Own a piece of the disaster?

Spilled BP oil, however harmful to the environment, can be a thing of beauty. And Terrebonne oysterman and councilman Kevin Voisin is banking on BP oil helping the region’s most overlooked workers in his industry.

Voisin’s newly-formed Horizon Relief Corporation is offering limited edition, numbered bottles containing oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill reclaimed by vessels of opportunity. The 1,000 containers – Bottles of Hope – sell for $1,000. Similar oil-filled, quarter-ounce vials sell for $25. All the monies generated will benefit front-line workers.

“This is a one-time, limited edition offer,” Voisin emphasized. “We’re looking to raise approximately $1 million in three weeks and distribute it into the hands of the people that need it the most.”

Voisin and Horizon Relief partners Stephen Hassle and Joe Klaus came up with the idea to form the corporation to help workers in the oyster industry.

With the recent closure of most Terrebonne Parish’s oyster harvesting and fishing areas, Motivatit Seafood, where Voisin works as vice president of marketing, is among the companies that have fallen victim to the BP oil spill.

“We’ve been running well below capacity,” Voisin said. “But we’re positioned better than most in this industry. Where our beds are, they are well out of the reach of the oil. Our company will weather this storm.”

But it’s the front-line workers at Motivatit and similar oyster plants that the councilman worries about.

“This spill has been reported so mechanically,” he said. “We talk about top hat, top kill and relief wells. What you don’t hear enough about is the people on the frontline, the every day workers who are being impacted. This is not just about the owner of the plant or the captain of the boat. There are people who work hard collecting and shucking the oysters who may not be able to handle all the paperwork requirements, bureaucratic red tape and slow payouts we’ve been seeing.

“These are men and women who need help and they need it now,” Voisin said.

Hassle said the project aids the deckhands and daylaborers, and also let’s those who want to remember the disaster hold a piece of it. “These folks have dedicated their lives to this trade and now it’s on the verge of extinction,” he said. “It’s a tragedy any way you put it.”

For Voisin, helping fellow oyster workers is personal. “These aren’t employees; they’re lifelong friends and family,” he said. “I just couldn’t sit and wait anymore.”

Angered by offers for Small Business Administration loans and similar programs, Voisin said many programs are out of the reach of locals living paycheck-to-paycheck.

“How do you take out a loan when your entire livelihood has been wiped out?” he asked. “It’s a ludicrous response and further proof we can’t trust the government or BP to make this right. It’s going to take people helping people.”

Own A Bottle of Hope

The Horizon Relief Corp. is selling limited-edition glass bottles filled with oil-contaminated Gulf of Mexico water collected by workers with BP’s Vessels of Opportunity program. For more information, visit www.horizonrelief.org.

Terrebonne Parish Councilman Kevin Voisin shows off a bottle of BP oil. His Horizon Relief Corporation is selling 1,000 bottles to help the seafood industry’s most disinfranchised workers. * Photo by CASEY GISCLAIR