, but may be there are people in other countries who can help them. However there appeared a number of problems in decision of which I hope You can help us!!
1. Do you know any sites in english of the concept alike, or any sites which can be helpful in advertising the sites of the kind?
2. Is there any specific culture of charity in english-speaking countries?
3. If on a sudden there are people who know russian and would like to help in translation or/and proof-reading, you're very welcome!
Any information and comments are welcome!
You may also email me directly to zink.blende(@)gmail(dot)com
Thank you for you concern!

(cross-posted)

If you are interested in helping with hurricane recovery work in Louisiana, St. Bernard Parish still needs your help. We are a group of volunteers currently working at Camp Premier in St. Bernard Parish, which was one of the areas most heavily affected by the hurricane in Louisiana. We are witnessing firsthand that entire neighborhoods are still completely devastated eight months after Hurricane Katrina. In fact, the St. Bernard Parish Department of Recovery estimates that it may take up to ten years for everything to return to normal. There are hundreds of volunteers already here working to help out, but there are not nearly enough people for the amount of work that needs to be done. If you want to get involved, leave a comment and we'll let you know how you can help out!

Also, if you know of anyone or a group that might be interested in this opportunity, please send them our way! We need as much help as we can get. Also, we're going to keep a blog of what it's like to be a volunteer in St. Bernard Parish.

x-posted to user

http://www.nosm.net/index.html

"We are New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School, a new public high school which opened after Katrina. We are an open enrollment school with an emphasis on science and math instruction and high standards. We're trying to build a library that will support research and independent reading, and we are starting with almost no books. Without leaving your computer, you can donate books by going to our wish list at Amazon.com. Click on the "Wish List" tab at the top of Amazon's home page and enter "NOCSAM" in all caps in the wish list search bar. Our giant wish list can be a chore to read through so we recommend you sort it by title and view it in the compact mode. Please vote with your heart for a book you loved reading or one you think every kid should read. Amazon.com automatically ships your donation to us."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/104-4084401-4502309?%5Fencoding=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=NLM15EDQCPNY --- quick link to the wishlist.

I just got back from a 3 week Red Cross deployment to New Orleans about a week ago. Geez, it was worse than I thought, but it also taught me more about the strength of the human spirit than I could have imagined. It was the experience of a lifetime, and I'm proud to say I've played a part in rebuilding New Orleans.

Read about it here: http://marathoner452.livejournal.com/tag/red+cross+deployment.

Just wanted to share with the community.

~Bethany

So, before I launch into the big excuse/explanation/sordid story of the "what-happened" to C2A...
I need to know:

Who's still in?

Leave a comment stating your opinions of the following:

1. If C2A's LJ community came back, would you want to be an active participant?
2. Do you think we should push forward with the CD project?
3. ...what about the Art Book?
4. What are your current attitudes/opinions/feelings about the situation people are still in post-Katrina and how do you think is the best way for us to help?
5. any other suggestions?

More to come,
Nina

I wish so badly I could go down and run the Mardi Gras Marathon in a couple of weeks, but alas, even though I live at home my VISTA stipend isn't enough to cover it. And thinking about it, I probably wouldn't be nearly as attached to the hurricane relief if it weren't for VISTA in the first place, seeing as I started the day Katrina hit.

Anyway, since I can't go down there (not this time anyway, I'm still working on that), I sent them a donation. Anyone can, runner or not-net proceeds from the race go towards the relief efforts and plus you get a commemorative race shirt.

http://www.mardigrasmarathon.com/

We need to keep this community going. We need to make sure people don't forget.

~Bethany

EDIT: You need to donate at least $50 to get the shirt. Thanks hbpen.

Hello all.
I am home for the holidays!
Its been a very interesting trip.
My first time to see the Mississippi Gulf Coast/New Orleans since the storm.
(I left for Seattle in August)
I haven't really trusted outside news and was anxious to come home and find out what is really going on here.
Soo many emotions.
I'm sure I don't have to go into detail.
Here is what I am interested in though.
SHARE!

I would like to create a zine for people who were affected by the storm. I'm tired of hearing people outside of the south ASSUME they know what its like in the south etc. So, I wanted to ask people for their:
opinions/stories/poetry/photos/artwork etc.
sO
If yur interested in sharing let me know! If yur not familiar with what a zine is...well its basically a magazine, but its DIY (do it yurself) style. No advertisments just me cutting and pasting and distributing out to the public! This is a chance for our voices to truly be heard!
Thanks in advance!

Everybody,

Thank you so much for sticking around with us! I know it's been a long time (far too long) between updates. Everybody's wondering about the status of the CD and the art book projects, and the truth of the matter is that I know just as much about it as you do. I'm the mod on the other side of the country (and I may not even be that anymore if I piss enough people off with this) and all the mods who DO know what's going on seem to be MIA. I can't get answers or updates from anybody, and I can't seem to get any of them to post an update to the community. The last I heard (on Nov 19) was that they were hoping for a Thanksgiving release for the CD, but obviously that didn't happen.

Now I'm getting a little (or maybe a LOT) antsy about this myself, because many Americans have notably short attention spans, and our market is getting smaller every day. I'm afraid that if we don't get these projects out quickly that nobody will buy them. I begged and pestered friends and family to go to considerable trouble to submit to these projects (and I know that you guys did, too), and they deserve for me to be able to tell them what's going on. And I would love to be able to tell you guys what you could do to help speed these projects along faster -- there's no point in just asking you to send more submissions if nothing is going to be done with them.

