Hurricane Relief

The Twins will be hosting an auction and other events this weekend to raise money for the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army to provide relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The auction prizes include opportunities to meet Joe Mauer during batting practice, to spend time with Tony Oliva while you watch a game from a luxury suite, or to meet Harmon Killebrew, as well as other prizes. Click HERE for full details.

I also found a handy list of Hurricane Relief charities organized at Billmon's blog. Amidst several charities that will help people recover from the disaster, the list also includes donation links to the Humane Society and Noah's Wish to help rescue and care for animals in the disaster area and to assist the animals' owners.

I keep writing about the Twins this week because I care too much about baseball. My interest in the game is a passion which sometimes becomes an obsession for all the wonderful and myriad details involved, and this blog is an outlet to talk about all that and reach people who share that passion. Yet even as I'm frustrated or disappointed by the sorry Twins offense, and I feel compelled to pick apart Ron Gardenhire, I know these things are insignificant next to the tragedy of what is unfolding in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

To see New Orleans, birthplace of jazz, destroyed and mostly underwater while thousands of its people are stuck in chaos and squalor, and to think of the lost cultural and architectural history as well as all the lost lives, homes, communities, and ways of life, is deeply saddening to me. One of America's unique treasures is gone. The recovery and rebuilding of communities to take its place will require us to pull together and pitch in whatever we can do to help.

Please, keep the victims of the hurricane in your thoughts and prayers, and consider contributing to the relief efforts in any way that you're able.

Thank you.

Kristi in the comments provides this LINK with a message from the cat kingdom. (Scroll down after jumping to the new window.)