SHORT END OF THE STICK

By Angela Couch, As The Crow Flies,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AsTheCrowFlies/147636581936823
Special to Louisiana Trekker

Louisiana must truly be the festivities and celebrations capital of the United States. We do love to party don't we.  Festivals, concerts, art exhibits, museums, historial places, community events, food extravaganzas, musical concerts, sports and the list goes on and on. You can always find information about some event in Louisiana in speciality magazines, newspapers, on the radio and TV and on the web.

There are a number of internet sites created especially to share information about Louisiana happenings.  There is a nice listing of events in our state government's travel and tourism web site which lists many festivals and events for the whole year.  We have several well known Louisiana travel sites that contain events calendars. Major newspaper sites usually carry a listing of events local to their coverage area. Some personal sites also post upcoming events for our state.

I have canvassed a number of travel and tourism web sites specifically for the state of Louisiana.   In my  research, I googled for every site I could find that offered an events calendar for Louisiana.  There is no shortage of things to do in our state.  Louisiana is called the Sportsman's Paradise for good reason, for there are plenty of fishing and hunting opportunities here.  To augment the outdoor sportsman's love for the outdoors, there is the added thrill of fishing tournaments,  hunters courses, conventions, festivals, boat shows, gun and knives shows, wild game cooking classes just to name a few.  In addition, sports of almost every description, from Little League Ball to the Saints, and from roller skating to boat and car races can be found here.

There is a festival or celebration for nearly every type of food and concoction native to Louisiana.  There are many sites that report on cook-offs, food fests and the like for the state of Louisiana. 

For a softer side of things to do, there are always beauty pageants, music or dance recitals, and talent competitions.  Perhaps you lean toward literary diversions, the theater, or concert performances.  If it's music you like, you can find a potpourri of styles in an assortment of venues. There is no shortage of events to announce.

There is no shortage of opportunity to learn about our friends and neighbors with the gumbo of cultures we have in Louisiana. There are cultural exhibits, handcrafted artistry, folklife displays and museums that share our cultural diversity.

Unfortunately, my research has shown that in spite of an abundance of events that need to be publicized, north central Louisiana gets the short end of the stick. In my internet searches and some hard copy publication investigations, I have discovered that the number of listed events for north central Louisiana are not proportional as compared with our neighbors to the south.

Since I have created an events list for north/central Louisiana at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AsTheCrowFlies/147636581936823 , I have contiually searched for and posted hundreds of events in the north/central Louisiana coverage area of As The Crow Flies.  My purpose is to draw attention to this lack of publicity for north/central Louisiana and to perhaps find a workable solution.

I want to know that we are getting our fair share of  promotion which ultimately includes
recognition, resources and not least of all, tourism dollars.  Most non-government sites that share a calendar usually claim to be representing the whole state, though I have found this is not the case. But you would think that our state government listings would have a more balanced representation.

From our very own state of Louisiana website here: http://www.crt.state.la.us/search/default.asp  under lafestivals.xls a list of Louisiana festivals and events, out of a total of 510 events, less than 17% are listed for north/central Louisiana with the majority of those being in big city venues such as Monroe, Shreveport or cultural hot spots such as Natchitoches.  Even Alexandria came in with only 3 events.

When doing a search of a well known official travel site for Louisiana, (louisianatravel.com), I found in a search of the 13 areas listed, 5 of those were in central or north Louisiana.  Of those areas, there were a total of 35 events listed for a 4 week span between April 30 and May 28.  Sounds OK until you look at the totals.  In the same time period there were a total of 265 events listed for areas south of Alexandria. Of those listings in Alexandria area, 6 of the events were in conjunction with the Civil War Sesquicentennial.  Events that were special this year only and will not appear in the same context again. There were many other events in north/central Louisiana that were disregarded completely. When the numbers are crunched,  Central and North Louisiana gets 16 1/2 % of the total listings from this travel site though the actual number of events are many more than published.

The state government of Louisiana has a program called: Louisiana Main to Main: A Cultural Roadshow. From the site they say:  Louisiana Main to Main is a program to collectively showcase our culture, commerce, history, and our abundance of creative and natural assets, and encourages road trips from one Main Street community to the next.  This program list a total of 30 towns in the program but only 7 are in the northern/central region of Louisiana.  This gives the whole region north of Alexandria only 23% of the promotion and monies allotted. Some personal sites claiming to be promoting Louisiana statewide include little to no north/central Louisiana events. After researching several such sites these were some of the results.

