We can share quite a few materials when the literacy council rebuilds begin. just let us know. we have been there -- not to this extent of course, but we lost it ALL in that fire in '98. we know what it is to start a program again, just not how to rebuild your entire lives, families and communities as well. you take good care. thanks for all prolit can do to help in this horrible time of human need. be blessed!

Literacy Council of Hot Spring County, Inc.

Dear Peter,

In response to the email we received as to what ProLiteracy could do about the people affected by Hurricane Katrina:
I think ProLiteracy should organize a nationwide book collection of new books for children, and they could be "comfort books" from our childhoods: fairy tales, "Pat the Bunny", "Goodnight Moon", etc.

The affiliates could collect them and I realize that ProLiteracy would have a huge job to ship them to the shelters where people are staying, but perhaps ProLiteracy could partner with UPS or another carrier...

I think it would be a wonderful way to help the children and promote literacy and the fact that books can be a real comfort to people.

Just a thought....

Literacy Connections (Dutchess County)

Dear Mr. Waite:
Prior to opening your email, I was thinking of how the Rotary Clubs in various regions can help. I know that they organized "shoe boxes" of supplies for children filled with school supplies, socks, t-shirts, writing paper, etc and send them to Bosnia. Maybe we can do the same. I will be meeting with our local club today and will approach the subject of having practical supplies sent. 2500 families are being sent to MA and will need to be prepared for the Northeast winter so maybe there would be a need for outer wear as well as inner wear. Food, water and shelter is being prepared for distribution but once these families are settled, they will need some other essentials.

What are your thoughts? (when you have a moment).

Literacy Volunteers of the Montachusett Area

Good Morning...has a location been established for sending quality paperbacks, hardcover fiction/non-fiction, encyclopedias, etc. to the stricken area? I would be interested in knowing as we have a considerable collection of quality materials thaqt we would be willing to send. Thank you.
Carol H. Kern
Literacy coordinator/Monroe County Literacy Council/email address: wpcl@ptd.net

I would suggest also school supplies. Not every agency would have that, but some might and we receive a lot that we can't even use in a timely fashion, so I would be happy to contribute, notebooks, pencils, loose-leaf paper.
Debbie Running
Literacy Council of Greater Waukesha
drunning@waukeshaliteracy.org

Many evacuees are concerned about their quality of life when returning to their homes (if they can). Our affiliates might want to think about purchasing good books to replace those lost in the libraries in all 3 states. Sending books to the Astrodome or other places when they are being housed is not a good idea at this time. There are no places to set them up in these temporary quarters. They will need our help more later so let's not forget them in a month or two or ten. They will still need everyone's help including ours. We have more than 200 in our small community being housed in a hotel at a very special rate but fed and cared for by local churches and service organizations. I talked with some of them today and they appreciate all that is being done for them now, but know they will still need supports for quite a while.
Linda Ricketts, CEO
LVA-Montgomery County, Texas
lricketts@cebridge.net

We are looking into taking donations for materials for literacy councils that lost everything. Could you help us with this?
Bobbie Robertson
SCLC
sclc@carolina.net

I'm a literacy volunteer tutor and tutor trainer in Kingston, New York. I'm sure that Louisiana and Mississippi will need help rebuilding the literacy offices damaged or wiped out by Katrina. Is there any way that an individual or the organization can help?
Joyce Nicol
rjnicol@usadatanet.net

Dear Friends at ProLiteracy:
Thank you for the care and concern for our Learning Center. I am the director of the Jackson County Literacy Council, Inc. in Pascagoula, Mississippi. This is the first time I have had access to Internet service since Katrina. I have been staying with relatives 180 miles inland which suffered severe wind damage of Katrina that left us without electric and telephone service.
I returned to the Mississippi Coast today (9/10/05) and received information that our Learning Center will be closed until mid-October, it was flooded with three feet of water and windows broken in the office. I do not know how extensive the damage is to our property. We will not be allowed in the building until it has been professionally cleaned and approved for use by the Pascagoula School System.
Preparing for the hurricane we secured the Learning Center on August 26th, wrapping plastic on computers and book shelves. Hopefully it protected some from damage. I regret that I did not have Internet or postal mail service to file my Annual Report before the dead line. However, I will be sending it to you, I want you to see the results of our past year.
My heart and prayers go out to the literacy programs in Louisiana.
Claire Albright
Director
Jackson County Literacy Council, Inc.

New Orleans is like someone in a coma: Pale, unresponsive, tied up to emergency sources of support. Five weeks after the flood, green grass sprouts everywhere, but it feels more like the abnormally rosy cheeks of a person with tuberculosis than signs of real health. Most of the city's beloved oak trees survived, though many look like scarecrows, their trunks and major limbs stripped of smaller branches and leaves. All other plants are the color of the toxic mud that killed them.

At first glance, many of the houses look normal - until you peer in the windows or open the doors. Then you realize that the only living things that have thrived in these weeks without people are mold, fruit flies, houseflies and mosquitoes. The new sidewalk decor is thousands upon thousands of taped-up refrigerators, rolls of carpet, drenched mattresses, sofas, broken chairs and tables. No culture or commerce anywhere.

In New Orleans East, the flood waters had settled at 5-6 feet after sweeping ceiling-high through the neighborhoods, destroying virtually every business and home in the area. Cars, cars! Everywhere cars were left standing as folks had rushed to safety. Plus acres of cars in new- and used-car lots. The People's Institute ground-floor office was encrusted with mud. Peeking in the front door, all I could see was a shambles of overturned chairs, tables, files.

It took us nearly 4 hours to cross Lake Pontchartrain since all traffic is rerouted off Interstate 10 on to the one-lane U.S. Highway 11 into Slidell. We passed through mountains of debris piled along Slidell's coastline, heading up to Poplarville, MS, 80 miles inland from the Gulf Coast. As we drove back to McComb from Poplarville, we passed miles and miles of roofs covered in bright blue plastic. It looked as though Macy's had had a gargantuan sale on blue plastic tarps! Damage was primarily hurricane wind, though every so often we'd see an area blasted by a tornado's corkscrew winds, where hugh trees were twisted and snapped like toothpicks. As we drove along, we listened to New Orleans' Mayor Nagin painting a ten-year vision of what is possible for the region.