Hurricane Katrina

I was working with the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Relief Team at the Port Allen Community Center in Baton Rouge. This is a photo of our team.

Youth Volunteerism

Surviving Hurricane Rita

We made it through Hurricane Rita without a scratch. The family I am staying with in Baton Rouge was prepared, but there wasn't too much to be prepared for here. We were watching a video, and listening to the rain and the wind when we heard a big BOOM!

Big branches from a tree in the backyard had come crashing down, but they missed the house, so we are all okay, and so is the house.

I'm back to volunteering tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

Blogs supporting Katrina Relief Efforts

Here are some great blogs that support the Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts, as well as the Scientology Volunteer Ministers:

Volunteer Ministers in Baton Rouge


Youth Volunteerism - assisting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

One Volunteer Minister's Experiences

Blog about David Miscavige

Disaster Relief in Louisiana

Philippa's Blog

Preparing for the next hurricane

It looks like everyone is getting ready for Hurricane Rita. We have our own evacuation plans prepared in case we need to evacuate. If we don't need to evacuate, that will be good, as we will be ready to go right into whatever area gets hit and help those people out.

Lots of the Volunteer Ministers here have moved out to Mississippi, where they have not gotten much help from elsewhere.

Here's what one VM had to say about another Volunteer Minister named Marie:

On Saturday Marie and her team completed the what no other shelter group in the entire State of Louisiana had done. They were given 24/7 responsibility for over 350 evacuees and made comfortable in their shelters, handled their basic needs, gave them assists (thereby bringing relief from the trauma and upset of their ordeal), helped them to confront and deal with their new situations, brought one woman who flat-lined back to life with proper assists, and then assisted all 350 to find homes and relocate out of the shelters!

Marie and her team has earned my endearing admiration. She and her team have earned commendations from many community and governmental groups (3 examples are attached). They have been acknowledged by FEMA, Homeland Security, the Sheriff's Department, the City Police, the Mayor, townspeople, and others. Their accomplishments have been chronicled in the press and on TV. Look at this:


The Mayor of the City of Lafayette has announced that the City is proclaiming the month of October as Scientology Month in acknowledgement of the valuable contributions and work that the Scientology Volunteer Ministers have done for the City of Lafayette and the Parish!

Here's one example of how determined Marie and her team are to get out their products:

… we had one last family to find a home for… two VM’s literally walked the streets looking for a home for this lady and her family… we were totally determined to get this done and achieve our product here in Vermilion parish… as they walked down numerous streets they noticed one house that was all dark inside… they went door to door to find the owner and found her across the street… a 91 year old lady who is legally blind… they explained what was needed and wanted… negotiated the lease… gave her the deposit and got the resident over to the house to see it… then the problem became… no electricity … it’s now 6:30 PM Saturday night… I immediately got onto the phone to find the mayor to handle this… he wasn’t available… but in my trusty little phone list I had the cell phone for the mayor’s secretary… got her on the phone and told her what I needed for the electricity… only took her 1 hour to handle and she got the utility company out to hook up the electricity… whew!... but then… no water!.... called her back and it’s now 8 PM Saturday night…. Now I’m really asking a lot… within 30 minutes…. BAM! Water is on!... Now all I have to figure out is where to get trucks to move the family in… another 30 minutes… BAM! (starting to sound like Chef Emeril Legasses aren’t I? oh.. you may not know him… a famous New Orleans chef who always says… "BAM!")…. Now I have trucks moving her in… don’t know any other town in the US that could have pulled that off for us… the lady at the utility company was so sweet… she told me she got it done fast so I could go get some sleep tonight! (only in South Louisiana!)


We are now officially done with the shelters… every single person… with jobs and a new home or back with their family members… what a cycle…

Well, at that point Marie thought she was done until Homeland Security called to ask the Scientology Volunteer Ministers to take over another shelter where the evacuees were not being properly taken care of and staged a "revolt". Of course she did this and immediately calmed them down and reestablished a productive and peaceful environment.

