Local benefit concert to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina
Published: Sep 11 2005

Restaurant News Links

Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast, Marie Janisse-Wilkins is unable to reach her family in Louisiana.

“I’ve been trying to call my cousin in Baton Rouge to find out what’s going on,” the Bless My Soul Cafe owner said. “I have no idea what’s going on.

“My grandma always said while I was growing up ‘no news is good news.’ I’m going with that one.”

Her Eureka restaurant will provide traditional Louisiana fare, such as gumbo and red beans and rice, as well as vegetarian options, for “Humboldt Sends Relief: Katrina Disaster Benefit” on Friday from 6 p.m. to midnight in the Bayside Grange at 2297 Jacoby Creek Road.

The event will include performances by local bands Magnolia, the Bayou Swamis and the Rubberneckers, with a swing-dance lesson to be held at 7:30 p.m.

Dance demonstrations will take place between music sets.

Attendees are asked to bring bottled water, canned food that needs no preparation, powdered milk and toiletries to send to evacuees.

Eureka’s St. Vincent de Paul is coordinating an air cargo delivery of those items to the disaster areas.

Silent auction items are still being collected and volunteers are needed.

Auction items can be brought to Imagine at 820 N St. in Arcata. Anyone with items or time to donate should phone event coordinator Nancy Stephenson at (707) 845-2315.

Tickets for the dinner and the dance will be sold at the door at $15 for adults and $5 for children younger than 12. Adults can attend the dance for $10 and children will be free.

All funds will be sent to the American Red Cross.

Humboldt Sends Relief is a joint effort of The Eureka Reporter, Lost Coast Communications, Times-Standard, Arcata Eye, North Coast Journal, Eureka Television Group and KIEM Channel 3 News.

“The idea came about because I was just in shock seeing the destruction,” Stephenson said.

She said event preparation is going well.

“It’s a real mix of the community wanting to be generous,” Stephenson said.

She said it is not sufficient to wait for the government and “bureaucracy” to lend aid.

“I hope our country can come together in the aftermath (and) try to settle the racial angles of it, the political angles of it,” Stephenson said.

She said she is aware that locally “we are on the edge seismically.”

The hurricane is “a heads-up for us to be prepared for anything at any time in our lives (and) to have a good system to communicate with each other and deal with our own emergency,” Stephenson said. “... I think about that a lot.”

Janisse-Wilkins is also known as “Sweet Mama Janisse,” whose specialty Creole-style sauces are sold locally in most grocery stores.

She was raised by her grandmother in Opelousas, La.

Her grandmother taught her how to cook.

“She didn’t speak any English,” Janisse-Wilkins said. “All she spoke was Creole.”

Janisse-Wilkins’ family lives throughout Louisiana.

“It just tears my heart out, the people there live from paycheck-to-paycheck,” she said. “It makes me feel so good to hear civilians pulling it together to bring aid to them. That’s why it’s so good to be part of a fund-raiser here.”

She said she has grown tired of the people on the Gulf Coast being referred to by media as “victims.”

“They’re definitely not victims,” she said. “There is a lot of soul down there.”

Janisse-Wilkins has a mirror — a “voodoo mirror”— on the wall of her restaurant. It is layered with Mardi Gras beads, which she has collected herself and from friends and relatives.

“All we can do is pray for them and do as much as we can,” she said. “Oh my God, those babies, no water, no milk in the hot sun.

“It’s pretty depressing, but their spirits are still high. That’s the kind of people they are.”