Here are the numbers:
17 % http://www.crt.state.la.us/search/default.asp
16 1/2 %  http://cdn.louisianatravel.com/sites/louisianatravel.com/files/Louisiana-Fairs-and-Festivals.pdf

Some sites have NO listings for North Louisiana festivals despite claiming to be a listing site for the whole United States such as

0 % http://festivalsandevents.com/festival.php?state=LA
0 % http://southfest.com/louisiana.shtml  The southfest site has listings from 9 southern states. In it's Louisiana listings of festivals, not one event is listed for north/central Louisiana.

16%  http://www.laffnet.org/
6 1/2 % http://www.cajunradio.org/louisianafestivals.html
12 % Even Wikipedia with it's list of over 139 festivals managed to share only 12% of festivals in our area of the state.

From our state sites and other travel/tourism sites and publications we get only 9.7 % of the total publicity for events in the entire state of Louisiana.

You can check out these sites for yourself, see if you can find a fair share of publicity for north/central Louisiana.

Not to limit my search to festivals and fairs I went searching for other types of events.
Here are the results:

I looked up Summer Camps in Louisiana.  Out of a total of 11 from this site
http://www.americantowns.com/la/batonrouge-summer-camps, two were actually above
Alexandria, yet they were claiming to be giving information about summer camps in Louisiana.

Here on http://www.mysummercamps.com/camps/louisiana-summer-camps.html   I found  52 camps but only 6 of the total were from Alexandria or north of Alexandria Louisiana. There are many more summer camps & children's camps in north/central Louisiana than just over 1 %.

And just for fun I checked out this site http://www.foodreference.com/html/louisiana-
festivals.html to find that only 1 out of 37 Louisiana food events were listed as being in the
north/central Louisiana area.

Check out As The Crow Flies and see for yourself that we here in north/central Louisiana have many, many opportunities for tourism.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AsTheCrowFlies/147636581936823
If you are as unhappy with these numbers as I am, how about let's do something about it.

I will continue to post the events that I find on my page but it would be a great help if chambers of commerce, town site, newspapers and other publications as well as museums and art commissions would band together to request equal opportunity and publicity from the state of Louisiana and web site that promote the southern part of our state so heavily.

Email me at: angelacouch (at) yahoo (dot) com or contact me on Facebook with your suggestions. Put north/central Louisiana in the subject line please.

THE POSTER IN THE WINDOW by Angela Couch

In the window of a building in a small town hangs a slightly faded poster.  In years past the building was divided by a common wall and housed two thriving businesses, a drugstore and a dry goods store. On either side of these were a hotel, a bank, and more dry goods stores. They faced a similar block of businesses separated by a busy railroad track. Over the years, businesses came and they went as so called progress, then economic decline began to take it's toll. Citizens of the community sadly witnessed as the buildings along what used to be main street of their home town became empty and silent. The rumble of trains on the track that ran through the middle of town was only a reminder of the vibrant life that used to be. This same scenario may have played out in your community.

The faded poster has not always hung in the window, but was placed there in 1999.  The words on the poster are simple, straight forward, and if given opportunity, the words will inspire, encourage, energize. The poster is entitled "How to Build Community".  Though not written by Lorece Harris, the poster's message could have been.  During the years of decline of her hometown, Lorece began to dream of her community and the need to revive that which was dying, to repair that which was broken, and reunify that which was scattered. As she shared her dream with family and friends, the dream was caught by one and then another. Soon it became a cause and a campaign. Together, a handful of like-minded individuals, brought the dream to reality.

Today, the building with the poster in the window is called the Centennial Cultural Center in Olla, LA. Now every building along the block is occupied or in the process of renovation. People of the community and surrounding towns now come together to reminisce, to rejoice, to create and celebrate together.  The resulting memory making, learning, and sharing with friends and neighbors have brought a new spirit to this once still and lifeless area of town.

The Centennial Cultural Center was a project of the LaSalle Arts Council.  During the development of CCC, historical documents, photographs, and memorabilia were donated by people of the area and past residents.  One purpose of the center is to exhibit those collected materials.  Other purposes are to teach and demonstrate art and to provide a place for performances of music and display of art.  The center contains a small museum displaying items based on early times.

The grand opening of the CCC was commemorated  on October 1, 1999 just in time to help the town of Olla celebrate it's 100th birthday.  Many people who were instrumental in the formation of the center were in attendance at the opening and dedication ceremony of the CCC as noted in an article published in the Jena Times/Olla Tullos Urania Signal.

The goal of the center is to stimulate, encourage, nurture, promote and produce culture and art. Since it's beginning, the Centennial Cultural Center has become so much more than a museum or learning center. As I sat with Fern McKeithen, the current president of the center, we discussed how the center was meeting the needs of the community by using all art forms to teach good culture, thereby giving people and especially our younger generation good information to make wise choices, and by teaching standards and values.

