Beyond Katrina - Public Relations

Beyond Katrina Braces for Hurricane Season

Start of Season Marks New Milestones and Renewed Commitment

BATON ROUGE, La. (June 4, 2007) As the 2007 hurricane season officials kicks off, the Beyond Katrina blog and its creator, Margaret Saizan, prepare to keep thousands of established readers and curious first-time visitors up to date on all the twists and turns from an expected busy season. Since its creation on the eve of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, www.hurricane-katrina.org has logged roughly 700,000 visitors from 186 countries and featured more than 2,000 individual blog entries.

"Clearly what began as an idea to track one storm has become a vibrant online community of concerned citizens wanting to stay informed, learning from past mistakes and looking forward to a better understanding of now natural disasters can shape the cultural landscape for generations to come,” explained Saizan, creator of the award-winning “Beyond Katrina” blog. “I hope that Beyond Katrina can become the most comprehensive source for information for this hurricane season and the second anniversary of the storm, itself."

While the blog’s mission is to inspire recovery, transformation and new vision through the deeper wisdom of crisis, the information contained in daily posts from Saizan and her team of guest contributors has helped shaped the debate following the nation’s worst natural disaster. From the challenges of rebuilding a city and restoring a state’s coastline to understanding the profound psychological impact of the storm and celebrating small victories in the course of daily life, blog entries continue to make readers think, laugh and respond by the thousands.

National climate experts project a 75 percent chance that the Atlantic hurricane season will be above normal this year and recommend those in hurricane-prone regions to begin their preparation plans. Researcher William Gray predicts there will be 17 named storms, with nine becoming hurricanes, of which five could become major hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher.

“Whether it’s a New Orleans civic group hosting a storm preparedness clinic or a national watchdog group keeping elected and emergency leaders true to their word,” if it has to do with hurricanes, it will be included at www.hurricane-katrina.org,” added Saizan. “I also hope that through my current online, interactive survey, I’ll learn what readers want to know more about.”

Saizan, with the assistance of Informative and the company’s Adaptive Conversation technology, is eliciting reader responses to her blog. The goal of the current online survey is to be an open, democratic, interactive communications medium that engages blog readers in not only helping to shape the content that appears at Beyond Katrina but to encourage them to identify and act with real solutions to significant issues in Katrina recovery.

Saizan says the blog will remain strong through the 2007 season and through the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in late August of this year.

About Margaret Saizan

Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge La.  native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in  history – Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media. Her blog, “Beyond Katrina,” won the 2006 Society for New Communications Research Professional Award.

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Blog Contributor's Photographs Selected for Exhibition

Matthew White's Landscapes Featured in Grand Isle's "Vanishing Horizons"

"Gulf of Mexico, Cameron Parish, La 5/06" (copyright Matthew White)

Baton Rouge, La. (PRWEB) April 7, 2007 -- Matthew White, a landscape photographer and "Beyond Katrina" contributor, has been selected to show some of his photography in an upcoming exhibit in Grand Isle, La. "Vanishing Horizons" runs from April 7-15 at the Grand Isle Community Center, on Hwy. 1.

"I feel really happy having my work be part of an exhibit in a place as special as Grand Isle. Seeing how well the island has come back since Katrina is a good sign," explained White. "I hope that the exhibit, as well as my work, will show people the real beauty of the Louisiana coast and let them see how important it is to restore it."

The photos White will feature in the exhibit are Lake Borgne, La. (#2)" and "Gulf of Mexico, Cameron Parish, La 5/06". A New York native, White moved to Louisiana in 2000 and soon thereafter began photographing most of the notable locations along the Louisiana coastline. His mission, to convey the beauty and uniqueness of the Louisiana landscape, didn't waiver after the storm. His collection of landscapes continues to speak for a state that has survived the worst from nature and continues to evolve after an unprecedented tragedy.

Lake Borgne, La. (#2) ---copyright Matthew White

"From his initial contributions six months ago through today, Matthew continues to elicit strong emotion and thought at the blog," explained award-winning blogger Margaret Saizan, "Beyond Katrina" creator. "I'm thrilled that now more people will be exposed to his perspective and amazing talents in person, rather than simply online."

