My Hattiesburg

Katrina Victims Donate and Volunteer List

As most of the world knows, this hurricane affected a lot of lives, and the impact is still be felt by thousands of people. Hattiesburg was hit very hard and many are without food, water, and electricity. If you’d like to donate to the victims of the this natural disaster, I’m posting the list of safe charities given by CNN. One thing I hate to see are people that try to gain from this by creating fake charities and sending spam emails to try to play on people’s emotions. Don’t click links sent to you by someone you do not know. Sometimes the web site can look just like the real one, but in fact, your giving money to criminals instead of victims. I encourage everyone to go to the web sites by directly typing the names in their browser or by clicking links on sites you know and trust. On a side note, the Our Hattiesburg project’s focus looks like it’s changing to help the victims of this hurricane located here in Hattiesburg. Please post your feedback there on what you think we can do to help. Here is CNN’s list, all of these should be safe to donate to.

Network for Good

American Red Cross — (800) HELP-NOW

Feed the Children — (800) 525-7575

Salvation Army — (800) SAL-ARMY

Florida Hurricane Relief Fund

America’s Second Harvest — (877) 817-2307

Catholic Charities USA — (800) 919-9338

B’nai B’rith International — (888) 388-4224

United Jewish Communities

Union for Reform Judaism

Church World Service — (800) 297-1516 ext 222

MercyCorps — (800) 852-2100

Noah’s Wish — (530) 622-9313

North Shore Animal League — (877) 4savepet

Operation Blessing — (800) 730-2537

Episcopal Relief and Development — (800) 334-7626

Habitat for Humanity — (866) 720-2800

The United Way — (800) 272-4630

Humane Society of America — (888) 259-5431

ASPCA — (866) 275-3923

Lutheran Disaster Response — (800) 638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service — (800) 348-7468

Water Missions International — (843) 769-7395

United Methodist Committee on Relief — (800) 554-8583

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation — (877) 387-6126

Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Samaritan’s Purse — (800) 665-2843

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee — (800) 55-CRWRC

Food for the Hungry — (877) 780-4261 ext 2506

Northwest Medical Teams — (800) 959-4325

World Relief — (800) 535-5433

Adventist Development Relief Agency — (800) 424-2372

Southern Baptist Convention — (888) 571-5895

Save the Children — (800) 728-3843

International Medical Corps — (800) 481-4462

American Friends Service Committee — (888) 588-2378

AmeriCares — (800) 486-4357

International Aid — (800) 251-2502

International Medical Corps — (800) 481-4462

International Orthodox Christian Charities — (877) 803 4622

International Relief and Development, Inc. — (703) 248-0161

International Relief Teams — (619) 284-7979

International Rescue Committee — (877) 733-8433

Life for Relief and Development — (800) 827-3543

MAP International — (866) 627-4483

Mercy (M-USA) — (800) 55-MERCY

Operation USA — (800) 678-7255

Quarters From Kids

Relief International — (800) 573-3332

Relief International — (800) 573-3332

USA Freedom Corps — (212) 348-8882

World Concern — (800) 755-5022 ext. 0

Moveon.org: Hurricane housing

There are also several threads going on in the Hattiesburg news forum started by people looking for loved ones. As well as, a thread about information for people doing a search for loved ones to help them with this frustrating task.

Hattiesburg News

Looking for loved ones?

Our Hattiesburg Charity Project

We’ve begun taking ideas for charity projects on the forum. The idea being that since we have a large group of people here, why not organize something for the greater good of Hattiesburg. Many people would like to donate to charity, but don’t know how or where to do it. We could centralize this so that not only would you know how to donate, but have several options upon which to decide. The site could take projects on a case by case basis and submit them to our online community. If approved, then we do whatever we can with whoever would like to volunteer their time or money to the project. An example of this is already up. If you have suggestions or would like to help, please click below.

City Council Meeting

Thanks to “justme” on the forums for letting us all know that the next city council meeting open to the public will be on Tuesday, July 19th at 6 PM on the 2nd Floor of City Hall. We encourage all of our members to attend these meetings and voice your opinion in the upcoming council decisions such as the reappointment of Johnny Dupree’s staff, including the Chief of Police and Chief of the Fire Department.

The City Council will meet on Monday and Tuesday of next week, but the only one open to the public is the Tuesday meeting. According to Tully Mars, “The City Council meetings typically take place on a Monday and Tuesday evening. The Monday meeting is usually longer and more in-depth. Each agenda item is discussed and acted upon. The Tuesday meeting includes a public forum and essentially a ratification of the actions that took place during the Monday meeting. This is an oversimplification of the process but that’s it in a nutshell.”

Hurricane Dennis

We have several discussions going on over in the Hattiesburg news forum about Dennis. Emergency contact info, available shelters, as well as updated information about the storm.

