As we near the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina we are reminded of the importance of our coastal lines of defense, our wetlands. Louisiana continues to lose a football field’s worth of coastal wetlands every forty-five minutes due to erosion caused by oil and gas canals, subsidence and rising sea levels. This loss threatens our nation’s energy resources, fishing, and most importantly is leaving New Orleans and other coastal communities more vulnerable to future storms like Katrina.On August 29, 2008 we are asking you and all of our supporters to host houseparties to commemorate the storm and ensure that the nation learns its lessons.Last year we organized over thirty houseparties that were both informative and a lot of fun. This year we would like to organize fifty! We will send our hosts a series of short documentary films by filmmaker Walter Williams (the creator of Mr. Bill of classic Saturday Night Live) which detail our coastal crisis and the steps necessary to avert it.We really need you to step up and open your home, church or community center to build the support necessary to make coastal restoration a national priority. It’s easy, just head to our website, fill out the form and instead of sending an e-mail, you will be signed up to host a houseparty. Then, invite your friends, family, colleagues, church group, bowling team, whoever!http://action.healthygulf.org/event/distributedEventSignup.jsp?distributed_event_KEY=442As the nation’s memory of Katrina fades, so too does our opportunity to teach the nation about the importance of our coastal lines of defense. Please help us remind our friends and neighbors through these events.For our coast and communities,Aaron VilesCampaign Director