White's photo essay series at www.hurricane-katrina.org begin with where Katrina made landfall, then document White's photographic journey before and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita starting in 2000. Each post includes a photo, a narrative of White's experience at that location, and then supporting commentary from the Saizan, which echoes the themes of "Beyond Katrina."   

The Grand Isle Community Development Team, Inc. with support from the Grand Isle Port Commission and the Town of Grand Isle, are sponsoring the exhibit to showcase works with themes relating to the nature, natural beauty and potential loss of the only inhabited Louisiana barrier island and the surrounding wetlands. Organizers say the goal of the exhibition is to raise awareness of Louisiana's coastal erosion through an artist's eye and to encourage the creation and preservation of images of this culture and its disappearing habitat for future generations.

About Matthew White
Matthew White is a native New Yorker who made Louisiana his home and his artistic focus in 2000. For five years he photographed nearly every notable location on the Louisiana coast. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita changed the landscape, but not Mathew's vision and desire to show Louisiana's unique beauty. While hundreds of others have documented the tragedy wrought by the storms, Matthew's body of work captures the beauty that the storms of 2005 could not erase. Rather than clichéd incongruity and depressing devastation, Matthew's photos capture a landscape touched by and triumphing over catastrophe. Matthew shares the same vision as blogger Margaret Saizan, looking "Beyond Katrina," and lending a silent voice to disaster and recovery. Matthew White's fine prints are available through gymnopedies13 @ yahoo.com.

About Margaret Saizan
Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge, La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S. history - Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media. Her blog, "Beyond Katrina," won the 2006 Society for New Communications Research Professional Award.

To download press release in various formats go to PRWeb.com.

# # # Other Releases

• National Writer and Journalism Teacher Brings New Voice to Beyond Katrina 2007-03-28
• Beyond Katrina Offers Help and Healing via Online Gathering 2007-03-09
• Roving Ethnographer Joins Narrative and Visual Voice of Beyond Katrina 2007-01-16
• Photographer Tells Visual Story of Hurricane Rita 2006-12-20
• Bloggers Team Up with Online Nonprofit to Deliver Christmas to Katrina Families 2006-12-08

National Writer and Journalism Teacher Brings New Voice to Beyond Katrina

Contributor Recounts Daily Experiences and Common Concerns in “Post-K” Louisiana

BATON ROUGE,  (March 21,2007) Paul A. Greenberg, a writer, teacher and New Orleans resident, is the latest contributor to “Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery,” a blog focused on changing the future with the knowledge gleaned from the past. His stories of daily life in New Orleans after the nation’s largest natural disaster paint a picture few in traditional media have been able to expose. From a day of gardening amid gunshots in the distance to eavesdropping at a local po-boy shop where long-time residents announce they’re leaving the city, Greenberg’s perspective is gripping and painfully real.
    "I've been at Katrina's ground zero for 16 months, having returned to New Orleans seven weeks after the storm," explained Greenberg, who teaches journalism at TulaneUniversity. "My constant presence here, plus my vocation as a writer place me in the unique position to tell the real stories of this crisis. My goal is to keep the public informed of one very important element - Katrina is not over. Katrina is still in the present tense. You have to be here to know that on a gut level, and my goal is to offer that perspective."
    Greenberg began chronicling post-Katrina New Orleans five days after the storm, even writing a Katrina-focused blog for America Online. When that forum recently ceased, he seized the opportunity to continue enlightening an informed group of readers about his post-Katrina experiences via the established community at www.hurricane-katrina.org. His philosophy is to tell compelling stories succinctly and with the right choice of words, rather than a rambling first-person account of daily life. The storm hit the Gulf Coast more than 18 months ago. While politicians, insurance companies and private enterprise squabble over how and why to move forward, locals, like Greenberg, are living in anger and in danger.
    “I began my “Beyond Katrina” blog on the eve of the disaster expecting to document the storm and move on,” explained blogger Margaret Saizan, “Beyond Katrina” creator. “But with the two-year anniversary on the horizon, more and more influential readers on our radar and contributors like Paul lending unique and critical voices, Beyond Katrina is more than one bystander’s account. It’s a forum for ideas, experiences and hopefully solutions to this crisis.”
    Greenberg joins a series of other noteworthy contributors now online at www.hurricane-katrina.org, including coastal photographer and essayist Matthew White, cultural anthropologist Maida Owens, Japanese jazz musicians Yoshio and Keiko Toyama, television videographer Rick Portier and Carol McClelland, PhD., a transition expert focused on helping people get back on their feet after their lives have been turned upside down by natural disasters.

