Gulf AId and Crawfish

Well, yesterday John and I had planned to volunteer at Gulf Aid, a benefit concert for the oil disaster. A friend of Rene's invited us to help spread the word about the Bucket Brigade, which seems to be one of the most active grassroots organizations.

The Bucket Brigade asks locals to map any news of the oil they observe -- odors, dead marine life, etc. The resulting map of the disaster's effects has been used by Google and others. A great

organization, a great cause -- we were stoked to help spread the word.

At the last minute, though, we heard that the friend would not be attending said concert and there wasn't much need for us after all. This seems to be the nature of volunteering with the oil disaster. Tons of people want to help out, and tons of organizations want that help -- but aren't quite organized yet, or don't know how to put untrained volunteers to work.

We were disappointed, but the day was not a total bust. A Bucket Brigade leader told us there'd be plenty to do in the coming week and invited us to stop by today (Monday). I spent yesterday afternoon creating this blog, accompanied by the funky music of the benefit concert beating across the airwaves on the local radio station.

"If we don't help ourselves, who will help us?" said local musician Allen Toussaint, echoing the spirit of the last-minute fund raiser and much of the volunteer efforts.

Then, we attended a giant crawfish boil to celebrate one of Renee's friend's graduation from law school. As good music continued to pour into the streets and crawfish got shucked like they were peanuts, conversation turned to the disaster. Waving crustaceans to emphasize our point, shouting a bit heatedly into the street, it was clear we were all angry, concerned and ready to do something.

--Jamie