Actor-activist Sean Penn, who became a celebrity rescue-worker helping to pull people off their rooftops after Katrina and the New Orleans flooding, returned to the Big Easy this past week as part of a new mission: The Dirty Hands Caravan.
Penn launched the effort at last week’s Coachella Festival in Indio, California, urging festival-goers to join a three-biodiesel-bus trip across the country to volunteer their services in communities that need help.
Green Light New Orleans Recently reached a milestone: 60,000 compact fluorescent bulbs installed for free in local homes since October 2006. The headline-making 60,000th CFL was installed earlier this month at the Jeannette Street home of Irene Green.
Established in 2006 after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Green Light New Orleans is the brainchild of Swiss-born musician Andi Hoffmann, who’s now a resident of the Big Easy. Hoffman started the program first as a way to offset the greenhouse gas pollution he and his band b-goes generated during their tours to Europe. It’s since taken on a greater goal: to reduce New Orleanians’ energy costs and help fight climate change.
As part of its Earth Day observations next week, Louisiana State University plans to hold its first-ever conference on sustainability.
Hosted by LSU’s Environmental Conservation Organization, the conference is scheduled to run from Monday, April 21, through Friday, April 25, as part of the university’s third annual environmental festival. Earth Day is on Tuesday, April 22.
You want music with a message? Then you’ve got to — if you haven’t yet — check out the works of Tab Benoit.
A Louisianan through and through (born in Baton Rouge, reared in Houma), Benoit is not only a wonderful Southern Cajun/blues musician, but an outspoken and active environmentalist. His primary cause: protecting and restoring the wetlands of the Gulf Coast … something that would not only help native wildlife but the people of coastal Louisiana (and the overall climate) as well.
If you’re like me, you never need an excuse to visit New Orleans, even post-Katrina. Between the food, the music, the architecture, the history and the people, the Big Easy always beckons.
But here’s a new and nifty reason to plan a Crescent City getaway: the Marriott’s “Care Concierge” vacation package.
Now through Nov. 15, travelers who book a stay at one of New Orleans’ Marriott or Renaissance hotels will receive email recommendations for local groups that welcome visitor-volunteers who want to help the city rebuild. And $50 of the package rate (ranging from $159 to $259) will be donated to Habitat for Humanity, which is working to return New Orleans’ flood-ravaged neighborhoods to life.
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