About Paul A. Greenberg
    Paul A. Greenberg teaches journalism at Tulane University in New Orleans. A believer in the power of words to change the world, he also writes for a number of local, regional and national publications. Greenberg has been chronicling post-Katrina New Orleans  since five days after the storm and continues to witness daily the effects of the disaster in his local New Orleans. For more information, visit www.greenbergwrites.com. 

About Margaret Saizan
    Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton  Rouge La.native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in  history – Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media. Her blog, “Beyond Katrina,” won the 2006 Society for New Communications Research Professional Award.

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Beyond Katrina Offers Help and Healing via Online Gathering

Free Teleconference to Focus on “The Work”

BATON ROUGE, La. (March 7, 2007) “Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery” is sponsoring two free teleconferences for survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to learn how to use The Work of Byron Katie, a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that is helping people all over the world find a greater sense of well-being in context of life challenges, such as hurricane recovery. In this teleclass facilitated by Maggie Carter, participants will have many opportunities to fully experience the effectiveness of The Work and learn how to apply it to everyday situations in their own lives. The free teleconferences are scheduled for March 15 and March 22 from 7 to 8 p.m. CDT.

“The Work" is one of the most powerful methods ever devised to end human suffering,” explained Margaret Saizan, founder of the “Beyond Katrina” blog at www.hurricane-katrina.org. “As a south Louisiana resident myself, who rode out the storm only to face the devastation of stalled recovery efforts and endless bureaucratic red tape, this method has helped me reshape my mood and focus on a more positive approach to solving the problems regardless of who is to blame.”

Though the storms hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast more than 18 months ago, survivors and the bureaucracy of the local and federal governments have slowed down, if not stalled, in efforts to move on.

“We think suffering thoughts all day long and live our lives as though these thoughts are actually true, added Carter. “But there is a way out of the resulting sadness, anger, frustration and fear. It’s The Work. I have found no other tool that is as simple and has such insightful results.”

The online community that engages daily with each other via “Beyond Katrina” continues to examine the impacts of the storms and seek to develop transformational change through this crisis. Saizan is creating a “Beyond Katrina Survivors Newsletter" to further reach out to those adversely affected by the storms and to promote personal healing and recovery issues. She has witnessed a great need for a positive reference and connection among these survivors through the active, online forum at her blog everyday. What began as casual observers interested in finding out any information on the storm has become a forum for sociologists, geologists, architects, authors, and photographers hoping to enact cultural change and policy reform, and with this teleclass and the newsletter, improve their personal futures for the best.

The free teleconference will be held March 15 from 7-8 p.m. CDT and March 22 from 7-8 p.m. CDT. Attendees simply need to call 218-486-1300 PIN 745633 at the time of their choice and be prepared to be transformed. They do not need to register in advance.

About Margaret Saizan

Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in  history – Hurricane Katrina.  A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media.

About Maggie Carter:

Maggie Carter (www.maggiecarter.com) is a personal/organizational coach and two-time graduate of Byron Katie’s School for The Work.  In her professional life she has worked as an educator, a director of staff development, a director of human resources, a consultant to organizations, a master facilitator and trainer and personal life coach. She continues to work with individuals, groups and organizations to facilitate positive change and explore new possibilities. Carter holds a Bachelor of Arts in education, a Master’s in reading and linguistics and a Doctorate in staff development, adult learning and leadership. She is also a graduate of the Institute of Life Coach Training.

About The Work

The Work is a way to identify and question the thoughts that cause suffering in ourselves, our homes, our communities and ultimately the world. Anyone with a pen, paper and an open mind can do it. The Work consists of four questions and a turnaround, which is a way to experience the opposite of what you believe. The Work applies to people of all walks of life and is currently being used by coaches, therapists, social workers, healing practitioners, and others who work in the mental health field as well as people who work in business, education and church communities. For more visit www.thework.com.

