A real Treasure

Treasure Norton, a member of the Claiborne Parish Boys and Girls Club in Homer, was named Youth of the Year for the state of Louisiana by Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Treasure, a 16-year-old junior at Homer High School, has been a member of the club for nine years.

Treasure said the Boys and Girls Club is like a second home for her and she works with some of the younger kids at the club.

In addition to $2,000 she received for being named Youth of the Year, Treasure also received a laptop and $100 from the Claiborne Boys and Girls Club.

Rising from the ashes

Two years ago, Mt. Zion CME Church on East Union in Minden burned as members and others looked on.
After the fire, the congregation held services in the chapel of Benevolent Funeral Home across the street and later moved to the 14th District Building on Bailey Street.
But now construction in under way on the new church and members are looking forward to moving to their new home. Not only will they have a new church, they also have a new pastor -- sort of. This isn't the Rev. Jeffrey J. Whitmore's first time as pastor of the church.
Whitmore, 44, was pastor of Mt. Zion for two years, starting in 1988. Now he's back and and looking forward to great things for the church.
I recently sat down with Whitmore and longtime church members Mabel W. Stewart and her son, Robert Stewart, and Jennie M. Johnson. The group had great things to say about the church and its members. They also talked about the day they found out the church was burning.
Members will celebrate the church's 137th anniversary in September.
Look for more on the church, its new pastor and his vision for the congregation in an upcoming column.

High school filmmakers

Katrina Gilliam is proud of her telecommunications magnet students.
They recently compiled a DVD, “All Things Come to Light.” Also included on the DVD are “Hidden Heroes” and “The Ultimate Text Message.”
“All Things Come to Light” is a short drama about teen pregnancy.
“This is my 12th year at the school,” Gilliam said, adding that in 12 years, several of her students have been hired at Channel 12 and Channel 3.
The program is designed for students wanting to further their career in news broadcast. However, we’ve kind of intertwined with filming. The students went on a tour of CNN in March.
Gilliam said one thing she wants people to know is that the program is open to all students, not just students at Booker T. Washington High School.
“A lot of kids are missing out on the program because their parents don’t know about it,” Gilliam said.
She said most of the students in the program come from other Caddo Parish schools, including Caddo Magnet, Byrd and Woodlawn high schools.
“We’re trying to recruit students,” Gilliam said.
The DVD is free and is available by calling the Robinson Film Center at (318) 424-9090.

Strange story

I was listening to the radio this morning on my way to work when I heard what I thought must have been some cruel joke.
They were reporting that a 2-year-old boy had been sodomized by the family's pet pit bull. My first reaction was "What?" They said the mother came into the room and saw the dog on her child but couldn't get him off the kid. Then they said she ran outside screaming that the dog was raping her child and neighbors had to get the dog loose.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing so I looked for that story online, hoping it wasn't true. Unfortunately I found the story. It happened in New York.

'Bringing hope'

The national "Bringing Hope to the Table" program will be held July 15-28.
Kroger grocery stores, along with Acosta Sales and Marketing agency, will team again to raise funds to buy food for this hunger relief program.
The funds will assist the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana in providing thousands of families throughout the region with more food.
The “Bringing Hope to the Table” program will help the food bank through in-store promotion of a variety of food and consumer packaged products at Kroger locations.
“This important donation will help feed hundreds of thousands of hungry people in northwest Louisiana,” said Vicki Escarra, president and chief executive officer of America’s Second Harvest, a hunger relief organization.
The Food Bank distributed approximately 4 million pounds of food and grocery products last year, helping more than 55,000 people.
America's Second Harvest has a network of more than 200 member food banks and food-rescue organizations serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The America's Second Harvest Network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually; and supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, afterschool programs and Kids Cafes. Last year, the America's Second Harvest Network provided food assistance to more than 25 million hungry people in the United States, including 9 million children and 3 million seniors.

Packages to soldiers

After the column ran in Wednesday’s paper about the group collecting packages to send to the troops, I got several e-mails from people wanting to know where to send mail and what they needed to do to start a drive similar to the one the Radio Group held Saturday.
I called Sharon Flournoy at the Radio Group and told her I was directing some people in her direction because they wanted to know if it was too late to send their boxes with the ones Flournoy and her team collected. It is a breath of fresh air knowing so many people want to be morale boosters to the soldiers.
One of the e-mails was from teacher Becky Parker. Here’s what she had to say:
After reading the article in the paper "Mail helps boost soldiers' morale," I would be happy to write to some of them. Also, I am a fifth-grade teacher and would like for my class to send letters and cards. When my nephew was in Iraq a few years ago, he loved getting letters from the kids.
Can you tell me how I go about corresponding with the soldiers?