My Hattiesburg Magazine

We have released our first issue of My Hattiesburg, the magazine. It’s not a full issue, but more of a small sample of what’s in store for the upcoming months. The magazine is looking for your help though. We need your input on what you’d like to see in the magazine. Please leave your comments here or in the forums. You can also vote in the poll over in the magazine section. Also, we need writers. If you have an article you’d like to publish or would like to write a monthly section in the magazine, please use the contact us form in the magazine section and let us know.

My Hattiesburg Magazine

Happy July 4th!

Hope your having a great July 4th at one of the many fireworks displays around town tonight or with your family and friends. Some quick facts about Independence day:

• Fourth of July was declared a federal holiday in 1941 (probably bogged down in Congress for a long time)
• July 1776, there were about 2.5 million people living in the colonies.
• We imported about 164.2 million in fireworks from China last year.
• We imported about 5.4 million dollars in U.S. Flags from the same place (Free trade seems to be doing really well for them)
• We had about 34 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. last year. Of those, about 706,000 were granted citizenship.
• Uncle Sam was first popularized during the War of 1812, when the term appeared on supply containers. Believe it or not, the U. S. Congress didn’t adopt him as a national symbol until 1961. (again, Congress…)
• From this point, 180 days remain until Christmas is here again

What are you reading?

In the upcoming months, we’re going to have many additions to the site and really try to make MyHattiesburg.com the site you come to for anything about Hattiesburg. While we work on these additions though, I decided to give our visitors other choices in the reading department. If you enjoy reading in your off time, these three books are the most popular in Hattiesburg according to Amazon.com.

The Total Money Makeover by radio talk show host Dave Ramsey is a financial and motivational book that helps you out of debt as soon as possible.

The Last Juror, this book by John Grisham is described as one of his best ever and tells a story of a reporter in Clanton, Miss. in the 70’s.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven picks up where “It’s a Wonderful Life” left off and got an average of 4 out of 5 stars from 1,347 reviews.

Four More Years

Johnny Dupree is returning as mayor of Hattiesburg. Unofficial results showed the mayor with 7,160 votes and Rowell with 4,678 votes. Over 52% percent of the voters in Hattiesburg turned out to vote in yesterday’s election. For a breakdown of the election results by precinct, click here.

The election is over and I think now it’s time to move on. Hopefully, the mayor got some good ideas from all the candidates that entered the race and will take them to the office today. I applaud his gracious victory speech last night, am now encouraging everyone to look forward to the next four years.

Incomplete Hattiesburg Election Results

We’ll be posting the election results as they come in on the forums. Just click the link below. As soon as there is some type of official or even unofficial result, I’ll post it here.

http://www.myhattiesburg.com/forums/index.php?topic=1837.0

Get out and vote

On Tuesday, June 7th, we may just have the best turnout in Hattiesburg election history. Of course, we may just have the worst, since it’s up to you. The most important thing is not who you vote for, it’s that you make a informed decision about who should lead this city, and cast your ballot for that person. That’s what all the fuss is about. That’s why these candidates create web sites, spend money on commercials, and spend lots of time talking about their plan. For you and your vote.

If you’ve read this site for the past couple of months, you know that some people say that Hattiesburg is in the gutter. They are happy to give first-hand accounts of outrageous situations containing abuse of power and corrupt leaders. Other people will tell a different story, about the city’s many accomplishments during this administration, and it’s been a turn for the better over the past four years. Me? I don’t know first-hand about any of these things. I think you should look at yourself personally. Look around at your home, your roads, your taxes, and at the city as a whole. Do you like what you see? Then vote for Dupree. Do you think things could be improved? Then vote for Rowell or O’Hara. I just want to be able to say on June 7th that Hattiesburg, as a whole, elected our mayor, whoever that may be. I’d like to say that Hattiesburg stands behind this person, because we had 100% of the registered voters turn out and someone…anyone won the majority. These candidates want the same thing I’m sure. They don’t want to be elected by a select few, they want to stand in front of Hattiesburg knowing that they were elected by the people, for the people.

“Well, what if I can’t make it on Tuesday?” According to the Hattiesburg American, hundreds of absentee ballots have already been cast, and that is an option to you to if you can’t make it on Tuesday. You don’t even have to have a good excuse, just the fact that you don’t like the traffic on election day can get you an absentee ballot and at the front of the line before election day even gets here. Then on Tuesday, you ride home and and lounge in your favorite chair until the results come in.

Lastly, If your wondering where to vote, just call the city clerk’s office at 601-545-4552 and they will let you know what Ward you are in and where you should vote at. It’s that easy. Come back Tuesday night, turn on WDAM, or get on MyHattiesburg.com and watch as the numbers roll in knowing that you participated in Hattiesburg’s 2005 election. It’ll be a decision no one can make again until the year 2009.