Download the_work_flyer.doc

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Roving Ethnographer Joins Narrative and Visual Voice of Beyond Katrina

Contributor Retraces Hurricanes Katrina & Rita

Maida Owens, a cultural anthropologist and Louisiana native, is the latest contributor to “Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery,” a blog focused on changing the future with the knowledge gleaned from the past. Her photo essays, “Adventures of a Roving Ethnographer,” look at the how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita changed not only the physical landscape of south Louisiana but its emotional pulse as well.

“Seeing how they are rebuilding and how historical landmarks, sculptures and plantations withstood the pounding are paramount to understanding the long term impact of these storms on both our physical and cultural landscape,” explained Owens.

“We just had the second holiday season since the onslaught of the devastation, yet the obstacles and the setbacks persist,” explained blogger Margaret Saizan, “Beyond Katrina” creator. “Because Maida’s stories and personal photos share the resilience of south Louisianans, her perspective and insight are needed now more than ever to keep this journey back on the national radar.”

Though the storms hit Louisiana more than 16 months ago, the online community that engages daily with each other via “Beyond Katrina” is growing, not just in number, but in influence. What began as casual observers interested in finding out any information on the storm has become a forum for sociologists, geologists, architects, authors, and photographers hoping to enact cultural change and policy reform. The blog was recently awarded the Society for New Communications Research Professional Award.The award honors innovative professionals who are pioneering the use of social media, individuals like those Time magazine named its 2006 “Person of the Year.”

“We’ve had incredible feedback on the photo essay series we began in early October with nature photographer Matthew White. We hope to continue adding valuable content to tell the whole story of these storms,” added Saizan.

About Maida Owens:

A cultural anthropologist and a native Louisianan who cares deeply about her home state, Maida Owens has been director of the Louisiana Folklife Program, www.louisianafolklife.org , since 1988. She has curated exhibits and websites, authored and edited books and articles, produced videos, and created educational materials on Louisiana’s many traditional cultures. She works with organizations and researchers to identify traditional artists and determine the most appropriate way to present folk musicians, storytellers, craftsmen, and traditional cooks to the public. She has worked with hundreds of folk artists from Louisiana's diverse cultures. Her work takes her throughout the state and in the process, she has photographed Louisiana’s people and landscapes. Maida Owens’ fine prints are available by contacting her at maidaowens at cox dot net.

About Margaret Saizan

Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S.history – Hurricane Katrina.A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media.

To download a word doc. or PDF version of this press Release at PRWeb.com, go here.

Other Releases:                          

• Photographer Tells Visual Story of Hurricane Rita 2006-12-20
• Bloggers Team Up with Online Nonprofit to Deliver Christmas to Katrina Families 2006-12-08
• Japanese Musician and Jazz Lover Gives Back to New Orleans 2006-12-05
• Beyond Katrina Wins National Award 2006-11-09
• Louisiana Photographer Joins  Blogger's Online Community 2006-10-13

 

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Photographer Tells Visual Story of Hurricane Rita

“Beyond Katrina” Contributor Remembers the “Forgotten Storm”

BATON ROUGE, La. (Dec. 18, 2006) Matthew White, a New York native who has lived in and documented the unique beauty of Louisiana since 2000 and contributor to “Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery,” goes beyond the eastern Gulf Coast to recount the devastation of Hurricane Rita pictorially. White’s haunting photographs and personal memoir now featured on www.hurricane-katrina.org are a powerful witness to the 2005 storm, which hit Louisiana’s southwest coastline three weeks after Hurricane. The area has even drawn interest from the White House. Former President George H. W. Bush will visit Cameron Parish this Wednesday, Dec. 20 to present $2-million to South Cameron Memorial Hospital which is rebuilding from  Hurricane Rita. 

“While the world focused on the catastrophe that was Hurricane Katrina, many in the national media have ignored what happened a few weeks later but was equally as life-changing for the formers, fisherman and residents of Louisiana’s southwest region,” explained White. “If the images inspire people to care about these places, then it might increase its chances of being preserved. When readers see the Louisiana coast for the paradise that it is, I believe they’ll care about saving it.”

Hurricane Rita slammed the Texas-Louisiana border on Sept. 24, 2005, as a category three hurricane. Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $10 billion in damage on the Gulf Coast.

