We made it! Rebecca and myself are extremely encouraged by the tremendous amount of support we have received throughout the course of our cycling journey through the Gulf Coast.

For BikeKatrina 2008 - the aim was to honor the victims of the storm during the 3rd anniversary of Katrina and empower our neighbors in the region to do their part in protecting the wetlands. I think that we tried to carry out our goal with passion, dedication and humility. Hopefully, some of our photos illustrate our rigorous effort. Click Here To View Photos From BK2008.

[Becky greeted by well wishers on the Ocean Spring Bridge to Biloxi]

This trip would not have been possible without the sacrifices made by Rebecca Reindel - who resumes her public health graduate studies at George Washington University on Monday. She gave up a lot to join our efforts one week before her classes start. A special thank you to the 7 nuns at the Monastery of the Visitation in Mobile, Alabama for their amazing hospitality, the Holiday Inn and the congregation of Saint Mary Margaret in Slidell for housing us.

Much appreciation to Whitney Fauntleroy, a graduate student at The Princeton Theological Seminary and her church Davie St. Presbyterian in Raleigh, North Carolina for all of their generous support. Much love to Nancy Nordtvedt & the Holy Family Church’s social justice committee in Chicago, looking forward to hosting their youth group next year. And lastly - our BikeKatrina Coordinator, Jamison Brewer a 2nd year at University of Michigan Law School. He was responsible for putting the pieces of our trip together and did a great job!

RESSURECTING PASCAGOULA MISSISSIPPI

Thanks to Mrs. Darnell Cuevas, Principal of Resurrection High School, for allowing us to engage her students on Wednesday morning about civic engagement and service-learning. I told the students that they could tell their parents to purchase compact florescent light bulbs as a tangible action that individuals can take to protect the wetlands. The less fossil fuels we burn, the less melting that takes place in the poles - the less our sea level rises. BNO friend Katie Del Guercio did the research for our coastal restoration awareness campaign!

It was great to meet with Ward 4 Councilman Frank Corder in City Hall Tuesday afternoon. We had an informative discussion about the status of recovery in Mississippi’s “Flagship City.”

NEW ORLEANS KATRINA COMMEMORATION

Yesterday, I spoke to grade school students, neighbors, and community organizers who gathered for the 3rd anniversary of the storm. As a member of the ARC’s Hurricane Gustav Evacuation Support Team I talked with them about emergency preparedness.

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BNO supporters attended several excellent workshops at the 50th Annual National Convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference [SCLC], which took place in New Orleans during the first week of August.

The premiere civil rights organization was founded here 51 years ago in a small Mid-City church. It was an honor to speak at the SCLC Neighborhood Event, held at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School; the first public school to reopen in the Lower 9th Ward after Katrina. The school is also the namesake of the SCLC’s founding president.

With a keen interest in history, I wanted to create imagery and take the audience back to the First Battle of New Orleans in 1815. The following 3 paragraphs represent a summation of what I talked about, you can also watch an ad libbed version of my speech by clicking on the preceding link:

“General Andrew Jackson led a brigade of American forces along the Mississippi River to defeat adversaries seeking to seize and conquer the Crescent City. American forces were successful in defending New Orleans then and we will be successful in defending New Orleans today. But we cannot do it by ourselves - the entire country must join together in the theater of our recovery campaign to win the 2nd Battle of New Orleans.

The storm almost knocked us out. Our infrastructure and capabilities have been weakened - compound that with governmental inefficiency and a lack of federal leadership. We are crippled by the mandate of an antiquated Stafford Act and without a comprehensive Category 5 levee system. And so we have a sea of problems, an ocean worth of challenges. The path to victory no longer seems navigational. Our ship anchored in our faith in progress seems to be drowning. But despite the bleak forecast, that grainy picture - we know from our history, our shared American experiences that “a rising tide can lift all ships.”

In order to win this 2nd Battle of New Orleans, we must redeploy, re-energize and re-mobilize the American forces. Or as I like to think of them as, the non-violent forces of good. Those tangible things, those values of determination, service, sacrifice, selflessness and a commitment to community. These are the forces of good that make us who we are as a people. Join the movement and get involved.”

The 2nd Battle of New Orleans from BlanketNewOrleans.Org on Vimeo.

Martin Luther King III is the gracious recipient of our inaugural Golden Blanket Award. It was a great pleasure to speak with him about the project we are working on. We created the award as a way to recognize a national figure for their continued commitment to the recovery of New Orleans, those displaced by Katrina throughout the Gulf South, and the advancement of civic engagement. Mr. King III is the CEO of Realizing The Dream, which implements “bold initiatives to empower people to take charge of their lives and the life of their communities.”

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