Oh, What a Great Party!
Check out the Kingston Reporter photos!

People were in fine spirits, the place was packed, and the rollicking music had the dance floor hopping.

Thanks go out to all who came and made this year's Mardi Gras fundraiser a delightful success. We quickly ate up the delicious food from the outstanding jamby chiefs Bob Weber, Jenny DeFreitas, Jenny Savage, Steve Chetwynde, Thanh and Chris Shortall of Foppiano's Restuarant in Plymouth, Leslie-Ann McGee, Sara Altherr and Rick Stetson and this years new champion Al Alexis. Fantastic local oysters were donated and shucked by John Wheble and Tom Taylor (and Greg?) of the Rocky Nook Oyster Company. Cases of beer, soda and water were donated by LKnife, while wine was provided by Empire Wine & Spirits of Kingston and Doug Gray of Plymouth. The delicious King Cakes were supplied by the Community Center of St Bernard in New Orleans, while ginger bread, brownies and cookies came from the Peggy & Iris kitchen. As a great testament—all this food and drink were happily consumed and this night was the best New England style carnival party ever.

Thanks to all who donated time and creativity to cleaning and decorating and helping out as well as donating auction items, which were snapped up at bargain prices. Special thanks to Martha Mutrie who donated the $216 she won in the 50/50 right back to the cause!

We are able to again send $1000 to the Containers 2 Clinics project for supplies for the clinics being prepared for Haiti and in Port au Prince, as well as $1140 to the Community Center of St Bernard. The extra $140 was donated back to the CCSTB by the drummer in the band who gave all his "take" to the cause! We can't thank the Grand Bois band enough for their inspiring talent and we all look forward to next year. So keep those masks and beads at the ready, because we are psyched to continue this spirited Landing tradition!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!

It's been a year since the disaster in Haiti. They're struggling with people still in camps, health crises and a fractured presidential election. In the middle of all these challenges, Containers to Clinics (www.containers2clinics.org) has been successful in bringing needed clinics to the country. Their first clinic opened at Grace Children's Hospital in Port-au-Prince in October 2010. Since then, over 1,400 women have visited for gynecological and perinatal services. These are women who for 10 months after the earthquake had visited doctors beneath moldy tents, if at all. C2C takes great care to ensure that their patients are encouraged by the quality of our facility and the training of the attending physicians and they incentivize women's participation in the management of their health by creating dignity around the services they receive. In the coming months, C2C will begin a series of health surveys to visiting patients to collect information about their primary care needs and concerns; work with the health education team at GCH to deepen their education offerings; and evaluate and select the next site and set of partnerships for program expansion.

Closer to home in New Orleans, even the festive Mardi Gras celebrations can’t hide the fact that the struggle to rebuild is far from over. And the BP Oil Spill, which polluted the bayous and beaches and threatened the livelihood of so many families who depended on the fishing and seafood industries, has only made things worse. At the nonprofit Community Center of St Bernard (www.ccstb.org) which served more than 5,300 people last year, demand for basic services like food and clothes are still more than 18% higher than they were before the Oil Spill.

While there is a widespread belief that BP and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility are taking care of people and businesses affected by the Oil Spill, the truth is that the BP claims process is specifically targeted towards for-profit businesses that have lost customers as a result of the disaster. This means that claims adjustors routinely deny claims from nonprofit organizations that have seen an increase – not a decrease - in client numbers. The obvious difference between a paying customer at a for-profit business and a client who needs emergency help from a nonprofit organization simply isn’t addressed on the claim forms. As a result, nonprofit agencies like the Community Center have to find ways to handle the ongoing costs of assisting Oil Spill affected-residents on their own.

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