White’s two-part series of photos focuses on the aftermath in Cameron and Vermillion Parishes. White hopes these images will create an emotional response; a sense that the viewer is there experiencing it – the silence, the solitude, along with some kind of respect for all the history of the area.

“Three weeks after I began blogging about Katrina, I, like countless others, kept a close eye on the approaching Rita,” explained blogger Margaret Saizan, “Beyond Katrina” creator. “The biggest news that resulted from the storm were the traffic jams as people fled the Houston-Galveston areas and the fact that it wasn’t as bad as Katrina.”

Though federal officials had learned some lessons from the chaos of Katrina and response to the damaged areas was handled more effectively, seven deaths are attributed directly to the storm. Three Cameron Parish communities – Holly Beach, Hackberry and Cameron – were essentially destroyed. The cities of Lake Charles, Moss Bluff, Sulphur, Westlake and Vinton, all in Calcasieu Parish also suffered heavy damage.

Since Saizan’s first posting on Aug. 28, 2005, hundreds of thousands of readers from more than 172 countries have connected with “Beyond Katrina.” The blog was recently awarded the Society for New Communications Research Professional Award. The award honors innovative organizations and professionals who are pioneering the use of social media (i.e., blogs, wikis, podcasts, collaborative tools and other forms of participatory communications) in the areas of marketing, public relations and advertising, politics, entertainment, academics, and community and cultural development.

“We’ve had incredible feedback on the photo essay series we began in early October. We hope to bring that same consciousness to what happened after Katrina,” added Saizan. “The name Rita has been retired and will never be used again for an Atlantic hurricane, but we can’t let its effects fade from our memories.”For Saizan, White is just the latest in a series of talented professionals who help her, as a citizen journalist, recount what happens in real time and real perspective.

White hopes to publish his collection of south Louisiana photos as a testament to a land full of culture, beauty and resilience. Until that memoir is a reality, you can view White’s collection at http://rigolets.blogspot.com/. Fine prints are also available at [email protected].

About Matthew White

Matthew White is a native New Yorker who made Louisiana his home and his artistic focus in 2000. For five years he photographed nearly every notable location on the Louisiana coast. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita changed the landscape, but not Mathew’s vision and desire to show Louisiana’s unique beauty. While hundreds of others have documented the tragedy wrought by the storms, Matthew’s body of work captures the beauty that the storms of 2005 could not erase. Rather than clichéd incongruity and depressing devastation, Matthew’s photos capture a landscape touched by and triumphing over catastrophe. Matthew shares the same vision as blogger Margaret Saizan, looking “Beyond Katrina,” and lending a silent voice to disaster and recovery. Matthew White’s fine prints are available through [email protected].

About Margaret Saizan

Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S. history – Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media.

Bloggers Team Up with Online Nonprofit to Deliver Christmas to Katrina Families

www.PostSanta.com Hoping to Link Donors with Those in Need Virtually

BATON ROUGE, La. (December 8, 2006) -- The social media movement has sparked an adoption frenzy this holiday season and is changing the face of philanthropy. Thanks to www.postsanta.com, www.hurricane-katrina.org, and www.katrinasangels.org, three online, virtual entities, Christmas will arrive for families who are still struggling with the realities after Hurricane Katrina from those who want to make a real difference. The three Web sites not only highlight the ongoing difficulties for those in the New Orleans area trying to rebuild their lives, but they are also a vital link between those in need and those who want to donate food, money, even Christmas trees. They are all engaged in innovative, transformational, change the world media, with a shared vision to catalyze their online endeavors to help the Gulf Coast recover.

Hundreds of Katrina families have written "Dear Santa" letters online. "Post Santa" is now seeking out prospective "Santas" for these families. Katrina's Angels, which has also been prescreening deserving families, will help donors fulfill wish lists and handle the New Orleans-area distribution. And the effort all came together on "Beyond Katrina."

