Spirit of Calabasas hasn’t forgotten hurricane victims




POSITIVE ATTITUDE-Red Godfrey,  president  of  the  Spirit  of Calabasas Foundation,  meets  a  New  Orleans  student whose school  was  damaged  by  Hurricane  Katrina.  Last  November, Calabasas officials made a 1,900-mile trip to bring supplies to the battered area. Photo Courtesy CITY OF CALABASAS

POSITIVE ATTITUDE-Red Godfrey, president of the Spirit of Calabasas Foundation, meets a New Orleans student whose school was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Last November, Calabasas officials made a 1,900-mile trip to bring supplies to the battered area. Photo Courtesy CITY OF CALABASAS


The victims of September’s Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast still need your help.

The Spirit of Calabasas Foundation, a group founded to help Katrina victims and support other similar causes, recently announced new plans to aid Plaquemines Parish, a community of 26,000 in southern Louisiana where last year’s big hurricane made landfall and hit the hardest.

“Six months on from Katrina, lives are still fraught with worry and uncertainty. Families are still not reunited, children are still not certain of the future of their education and the world has passed this story by,” said Red Godfrey, foundation president. “This is why the Spirit of Calabasas Foundation is continuing its support of Plaquemines Parish.”

In November, after Katrina had faded from the headlines, Godfrey and others founded the Spirit of Calabasas Foundation to offer hurricane relief. Later that month, the foundation gathered donated items during a community collection drive at Calabasas City Hall.

In December, aided by the city of Calabasas, the foundation, delivered 100 boxes of office equipment, computers and other supplies collected at the drive to the parish townspeople and the needy school district.

“Benny Rousselle, parish president, and Superintendent Hoyle of the school district, confirmed we were the first group to offer assistance and actually follow through,” Godfrey said.”The fact we actually went there to show support was commented on by many, many of the people we met.

“When dropping off the supplies, it was humbling to hear Superintendent Hoyle become emotional. He felt they had been forgotten by the rest of the world, and this show of support from our community made them realize they were not alone,” said Godfrey.

The foundation wants to show parish residents that they’re still not alone. At 5:30 p.m. Thurs., March 30 at the Agoura Hills/ Calabasas Community Center in Calabasas, the foundation will update the community on four projects that will offer continued support to the parish.

The projects are as follows:

+During April and May, the foundation will host a drive to collect supplies needed by the parish.

+During Memorial Day

weekend, May 27 through 29the foundation will help renovate and restore the muchneeded Riverbend Seniors Day Care Center in the parishwhich has been closed since Katrina hit.

“This renovation will take volunteers from our community to Plaquemines for hands-on exp e r i e n c e , ” Godfrey said.

+On July 3, the foundation will welcome Rouselle and members of the Riverbend Seniors Day Care Center to Calabasas for a cocktail fundraiser at Calabasas Motors in Calabasas.

+On July 4, guests from the parish will be honored during the first Calabasas Independence Day festivities. The parade will include classic cars, homemade floats, two and fourlegged friends and more.

For more information about the Spirit of Calabasas Foundation, please call (818) 225-1467, send an e-mail to info@ spiritofcalabasas.org, or visit www.spiritofcalabasas.org.

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