Now she has a bit more work to do :-) The police are helping by looking for vacant homes all over the parish and contacting Marie's team so that the owners can be contacted. No stone unturned! Also she's teaming a mobile home sale company with some vacant land - more homes for evacuees!

Youth for Human Rights

Vancouver Youth Taking Charge of Their Community

The Youth for Human Rights International newest group was formed in Vancouver, B.C. to educate young people on their basic human rights.

(PRWEB) September 16, 2005 -- Using a hard hitting music video UNITED, the Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) newest chapter was formed by teens in Vancouver, British Columbia at a special viewing and briefing by local Church of Scientology Public Affairs Director, Susan Kerr. Teen leaders Cory Thomson, Corbin Campbell and Gordon Kerr along with a group made up of teens and pre-teens have taken up the challenge to educate young people on their rights with the aim of making their city a better place and urge others to join in.

The purpose of YHRI is to teach youth about human rights empowering them to become advocates for tolerance and peace. The YHRI is headquartered in Los Angeles and has chapters throughout the world. It was started by educator and school principal, Mary Shuttleworth. Having spent 30 years working with children, Shuttleworth, an active member of the Church of Scientology, decided to launch a campaign to teach children about human rights. YHRI began as an outreach project of the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance, but due to its rapid expansion has formed its own non-profit, tax-exempt corporation.

A relentless campaigner for human rights for the last four decades, the Church of Scientology adopted YHRI as its international program to see that all children of the world are granted fundamental rights. The Church has sponsored the printing and distribution of over a million copies of YHRI’s educational booklet, What are Human Rights?, in 19 different languages, plus a special UNITED edition in 21 languages.

The Church is concerned that today millions do not have basic rights as outlined in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, which forms the core of the YHRI campaign. Protecting and promoting human rights for all is an intrinsic part of the teachings of Scientology as laid out by Scientology founder and humanitarian, L. Ron Hubbard, who stated, “Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.”

Due to the explosive popularity of the YHRI campaign, the UNITED music video was created in 2004 as a theme song and music video for YHRI by TXL Films with the help of the Church of Scientology International. This was a project done and run by teens under the direction of 19 year old Taron Lexton. They travelled filming the video through 14 countries. It includes stars such as Isaac Hayes, Jenna Elfman and others who donated their time. UNITED was premiered at the United Nations 2004 Youth Summit and was also featured this year at the New York Film Festival.

All three of the teen leaders have witnessed and experienced first hand bullies at work and know what it can do. “I’ve seen what racism can do in my school,” said Thomson (16). “It just makes a mess of things.” They want to get the UNITED message out. “Human rights should be known and understood by everybody,” said Kerr (17. “We can do something about this planet,” added Campbell (16).

For more information or to join the Vancouver group call 604-681-9121.

Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Work

I am in Louisiana, where I have been helping evacuees at a shelter. The first week and a half that I was here, I was at the Port Allen Community Center, giving Scientology assists to evacuees who were injured or upset. I also gave assists to rescue workers and police officers.

Some of the other Volunteer Ministers have been preparing and serving food, helping people find lost family members, and providing other kinds of help to the evacuees.

You can read about Scientology assists and how the Volunteer Ministers use them to help those who are traumatized by a disaster.

Youth Volunteerism

I have been volunteering in my community for years, telling kids the truth about drugs with the Church of Scientology Drug-Free Marshals, spreading the word about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with Youth for Human Rights International, and working with the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

Youth Volunteerism - anti-drug activism

My sister and I have been commended for our work as anti-drug activists. We have been speaking with other kids about drugs, and how to help them keep their friends off drugs, for years.

We are Church of Scientology Drug-Free Marshals and we have gone to lots of schools, police events, festivals, marathons, etc., where we have spoken with thousands of other kids about living a drug-free life.

It's easy to make the decision to not try drugs, but I think most kids don't get asked to make that decision. We talk to them about it, and they decide to stay away from drugs, and I think that makes a big difference.

Drug Addiction and Drug Treatment

And here you can see the award my sister and I earned:

Drug Education