"It started out as research for a story I'm writing, a ghost story, set in a post-Katrina world. I was so moved by every word I read, every picture I saw. Then Christmas was suddenly upon us -- over commercialized, self-centered. I couldn't sit back any longer. The true meaning of Christmas had to be revived, and this was how to do it," explains screenwriter Lola Teigland, creator of the Post Santa Web site. "I joined forces with Margaret Saizan, who united families with donors last year. She has an amazing website and she's an amazing person, so we set out to make some magic."

www.hurricane-katrina.org is aptly named "Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane and Disaster Recovery. This blog, which began as Margaret Saizan's personal account of the storm in her home state of Louisiana, has transformed into a gathering place and historical resource for those looking beyond the storm and seeking to learn from the catastrophe. From activists seeking to change public policy to victims looking for assistance and resources, "Beyond Katrina" is a one-stop shop for those connected to and affected by the unprecedented storm of 2005.

"When Lola contacted me, I knew we had to team up with a nonprofit that already has 'boots to the ground', so Katrina's Angels was a perfect fit," added Saizan, Beyond Katrina creator. "I have readers from 174 countries and more than 2,300 U.S. cities. If we can help direct only a fraction of them to www.postsanta.com, then Lola will be able to reach her dream of making a difference and the volunteer "angels" will deliver those dreams to the families who are suffering. Amazingly, all of this can be done without physical, brick-and-mortar spaces."

"We have the families ready and waiting, we just need those who want to help to reach out and connect with us," said Lynne Onufer, Katrina's Angels program director. "From the past, we know they're out there. We just want them to reach through www.postsanta.com so we can bring Christmas to the Big Easy."

"It's great to see how through new technologies, people now have the capacity to form meaningful online communities to explore common interests, advance important goals, and catalyze a shared vision," said Saizan.

Saizan's blog was recently awarded the Society for New Communications Research Professional Award. The award honors innovative organizations and professionals who are pioneering the use of social media (i.e., blogs, wikis, podcasts, collaborative tools and other forms of participatory communications) in the areas of marketing, public relations and advertising, politics, entertainment, academics, and community and cultural development.

About Margaret Saizan
Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge, La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S. history - Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. http://www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media.

About Katrina's Angels
The management and volunteers of Katrina's Angels are committed to a mission of providing resource coordination and needs fulfillment with sensitivity, professionalism and impeccable customer service to the evacuees of major natural disasters in the United States. To learn more about the 501 c3 non-profit organization, visit www.katrinasangels.org.

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# # # Other Releases By Beyond Katrina:

• Japanese Musician and Jazz Lover Gives Back to New Orleans 2006-12-05
• Beyond Katrina Wins National Award 2006-11-09
• Louisiana Photographer Joins Blogger's Online Community, Beyond Katrina, The Voice of Hurricane Disaster Recovery 2006-10-13
• Louisiana Woman Documents Katrina Experience Online 2006-08-25

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Japanese Musician and Jazz Lover Gives Back to New Orleans

"Beyond Katrina" Contributor Donating Instruments.

Baton Rouge, LA (PRWEB) December 5, 2006 -- While most children are waiting for Dec. 25 to unwrap Christmas gifts, the students in New Orleans public schools have been receiving gifts from half-way around the world from a fellow musician who once lived in New Orleans and grew up a Louis Armstrong fan. In his featured entries on" Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery," Yoshio Toyama recounts when he met Satchmo in Japan in 1964. That meeting and the music of the great jazz musician helped shaped his life. He and his wife are currently sending musical instruments and donations to students and displaced musicians from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.

"When we moved to New Orleans in 1968 I found the neighborhood that gave birth to Louis Armstrong and Jazz," explained Toyama at www.hurricane-katrina.org. "This area also happens to be the community that was totally wiped out by Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005."

Trumpeter and vocalist Yoshio Toyama, 62, has been making a living playing Classic Jazz in Japan and elsewhere for over three decades. Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed from 1968 to 1973 at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, hanging out with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret." Toyama's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong.

The Foundation has been in existence for the past 12 years, but after Katrina devastated New Orleans the Toyama's ramped up their efforts to aid impacted musicians. Most of the more recent work is covered in a recent post at http://www.hurricane-katrina.org/2006/11/visiting_new_or.html. They have provided more than 600 instruments through the Foundation, many of the schools they supported no longer exist after the storm.

Since the storm, Toyama has donated about $84,000, including the musicians' funds of Lincoln Center Higher Ground, Jazz Foundation for America, Preservation Hall's NOMHRF (New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund), and Arabi Wrecking Krewe.
    
