By MARK H. HUNTER
Special to The Advocate
Published: Aug 30, 2009 - Page: 3B

Four years to the day after Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, more than 100 people gathered Saturday for an ecumenical prayer breakfast to remember the storm’s human devastation and to honor churches, charities and civic groups that assisted thousands of evacuees.

The gathering at the LSU Lod Cook Alumni Center was held in conjunction with release in Baton Rouge of a Children’s Defense Fund and Katrina Citizens’ Leadership Corps 40-page report on the storm’s aftermath and its effects on the Gulf Coast.

The Most Rev. Robert W. Muench, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, focused his remarks on how Katrina affected displaced children’s peace of mind.

Muench praised Baton Rouge’s area churches, civic groups and charities for how quickly and effectively they swung into action after Katrina struck.

“Half the people of Baton Rouge opened their homes to New Orleans residents and many of our churches served as shelters as well as places of worship,” the bishop said.

The storm taught, Muench said, “that we are a good people and intuitively we reached out to others. How we love God can best be measured by how much we help our neighbors.”

Plaques and citations were presented to 11 organizations, five churches and two area governments.

Honored organizations: Baton Rouge Area Foundation, La Capitale Chapter of Links, Mid-City Redevelopment, LSU School of Social Work, 100 Black Men of Baton Rouge, Catholic Charities Diocese of Baton Rouge and Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.

Also, Baton Rouge Sigma Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Family Road, Red Cross of Baton Rouge and Southern University Agriculture Center.

Honored churches: Bethany World Prayer Center, Healing Place Church, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, Mount Zion First Baptist Church and Star Hill Church.

Cities/Communities: East Baton Rouge Parish, Mayor/President Melvin “Kip” Holden; and the city of Baker, Mayor Harold Rideau.

Saturday’s co-moderators, Christopher N. Hunte, a Southern University professor, and Carmen Spooner, a social worker displaced from New Orleans, described how the group organized, reported statistics describing the state of poor children and outlined some of the report’s recommendations.

One of the recommendations, Hunte said, is a federal government policy change they’d like to see that would bring the United States into line with the United Nation’s Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

“Another recommendation that comes out of the report is very simple, one we all are aware of,” Hunte said. “How do we stop the pipeline from the cradle to prisons to the grave? For many people who are poor, sometimes the only alternative they have is to go from the cradle to prison to the grave.”

Spooner said Katrina must not be forgotten and recited statistics regarding the condition of this state’s children.

“Of the 1,164,961 children living in Louisiana, 343,256 are poor,” Spooner said. “That’s a bad precedent.

“A child is born into poverty every 27 minutes, 50 percent of them are black children, 20 percent of them are Hispanic children,” Spooner said, “and 13 percent of white children are poor.”