Runnels D.A.R.E. graduates honored at ceremony ä Page 2G
THE SOUTHEAST
ADVOCATE
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THURSDAY JANUARY 22, 2015 H
COURSEY • HARRELLS FERRY • MILLERVILLE • OLD JEFFERSON • PARKVIEW • SHENANDOAH • TIGER BEND • WHITE OAK THEADVOCATE.COM
Darlene Denstorff AROUND THE SOUTHEAST
DDENSTORFF@ THEADVOCATE.COM
Library to host games, events It’s a busy time at the Jones Creek Regional Library, 6222 Jones Creek Road. Here are just a few of the upcoming events. For a detailed calendar of events, visit www.ebrpl. com/LibraryServices/ProgramsClassesEvents.html.
Library hosts ‘Jeopardy!’
Patrons who enjoy watching “Jeopardy!� on television and think they may like to be a contestant can test their skills during a “Jeopardy!� program at the Jones Creek Regional Library. Patrons who want to attend but don’t want to play can be part of the audience and cheer on their favorite teams. Prizes will be awarded. The program will be from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, at Jones Creek Regional Library. For information, call (225) 756-1140.
Fellowship encourages expression of faith BY C.J. FUTCH
cfutch@theadvocate.com Most of the student-leaders of the Woodlawn High School chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Students came to FCS for similar reasons. “I was already a Christian, but I wanted a way to express my faith (at school),� said Brian Williams, who is on the leadership team with his twin brother Ryan. The group is young — it started only about four years ago, faculty adviser James Daniels said. “I had zero members at our first meeting,� Daniels said with a laugh. Now, membership is around 150 students, he said. Daniels suspects that their lunchtime meetings swelled because meetings are a dramafree environment they try to create for students. “Well, a lot of people start coming for the free food,� said Haley Johnson, a senior student leader. But, she said, they keep
coming back for the positive reinforcement, sometimes for advice or comfort and often just to find like-minded people. With leadership comes responsibility, Ryan Williams said. Because they’re seen as the example-setters, “we do hold ourselves to a high standard.� But that responsibility also comes with the opportunity to help, and offering help at the right time can be a true lifeline, especially in high school. But what started as an opportunity to help one another expanded to an opportunity to help people they’ve never met, who live half a world away, with perhaps the most basic need on Earth — clean water. Through an organization called Children’s Cup, based in Ascension Parish, the group learned about communities around the world with no access to clean water. Children’s Cup is a faith-based organization, Daniels said, that helps provide clean water by
building wells near these communities, in addition to food and spiritual resources. “If you can imagine how that changes lives in those communities, it was a natural fit for our group,� he said. The FCS began by selling Woodlawn High School wristbands for $2 each to students, teachers and friends of the school, Daniels said, along with other school-based fundraisers. So far, they’ve raised about $2,000, one-third of what Children’s Cup needs to start construction of a well. They’ve also gotten contributions from Rock Star Racing, www.rockstarracing.net, and St. Jean Vianney Catholic Church. “We will keep going until May,� Daniels said. They’re planning more fundraisers for the student body, and if they don’t reach their goal, Daniels said, the amount they have raised up to that point will be sent to Children’s Cup until ei-
BY C.J. FUTCH
cfutch@theadvocate.com
Walking group
Patrons interested in getting more exercise in the new year can join Your Pace or Mine Walking Group. The group will meet from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday and walk mapped routes surrounding Jones Creek Regional Library. The Pacers will walk inside the library when it rains. All levels of fitness are represented, library officials said. Call (225) 756-1150 for information.
Lap sit story time
The lap sit story time for babies from birth through crawling will be from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Jan. 29 at Jones Creek Regional Library. Sessions last 15 to 20 minutes. Call (225) 756-1160. Contact Southeast Advocate Editor Darlene Denstorff by phone, (225) 336-6952 or (225) 603-1998; or email, southeast@theadvocate.com. Deadline: noon Monday.
fundraiser, or to contribute to the cause, contact Daniels at jdaniels2@ebrschools.org. For more information on the mission of Children’s Cup, visit the organization’s website at www.childrenscup.org.
Artists weave tales of nature
Teenagers can bring their friends and play Super Smash Brothers on the Wii-U while enjoying refreshments from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Jones Creek Regional Library. Call (225) 756-1170.
Jones Creek Regional Library will host pajama story time from 7 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Wednesday. The program is an informal story time for children, ages 3 to 7, and their families. Children may wear their pajamas and slippers, library officials said.
ther they or the FCS can find someone to contribute the rest of the funds needed to start the project. The well will be built in South Africa, Daniels said. For more information on the
From panic to pieces of tapestry
Teen game day
Pajama story time
Advocate photo by C. J. FUTCH
Fellowship of Christian Students at Woodlawn High School have been selling these wristbands, along with hosting many other fundraisers, to raise enough money to fund the construction of a well in South Africa.
Advocate staff photos by JOHN OUBRE
Trenton Johnson waves to his family from a tree on Saturday during Arbor Day at the Burden Museum and Gardens.
ENCOURAGING
GROWTH Arbor Day participants enjoy a hayride.
Brooks Callaway, 2, and his brother Sanders, 4, plant a tree with their dad, Scott.
Strange though the journey may sound, it was the panic attacks that led Ami Peyton-Kleiner to her life’s work and passion. Peyton-Kleiner designs and hand-weaves elaborate custom tapestries. “It was Claire (Coco, director at the Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center) who helped me develop an appreciation for nature,� she said, and it was that appreciation that inspired “Sunset at the Swamp,� a piece on exhibit this month as part of the 2015 Quilt the Swamp contemporary fiber art show. This year’s theme, “Metamorphosis,� came from the nature center’s own transformation over the past years, Coco said. The center just celebrated the opening of its new educational building, which allowed for expanded programs during the summer and for holiday children’s camps. Peyton-Kleiner said she was excited about participating in the show, and she knew immediately what piece she would submit. “Sunset is really the ultimate transformation,� she said, and even the existence of her career as a fiber artist — even the act of learning to weave, with no exaggeration, transformed her life. Peyton-Kleiner was in military language school learning Arabic on Sept. 11, 2001. “Life got really real, really fast,� she said. When her time in the service was over, she spent the intervening years working and dealing with anxiety and panic
Photo provided by playfulstitching.wordpress.com
Lucy Landry created a felted wool bowl being held upright by a pair of hands made of nude silk cloth with pink designs embroidered on them with silk thread, akin to temporary tattoo made on skin with henna dye. attacks that tended to get in the way of work. She tried and loved many jobs, including sales, culinary school and investment banking. “I loved the clients I worked with, but stepping out of the room when I felt a panic attack coming on — it was difficult,â€? she said. She’d read that knitting could be a good way to relax, so she took that up and, pretty soon, started playing around with wool and silk fibers. She decided to take a class in Kentucky to learn how to weave. From there, she visited a loom manufacturer, where she bought her first loom, and she’s never stopped weaving. “It really turned out to be that thing I was searching for,â€? she said. She learned to spin her own äSee TAPESTRY, page 3G