"It was puzzling to me that kids living in the birthplace of jazz had either beaten up instruments or none at all," added Toyama. "In the year since the Katrina disaster, jazz fans and amateur bands from all over Japan held benefit concerts and sent donations and instruments to us, hoping to get them to New Orleans musicians."

Margaret Saizan, creator of www.hurricane-katrina.org, has moved from her day-by-day accounts of the storm and its initial effects to an international, online discussion to inspire recovery, transformation and new vision through the deeper wisdom of crisis.

"I've been amazed at how this storm continues to generate international interest and charity," said blogger Margaret Saizan. "I hope that featured contributors like Yoshio Toyama and the others making a difference post-Katrina will prompt the hundreds of thousands of visitors to my blog to get involved and make a difference long term for any community who experiences crisis."

Since Saizan's first posting on Aug. 28, 2005, hundreds of thousands of readers from more than 172 countries have connected with "Beyond Katrina." The blog was recently awarded the Society for New Communications Research Professional Award. The award honors innovative organizations and professionals who are pioneering the use of social media (i.e., blogs, wikis, podcasts, collaborative tools and other forms of participatory communications) in the areas of marketing, public relations and advertising, politics, entertainment, academics, and community and cultural development.

About Margaret Saizan
Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge, La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S. history - Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media.

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To view  press release, image attachments, and pdf download online, visit our page at PRWEB.com - here.

Other Releases:

• Beyond Katrina Wins National Award 2006-11-09
• Louisiana Photographer Joins Blogger's Online Community, Beyond Katrina, The Voice of Hurricane Disaster Recovery 2006-10-13
• Louisiana Woman Documents Katrina Experience Online 2006-08-25

Beyond Katrina Wins National Award

Blog One of Three Honored for Pioneering Social Media

Baton Rouge, La. (PRWeb) November 9, 2006 -- Beyond Katrina announced today that it is the recipient of the Society for New Communications Research 2006 Award of Excellence in the Professional category. The society's awards program honors innovative organizations and professionals, like blogger Margaret Saizan who are pioneering the use of social media (i.e., blogs, wikis, podcasts, collaborative tools and other forms of participatory communications) in the areas of marketing, public relations and advertising, politics, entertainment, academics, and community and cultural development. Saizan and the other award winners were announced at the society's inaugural awards gala in Boston.

Saizan, who began http://www.hurricane-Katrina.org on the eve of the nation's worst natural disaster, is a life coach and community activist focused on large scale healing and change. Thus when she found her feet planted in the epicenter of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she founded an online community and used her profession and her passion to examine how traditional journalists and ordinary citizens alike might harness the power of this new form of media to forge new ground in responding to crisis. The society's judges recognized Saizan for her understanding of how the contribution of blogs and citizen journalists, like her, to the disaster has truly awakened the world to the enormous power and potential of real time, collaborative, personal and social media.

'Beyond Katrina'" exemplifies the mission of this awards program: the successful and innovative use of new communications solutions and social media practices to enhance communications and relationships," commented Mike Manuel, SNCR best practices committee chairman. "I'm honored to be among the first group of honorees from the SNCR and humbled by national recognition of what began as an online passion," added Saizan. "Clearly Americans and people of the world looking for a deeper understanding are relying on blogs like "Beyond Katrina" to provide depth, scope and context of events surrounding us each day."

Award nominations were submitted as case studies, and reviewed by a panel of 10 judges, including SNCR research fellows, advisors, members of the SNCR Best Practices committee, vendor council members and representatives from the society's organizational affiliates. Awards of Merit and Awards of Excellence were presented in three categories, including: SNCR Professional Awards, honoring leading new communications thinkers, bloggers, journalists, citizen journalists and professional communicators; SNCR Academic Awards, recognizing leading work/research/studies from students and academic institutions; and the SNCR Business Awards, honoring organizations that are successfully adopting new communications models and leveraging them in innovative ways for business purposes.