So here's what I ask: Everyone PLEASE take a moment to email nikomouse@gmail.com and ask what's going on and how you can help. I'm hoping a fresh shower of emails might convince them to answer, and maybe even rekindle some of that amazing enthusiasm they had when they started these incredible projects in the first place! It's much too much for one person to try to do this alone, and I know that there are lots of willing helpers to be found here if the mods would just tell us what needs to be done.

So please send an email, and hopefully we'll get these projects back on full steam again!

Thank you,
jimbodean

so, hello!

i am just curious about the cd project... did that totally fall through or what? i haven't heard anything about it, and thanksgiving has come and gone. this ALMOST seems like a scam, if you ask me. although, i have no idea what anyone would do with a crappy song of mine. so, it's a bad scam. which i'm sure it's not. but, really, someone please tell me what's going on with anything related to C2A!

Just trying to really get the word out, especially on boards where there may be a lot of posts in a given day:

I'd like to invite everyone once again to please stop by the community I am trying to fuel: "Dear NoLa..." Everyone who is or who has ever been in love with New Orleans, this is a call to all of us to write her love letters in this time of need. We hope that these love letters will be read by anyone who could possibly suggest "not rebuilding". We hope to try to make our government, our fellow citizens, and the rest of the global community understand what this city is to us.

http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=dearnola&mode=full

If this community gets enough posts, I hope to direct media attention to it. But we need to act fast if this idea will work. The gears are turning on a decision concerning the levee system, and hurricane season 2006 gets closer every minute.

Thank you all so much, who have left your letters so far! Please spread the word. And good luck to you all. -Ari

I would like to invite you all to visit the new community I am attempting to start.

This community was designed as an open invitation to everyone who is or who has ever been in love with New Orleans to write her letters in this time of need. We hope that these love letters will be read by anyone who could possibly suggest "not rebuilding". We hope to try to make our government, our fellow citizens, and the rest of the global community understand what this city is to us.

If you feel motivated to do so, please help me spread the word about this idea. I feel that if we can compile our stories, we may be able to help people understand that New Orleans is a living, breathing place, with a heart, soul, and mind. Please stop in and write NoLa a letter. Best wishes to everyone.

http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=dearnola&mode=full

 

www.acorn.org , click on the link that says "click here to participate in the rebuilding webcast."

RIGHT NOW

The front page of The Literacy Site now reads: "Help replace books lost to Katrina; your click is doubled."

Hi everyone,
Through Craigslist I found out about an organization called "Help The Survivors" that's organizing the donation of goods and I'm currently working with them on getting my stuff sent to them. I'm not sure of their website but if you'd liek to help them, their contact email is createmorelove@yahoo.com
Since I only live a vlock from my local post office they're going to send me boxes to hold there with labels so I can just fill them up and send them.
This is the craigslist posting I responded to:
http://neworleans.craigslist.org/vol/104780447.html
Before I send them out I'll send pictures of what I have donated. :-)
Do something everyone!

Hey C2A...
A real update will follow in a few days.

I wanted to write a few things about New Orleans, but what do I even say here? It was heartbreaking and while the others were in the front seat discussing facts of the storm, I did my best to sob quietly so as not to look like the freak who couldn't handle it.

We took a trip down to the bayou city to bring the 90 boxes of clothing that C2A Montgomery collected during the drive. We took them to a big warehouse that would eventually sort and distribute everything to the people who needed it, as they needed it in the waves to come throughout the future of rebuilding. But afterwards, we went over to the heart of the city and drove through.

There were people huddled around a dumpster fire trying to stay warm.
There were no lights on.
The shopping centers were like shells of buildings.
There were many helicopters above.
You could see the water line on the sides of all the buildings.
There were axe holes in the rooftops where people had to break in to rescue.
On the shingles, there was spraypaint to show the house had been checked along with the date and the number of bodies found.
It was a ghost town.
I kept thinking about how this was once someone's HOME, someone's thriving community...and wondering what it must feel like to know you can't come back.

There were cars lodged in mud and entire parking lots of cars at dealerships, never driven off the lot, caked with mud and debris. They still had the specs taped to the windows and probably only had 8 miles on the odometer.
I just kept thinking of all the people who were prevented from getting out of town due to lack of transportation...and here sat about 70 brand new vehicles, totaled by flood while countless drowned.
And for what? Greed? Good business? Common sense?

It was sickening. And what's even more sickening is the fact that this kind of thing happened every single day on our planet...but we only give a dam* when it happens on American soil.

Do Something,
Nina

Katrina Evacuees in NYC Area

Hello.
First of all, I want to thank all of you for sticking with us in this. Let me say that the projects I am in are certainly more involved than I expected, and I am sure the others are the same way. There are five points from our department:

1. The absolute last day we can receive CD contracts is Halloween. After that, we go into production for a Thanksgiving release.
2. We are still taking submissions for the art book, this project will go into full swing after Thanksgiving.
3. The Post Secret postcard campaign is very sad: Only 4 postcards have come in as of yet.
4. Some of us will be going to New Orleans this weekend. If you are on the coast between Destin, FL an New Orleans, LA, or if you are in Mobile or Montgomery, AL, or can be there by Friday, you are invited to join us. Email or comment for details BY FRIDAY.
5. We need more help for positions devoted to representing C2A. Nina will post later regarding specifics.

Thanks, again, for all you do.
Mod. Aaron