Trial date set for [alleged] dog shooters

Arraignment of Minton and Englande was Tuesday in St. Bernard Parish.

Trial will be May 8, 9 or 10.

Full story on this page.

Special thank you to Pasado's Safe Haven animal rescue org for traveling all the way from Washington state to help and show support in this very important matter.

For those of you who didn't see my previous post on the topic, you can write a note to the judge here.

For y'all who have companion animals, or understand the love people feel for their pets, why not help Pasado by buying a T-shirt? I like "Not Without My Pets" :-).

Afghans for Afghans

I was at Michelle Malkin's site reading this post...

and followed the link to Crochet Guild of America's charity page...

and thence to Afghans for Afghans:

afghans for Afghans is a humanitarian and educational people-to-people project that sends hand-knit and crocheted blankets and sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks to the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.

This grassroots effort is inspired by Red Cross volunteers who made afghans, socks, slippers, and other items for soldiers and refugees during World Wars I and II and other times of crisis and need.

Knit one, purl two for a great cause.

New disaster program sign-up begins

Read all about it here. Aid is available for producers who suffered losses due to the 2005 hurricanes.

Apply at local FSA offices or USDA Service Centers.

Fact sheets are online at www.fsa.usda.gov under "disaster assistance programs."

Returning the favor

I love people-helping-people stories. Don't you?



Here's an inspiring one - assistance from Bogalusa to Decatur, Illinois:

Called "the forgotten city" during recovery from Hurricane Katrina, Bogalusa, La., may now become known as the community that never forgets.



Nearly a dozen of its citizens are in Macon County cleaning up debris from the great ice storm of 2006 this week because Illinois Southern Baptists are the ones who came to them last year when disaster relief teams seemed to be going everywhere else.

Follow the link to read the whole thing.

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Tell your local school board about this one.

Good post at Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools:

At DonorsChoose you can be a philanthropist for ten bucks (or more). Go to the site and choose from among thousands of projects submitted by public school teachers -- everything from books needed to technology to class trips. Once the project's been funded, DonorsChoose buys the materials for the teachers, and you get a package of letters and photographs from the students. Link

Seems like a way to replace the schools' supplies and equipment that the insurance didn't...o0o..

If you've never been to Cool Tools, check it out - especially with the gift season fast approaching. The Tools part of the site title is a bit misleading; items include books, websites and computer programs, not merely pliers and such.

Mr. Kelly's site doesn't take the place of the "biggies" like Epinions or Consumer Search, but it's great fun to browse.

Give a pint. Save a life.

Les Dickens needs our help:

Donors can give blood Saturday in Bush to help a veteran firefighter who is suffering from a rare blood disease.

The blood drive to help Les Dickens, assistant chief of the Bush Volunteer Fire Department, will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Bush Fire Station No. 3, 80581 Louisiana 21, about two miles south of House of Seafood.

Dickens, president of the volunteer fire board, is suffering from thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and a blood plasma exchange is the only treatment. The treatment is about 90 percent effective.

Fire Chief Randy Kimble said blood types A and B are acceptable for the combination AB plasma exchange.

Dickens has been a member of the Fire Department for more than 20 years.

"He has given himself freely to this community over the years and now he needs our help," Kimble said.

Those unable to get to the blood drive can donate blood in Dickens' name at the Hammond Blood Center. [from the Times picayune]

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura at Netdoctor UK
Blood donation guidelines - Red Cross

Nice. And not nice.

Fourteen Bogalusa students are spending the week in Jackman, Maine:

"The people are very nice," said Tre Johnson, a Bogalusa eighth-grader. "They don't catch attitudes. They are very friendly people."

The ambitious weeklong stay was arranged through the help of Rural School and Community Trust affiliates in the Northeast and Southeast, and through various fundraisers in Jackman.

Sadly, later on in the article is this [emphasis added]:

Daisy Slan, southeast representative for the Rural School and Community Trust, emphasized that white people probably would not be hosting blacks in Louisiana.

"The only way that you get into a white home in Bogalusa is if you're cleaning their homes, taking care of their babies or cooking their meals," said Slan, who is black.

Bogalusa's bad reputation still goin' strong [sigh].

Previous:
Jackman to Bogalusa
Just go home?
Dishonest or dumb?

Thank you, San Diego!

The Lumberjacks travel to the Left Coast:

Louisiana football team gets a hand

By Nicole Vargas
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
September 7, 2006

LAURA EMBRY / Union-Tribune

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, players on the Bogalusa High football squad were grateful for the team's trip to California this summer.
CHULA VISTA – When Antoine Temple emerged from his family's Bogalusa, La., home that August morning, he couldn't believe what he saw.

“I had trees everywhere,” Temple recalled after Hurricane Katrina passed directly through his hometown last summer. “Power lines were down. We couldn't even get out of our driveway.”

Surrounded by a lush pine forest, Bogalusa (population 13,365) is a lumber town about an hour's drive north of New Orleans. After what some accounts said were as many as 16 straight hours of devastating winds as high as 180 mph, not a single home in Bogalusa escaped damage as trees snapped, assaulting the dwellings like missiles.

Do read the whole thing.

More:
Bonita Vista vs. Bogalusa
Daily News article

From Bogalusa to Roanoke

Joe was living in Bogalusa, Louisiana where Katrina caused tornadoes.

Read the whole thing.

"Jackman to Bogalusa"

Jackman, Maine sent lumber to Bogalusa City Schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Daily News article here.

