Courtesy: San Jose State Athletics Dick Tomey is an advocate for the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project.

San Jose, Calif.-----San Jose State football head coach Dick Tomey will be one of the featured speakers during the university’s participation in the nationwide commemoration of the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday, August 29.

The two-hour march and rally starts at noon where walkers and supporters will gather at San Jose Municipal Stadium. Spartan Stadium, the Tommie Smith & John Carlos statues on the San Jose State University campus and the San Jose Civic Auditorium are the other three locations where local participants will gather.

The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project is the sponsor of the national commemoration. Similar rallies in New Orleans, Boulder, Colo., San Diego, Chicago and Lincoln, Ill., are taking place from August 29 to September 2.

The Project’s goal is to remember the 1,800 people that died from the 2005 hurricane, highlight the struggles of Katrina survivors and promote the creation of 100,000 public works jobs for Gulf Coast residents to rebuild their communities and stimulate local economic activity.

Tomey remarks will center on his experiences taking teams into sports facilities constructed from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), a jobs creation program to lift the country socially and economically out of the 1930's Great Depression. Spartan Stadium, the home of the San Jose State football team, opened in 1933 and was a product of Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives.

Information on the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project is available at www.solvingpoverty.com.