Credit rtdna.org
Alabama Public Radio won three regional Edward R. Murrow awards for our coverage of the tenth anniversary of the BP Gulf oil spill.
This project utilized our Gulf Coast correspondents Guy Busby and Lynn Oldshue. APR recruited and trained Guy and Lynn to do radio stories to resolve the “news desert” along the coast. In fact, Lynn’s story on the ongoing effects of chemical oil dispersants was her first story for APR. Guy contributed a feature on how Gulf businesses coped with the impact of the spill 10 years ago and how they’re undergoing similar hardships with COVID-19.
The famous Mobile resident that may leave some Mobilians saying who? apr.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from apr.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Credit APR s Guy Busby
Mobilians don’t need much excuse to celebrate. Locals claim that Mardi Gras in the United States began here more than 300 years ago. But, COVID-19 canceled the parades for the first time since World War II. Now, the christening of a Navy ship in the city, named the USS Mobile at that, is a good enough excuse. Mobile will hold a Mardi Gras style parade on May twenty second to welcome dignitaries, celebrate the event, and give residents and visitors a taste of the way the port city parties during Fat Tuesday.
“The wheels started in motion, brainstorming, how can we make this really special?” asked Mayor Sandy Stimpson, who said plans for the festivities actually predate the pandemic.
Customers gather at Curtis Rewerts store in Fairhope
Credit APR Gulf coast correspondent Lynn Oldshue He probably struggled financially because of how much he was helping others. I don t even know the extent of all the people he helped, Isabelle Pope said. He was an extremely nice person, King Cunningham said. If the community did well, he did well. He was out there smiling at you, greeting you all of the time. He used to have a Breakfast with Curt. Sometimes years ago he had a picnic table up under the gas pumps out there and he d cook tons and tons of bacon, bacon, egg sandwiches, Norma Weston said, and then he called it Breakfast with Curt.
APR news feature 2020 was tough along the Gulf coast, 2021 may be worse Through this time period, we ve distributed over 2.8 million pounds of food. That s 1400 tons of groceries to families in Baldwin County said Dean Servos, Executive Director of Prodissee Pantry.
The non-profit ministry in Spanish Fort has provided food and disaster relief in Baldwin County for 17 years. The past year put the group to the test. Prodissee Pantry delivered three times the amount of food relief in 2019 compared to the year before. Servos says one third of the people coming for help were doing so for the first time.
Clients line up for aid from Prodisee Pantry along the Gulf coast