Some students at Forrest Hills High School made a film about it for their local student film festival. Kennebec Journal Online article.

Watch "Jackman to Bogalusa".

One list of Maine contributors to Katrina relief. Thank you!

Jackman, Maine Chamber of Commerce.

More kindness of strangers

In Boxford, Massachusetts, Walk-a-Palooza for Bogalusa:

Sixth-graders at Boxford’s Spofford Pond Elementary were likely rubbing their feet Friday night after spending part of the afternoon walking around Chadwick Field to raise money for charity. The students were taking part in the "Walk-a-Palooza for Bogalusa," a fund-raising event to help a Louisiana elementary school damaged by Hurricane Katrina last summer.

For each lap completed the students earned various amounts of money from the sponsors who signed up beforehand to support them. After each lap, a volunteer punched a hole in a card the students wore around their necks. After every fifth lap, the students received a Mardi Gras necklace. One of the hardest tasks for the walk-a-thon volunteers was keeping the students from running.

While there were volunteers with hole-punching devices and beads, there was also a handful of volunteers with spray bottles. Since spring finally decided to show up for real last weekend, the volunteers were there to make sure the walkers kept cool. Some of the students seemed to genuinely enjoy getting spritzed while others sped past the sprayers so they wouldn’t get wet. Most of the sprayers stayed off the course, but one of them, 5-year-old Wes D’Alelio, stationed himself in the middle.

"I think he’s having more fun than they are," said Kimberly D’Alelio, Wes’ mother. "He’s taking his job seriously."

Wes’ brother, Drew, was one of the walkers.

Boxford Parent-Teacher Organization Co-President Lisa Teichner said Tuesday the total raised by the students had yet to be determined as they were still collecting pledges.

Big hugs to Lisa Teichner, Boxford PTO, and Spofford Pond School.

The kindness of strangers

The Gulf Coast Marching Sharks of Naples, Florida are donating their band uniforms to Bogalusa High School, to replace those destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Dillard's donated the shipping boxes, and Champion Cleaners of Naples donated the cleaning. The band kids spent hours of their own time boxing them up for shipment.

Many thanks to all of you! Link

Benefit for Leo Young

I saw a sign for this at a Bogalusa business. I don't even own a horse, and I've heard of the man.

Saturday June 3, 2006 - Southern Farrier's Association Shoe-In for Leo's Parkinson surgery.

Page with all the details here. If you can't attend, give.

Wow, Baptists.

I daresay anyone who lives in and around Bogalusa remembers the Baptist Emergency Kitchen set up on Avenue F following Hurricane Katrina.

I didn't know they were doing all this:

Area residents gathered at Larkin Avenue Baptist Church on Friday and Saturday to receive disaster-relief training from Southern Baptist Convention and Illinois Baptist State Association representatives.

The groups provide food, child care and cleanup and recovery services in the wake of catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina and the pair of tornadoes that struck Springfield in March.[...]
Thurman Stewart, an association coordinator from downstate Woodson, near Jacksonville, was among the relief veterans who had made the trip to Elgin for what he said was the first such training event held in the city. He and other volunteers spent weeks assisting with recovery efforts in Bogalusa, La., a town of roughly 13,000 north of New Orleans.

"Huge trees were everywhere," Stewart recalled. "We cleared over 1,200 yards."

I recommend reading the whole thing.

And thanks again, Illinois Baptist volunteers.

Local humane society to receive aid

The Washington Parish Humane Society, a private charity, was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Falling trees smashed most of the cat facility. They were sheltered at the home of the org's president, Jan Applewhite.

The Greg Biffle Foundation is helping:

Aid for Animals: NASCAR Nextel Cup star Greg Biffle just picked up a new fan. I'm very partial to animals in general and dogs in particular and Biffle, through his Greg Biffle Foundation, has ponied up $50,000 this past week for aid to animal shelters in the New Orleans area that have been overwhelmed as a result of the damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Biffle and Nicole Lunders, of The Foundation, toured the New Orleans facilities and with the help of the Humane Society of the United States, identified the shelters that need immediate assistance. St. Tammany Humane Society, Ascension Animal Advocates, Washington Parish Humane Society and Hancock County Humane Society will receive $10,000 each for supplies and repairs. [emphasis mine.]

The Humane Society of the United States also gave a grant to the Humane Society.

CORRECTION: It's the Washington Humane Society, not the Washington Parish Humane Society. I oughtta know that. Duh.

ADDENDUM: Pictures of the facility and damage at their website. Caution - loud Cajun music.

"Music Brings Hope"

The Bogalusa High School choir was gifted with a trip to Arizona, thanks to the generosity of high schools in Arizona:

With the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina, a high school choir from Bogalusa, La., had no hope of making a spring music trip.

So the choirs from three southeast Valley high schools gave them one.

The visitors will sing tonight in Mesa at their own benefit concert, the culmination of a project conceived months ago by Cristine Evans, choir director at Hamilton High in Chandler.[...]"You are our heroes," Milton Gholar, Bogalusa High's music director, told Evans and her choir. "You have done something for me and my students that we will remember for the rest of our lives."

Bogalusa is a town of about 14,000 roughly 60 miles northeast of New Orleans. The high school's gym was destroyed by the storm. About 70 members of a senior class of 190 have not returned; some are finishing school in Texas.

Also reported in The Daily News.
Photo from the online Daily News by Danny Hanemann. Not yet archived and linkable.