There are several reasons for the successes of the Centennial Cultural Center. One reason is the co-operation between the towns of the area and the board of  the CCC.  Other important reasons for the success is support of the people in each of the communities and a volunteer spirit among those people.  Co-operation, community support, willingness to work hard, a positive outlook, and a desire to give others opportunities to learn and grow, are essentials in success.

The words on the poster in the window contain a wisdom that has been a guiding light in the growth and success of the Centennial Cultural Center.  If other communities in need of restoration and renewal would adopt the attitudes presented on the poster, much could be accomplished for the good of all.  I will share a few of them from the poster along with a few of my own.

How To Build Community

• Turn off your TV or computer & explore your community.
• Greet your neighbors & wave to people from your porch or yard.
• Buy from local merchants or barter for goods & services.
• Play music and sing together.
• Share your skills and share what you have.
• Honor senior citizens and soldiers.
• Support neighborhood schools and charitable organizations.
• Hire young people for odd jobs, recommend them to others.
• Read aloud to children or old folks.
• Talk to the mailman, meter reader or delivery person.
• Ask for help if you need it, offer help even if not asked.
• Give someone an opportunity or a second chance.
• Start a neighborhood garden, & the share bounty with others.
• Listen more than you speak but speak out if needed.
• Help keep a park or play area clean.
• Learn something new & teach it to others.
• Fix something that is broken even if you didn't break it
• Volunteer in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, child care facilities.
• Support a local non-profit organization.

I would encourage you to develop your own list within your own community.  Ask your friends to share their own thoughts for the community.  Contact your civic leaders, ask for their input and support.  Learn what others have done to build community. Do not allow negativity or obstacles to discourage you. Dream big and share the dream for your community with your friends and neighbors.  Or catch the dream of someone already involved in building community.  It’s a worthwhile effort and an achievable goal.

The Centennial Cultural Center is financially supported by donations, grants and fund raisers.  The center sponsors several events throughout the year.  In April the Central Louisiana Bluegrass Festival is a main attraction for people from all over Louisiana.  The summer months bring art, education and culture in focus with "Freedom in Reading" Literacy Camp and Art & Etiquette Camp in July. In August is the Stained Glass Camp.  Each year in October, Olla Home Coming is enjoyed by all.  The center allows for local singers and musicians to come together bi-monthly for enjoyable jam sessions. Quilting Workshops and a quilt show, art classes, a Community Christmas program and other events throughout the year are made possible through the CCC.

How can you help the Centennial Cultural Center?  Are you interested in sharing your own memories or artifacts by loan or donation?  Do you have valuable information to share with others concerning the history of the area?  Can you volunteer time at the center or during one of it's projects?  Would you like to support the center in their efforts by making a monetary donation?  The center is accessible in a number of ways.

View their web site: http://www.culturalcenter.us/index.html
Visit them:  Downtown Historic District 2962 Front Street Olla, Louisiana
Write to them:  Post Office Box 896,  Olla, Louisiana 71465
Call or fax them: Phone: (318) 495-7988  Fax: (318) 495-7988
E-mail them: cultural@centurytel.net
Find them on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=104000578883#!/pages/Centennial-Cultural-Center/104000578883

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS COPYRIGHT Angela Couch
Find her on Facebook at AsTheCrowFlies http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/AsTheCrowFlies/147636581936823?v=wall

I Like Home The Best

by Angela Couch

It's rivers flow with a rhythm as they journey south. It's Magnolia blossoms, so striking in their beauty, give one a sense of strength wrapped in sleek satin. The sweet aroma of honeysuckle on the vine along it's country lanes soothe the soul. It's a place where people enjoy life in all of it's colorful hues and blends. A place where unique music, delectable food, or nature's bounty are reason enough to have a festival or throw a party. I'm talking about Louisiana. Even the name is a lovely melody.

Say it again, Louisiana.

We have such a wonderful country, filled with breathtaking vistas, endless fun, excitement and interesting people. After traveling in every state in America, except one, I have decided I like home the best. My goal, through a series of stories, is to give you a word picture of my area of Louisiana: its fun, its history, its attractions, its people.

I will be promoting events, highlighting history, supporting the arts, encouraging participation, and reporting on each event I attend or take a part in. Each month, my Facebook page, lists coming events and historical points of interest, highlighted by the crow as he flies 100 miles across north central Louisiana. Louisiana Trekker has graciously asked me to share with her readers some of the interesting places and people we see in this area.

Coming soon, two events we recently attended, the 55th Annual Louisiana Art and Folk Festival in Columbia, LA and Fall Fest & Antique Show sponsored by LaSalle Antique and Tractor Club based in Jena, LA.

Here are a couple of shots from those two events.

Louisiana, a lovely melody.

Photos and article copyright Angela Couch. All rights reserved. My not be copied or reproduced in any manner.