The winning case studies are posted on the Society's blog.     Saizan's blog, which has bloomed into a lively form of citizen journalism that continues to evolve, continues to be recognized by national and international media outlets. She is currently syndicated on Blogburst, a site which delivers online blog content to mainstream heavyweights like Gannett publications, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, and the San Antonio Express-News. She has been interviewed by The Washington Post, The Week magazine, Scotland's Sunday Herald, CNN and WAFB TV in her hometown of Baton Rouge, La.

About the Society for New Communications Research
The Society for New Communications Research Research is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) global think tank dedicated to the advanced study of new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business and society. For more information, visit http://www.sncr.org or call (650) 331-0083.

About Margaret Saizan
Margaret Saizan is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge, La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S. history – Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. Beyond Katrina and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media.

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Press Release: Photographer Joins Blogger's Online Community

Matthew White, a New York native who has lived in and documented the unique beauty of Louisiana since 2000, is the newest "voice" on "Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery." White's pictorial contributions to Hurricane-Katrina.org (http://www.hurricane-katrina.org) bring a fresh perspective to and advance the mission of the blog -- to inspire recovery, transformation & new vision through the deeper wisdom of crisis.

Baton Rouge, LA (PRWEB) October 13, 2006 -- Louisiana Pictures Lend Optimistic, Reflective Voice to "Beyond Katrina".

Matthew White, a New York native who has lived in and documented the unique beauty of Louisiana since 2000, is the newest "voice" on "Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery." White's pictorial contributions to Hurricane-Katrina.org (http://www.hurricane-katrina.org) bring a fresh perspective to and advance the mission of the blog -- to inspire recovery, transformation & new vision through the deeper wisdom of crisis.

"As a South Louisiana native who has witnessed the devastation wrought by this storm and the innocuous, depressing photos documenting it, I realized that I needed to evolve in content and perspective," explained blogger Margaret Saizan, "Beyond Katrina" creator. "To keep the issues brought about by this storm in people's awareness, readers need to understand why New Orleans, south Louisiana, and Mississippi need to be rebuilt. They need to have some sense of the beauty that is still there and from which we came."

Since Saizan's first posting on Aug. 28, 2005, hundreds of thousands of readers from more than 159 countries have connected with "Beyond Katrina" to learn about the event, understand its ramifications and realize how Louisiana's lessons can benefit the world.

Saizan and White have teamed up to create a photo-essay series beginning with where Katrina made landfall, then documenting White's photographic journey before and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita starting in 2000. Each post will include a photo, a narrative of the photographer's experience at that location, and then supporting commentary from the blog's creator, which echoes the themes of "Beyond Katrina."

White began photographing most of the notable locations along the Louisiana coastline five years before the storms struck. His mission, to convey the beauty and uniqueness of the Louisiana landscape, didn't waiver after the storm. His collection of landscapes continues to speak for a state that has survived the worst from nature and continues to evolve after an unprecedented tragedy.

"As a relative newcomer to Louisiana, I was awed and inspired by this beautiful place immediately," explained White. "I fear that all the depressing images of floating corpses and destroyed homes have left the nation and the world with the wrong impression of my adopted home. Rather than focus on the clichéd incongruity of the landscape, my hope is to have my photographs speak for the state and convey the beauty that remains despite the wrath of Mother Nature."

For Saizan White is just the latest in a series of talented professionals who help her, as a citizen journalist, recount what happens in real time and real perspective.

White hopes to publish his collection of south Louisiana photos as a testament to a land full of culture, beauty and resilience. Until that memoir is a reality, view White's collection at http://rigolets.blogspot.com/. Fine prints are also available through his website.

About Matthew White
Matthew White is a native New Yorker who made Louisiana his home and his artistic focus in 2000. For five years he photographed nearly every notable location on the Louisiana coast. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita changed the landscape, but not Mathew's vision and desire to show Louisiana's unique beauty. While hundreds of others have documented the tragedy wrought by the storms, Matthew's body of work captures the beauty that the storms of 2005 could not erase. Rather than clichéd incongruity and depressing devastation, Matthew's photos capture a landscape touched by and triumphing over catastrophe. Matthew shares the same vision as blogger Margaret Saizan, looking "Beyond Katrina," and lending a silent voice to disaster and recovery.

About Margaret Saizan
Margaret Saizan (http://www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge, La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S. history -- Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. Hurricane-Katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media.

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