August 29th marked the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
To commemorate the event for our community, Pop!Tech selected a very special installment for our August Book Club. This week, many of you will have received a copy of Chris Jordan’s book of photography, In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster.
The book provides an opportunity for reflection on one of the worst natural disasters in the history of our country. All proceeds are being donated to hurricane relief charities, but the Book Club donation will be going to a new member of the Pop!Tech community - a man named Craig Howat.
A few months ago, Craig applied to receive a Participation Grant to attend this year’s conference. Craig has been a teacher in Lousiana for 12 years. When his school laboratory was destroyed by Katrina, he and his dedicated students raised funds to rebuild a brand new science center. Together, they’ve raised over $10,000 to pay for supplies and materials, and they continue to fundraise in order to complete the project. You can see architectural plans of the building at http://www.l00k.org/lulinglandlab/luling-land-lab.
We’re proud to be part of Chris Jordan’s charity and Craig Howat’s vision, and look forward to their participation at Pop!Tech this October.
2 responses so far ↓
1 KIm // Sep 2, 2007 at 7:52 am
I like your blog, it’s always fun to come back and check what you have to tell us today.
2 Craig Howat // Sep 4, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Thank you POP! Tech and Chris Jordan for the contribution and scholarship to the conference. As you may know, a professor from Columbia University (Dr. Laura Kurgan), actually flew down here and helped our students and community members design our new lab. They utilized our inspiration and ideas for the final design. With the help of our local “high tech” high school, we created a web site and movie. Check it out when you get chance: http://l3.stcharles.k12.la.us/ So far we have raised over $100,000 to replace materials and supplies and fund new projects however we are at a standstill for bricks and mortar funding. We have come to realize that securing bricks and mortar funding for a state of the art science and technology lab in an elementary school is a difficult undertaking. We are learning the value of perseverence! Some videos will be posted to YouTube and Google Videos to help keep our science lab in your thoughts. Thanks for your help with the continued recovery of the Gulf South!
Sincerely,
Craig Howat
http://www.stcharles.k12.la.us/webpages/chowat/
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