Pups show off ugly Christmas sweaters at fundraiser ä 4G
THE ST.TAMMANY
ADVOCATE
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WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 16, 2015 H
COVINGTON • FOLSOM • LACOMBE • MADISONVILLE • MANDEVILLE • SLIDELL THENEWORLEANSADVOCATE.COM
Sharon Edwards TAMMANY TIMES
Slidell church serves prayer, food year round The Mount Olive Feeding Ministry in 1986 began distributing food to the hungry. Then, it started to serve one hot meal a week. Today, it serves around 300 hot meals, six days a week, from its location at 2457 Second St. in Slidell. Director Ella Smith said it might seem like an easy task to fix one meal a day. But the key to operating with a core of volunteers and donations is organization. “You have to have a plan and pray for it to work,” Smith said. The ministry operates from donations, with no funding or grants. “It’s by the mercy of the people” that they continue, she said. The Mount Olive AME Church began the ministry with people cooking meals in their homes, she said. It then moved to a building at the church. When that building was damaged during Hurricane Katrina, volunteers kept cooking in the church parsonage. The local Rotary
Music to inspire Covington man’s Christmas album raises money for ALS clinic BY ANDREW CANULETTE Special to the Advocate
Calvin Klein has been a successful husband, father, grandfather, local business owner and even an amateur body builder. But when the Covington resident was diagnosed with ALS in February 2012, he wasn’t sure if he could rise to the challenge of dealing with the debilitating disease. He was given only a few years to live. Now, though ALS has left him wheelchair-bound and unable to move his arms and legs, he still can speak. And the 66-year-old Klein is hoping that it is his voice that will help others who suffer from the neurological affliction commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Klein, with the help of fellow Covington resident the Rev. Gabriel Farago, has produced a Christ-
mas album titled “One Solitary Life.” The recording, released by NSD Records of Nashville, Tennessee, contains 11 songs that include traditional holiday tunes and a couple of gospel songs. The majority of the record has a countrywestern sound. Klein said 1,250 copies of “One Solitary Life” were minted, and that all proceeds from CD sales will go to the LSU Muscular Dystrophy Association/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (MDA/ ALS) Clinic he visits every three months. ALS patients from around the state frequent the clinic in New Orleans, and Klein noted that since the facility is not federally funded, it is in need of additional equipment to better serve the public. Klein sang with a local choir in the past, but he has no formal musical training. It was a random
meeting with Farago that paired the duo in the studio two months ago. “He walked by (Klein’s) office one day, and (employee James Primes) started talking with him,” Klein said. “James asked if he could come pray for his boss. So Father Gabriel started stopping by from time to time … I knew he had an interest in music. So I said, ‘Father, why don’t you bring your guitar by and we’ll have a little jam session?’ When he left, the idea came to him (to make an album.)” An impromptu sing-along in Klein’s Covington-area office solidified the idea. “He said, ‘You can carry a tune.’ That’s where it started. And there are several reasons why we did it. I thought it would be a great legacy to leave behind for my family äSee INSPIRE, page 3G
Advocate staff photo by SCOTT THRELKELD
Calvin Klein, photographed at home in Covington with his daughter, Kristen Chabreck, has recorded ‘One Solitary Life,’ a Christmas album to raise money for a local ALS foundation. Klein suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
äSee EDWARDS, page 3G
Charities enjoy net benefits from tennis tourney The 16th annual Children’s Wish/STARC Benefit Tennis Tournament was held Dec. 2-5 at Cross Gates Athletic Club near Slidell. The event, which is one of the major tennis draws in St. Tammany Parish each year, attracted 45 doubles teams in Open, A, B and C divisions for both men and women. Tournament founders and directors Pam Brandner and Adele Lassus always put on a quality event that includes, food, drink REC & and a “Parade LEISURE of Prizes” doANDREW nated by area CANULETTE businesses and philanthropic citizens. All tournament proceeds provide financial assistance to local nonprofits STARC and the Children’s Wish Endowment. In particular this year, 5-year-old Lacombe resident Aaliyah Sutton was chosen to go on a trip to Legoland, Universal Studios and Walt Disney World. Her trip was planned through Disney’s “Give Kids the World” program, which assists “Wish” organizations worldwide. Following are results from äSee CANULETTE, page 3G
Photo provided by NOLA ChristmasFest
Holiday decorations and thousands of dazzling lights are part of the fest.
Gliding into the holidays
Ice rink the new star of NOLA ChristmasFest BY CATE ROOT
Special to The Advocate
Advocate file photo by REBECCA RATLIFF
More than 60 Christmas trees have been decorated by New Orleans businesses.
New Orleans isn’t known as a winter wonderland. The chances for a White Christmas are about as good as your shot at catching Santa stuffing the stockings above a nonfunctional fireplace. But organizers of NOLA ChristmasFest are bringing sleigh-loads of the holiday spirit to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. NOLA ChristmasFest, formerly known as Christmas in the District, will deck the halls (OK, just Hall B) of Morial Convention Center daily from Friday through Dec. 27. The festival’s figurative star on top of the tree is an indoor ice rink. New Orleanians and visitors alike are invited to lace up their skates and glide on top of the 50-by-80-foot hunk of real ice. “Every year, we’ve done something different,” said Diane Lyons of NOLA ChristmasFest. “This is the first year we’ve had
an ice rink — the first time an ice rink with ice real has been put inside since the 1980s,” referring to the former ice rink at the Plaza at Lake Forest Mall in New Orleans East. “Children and adults learned to skate back in the Plaza, and soon they’ll have the oppor- Tips on ice tunity to have a new ice rink skating for in downtown New Orleans beginners ä 6G for the first time.” Organizers hope to attract 20,000 people to NOLA Christmas Fest, and the ice rink should prove to be a popular attraction. Building a frozen ice sheet in a climatecontrolled setting takes some doing, explained Bob Johnson of the Convention Center. The engineer and ice-rink setup arrive in New Orleans a little more than a week before NOLA ChristmasFest opens. The underlying structure beneath the ice uses a portable refrigeration system to pump cold liquid through bulkheads and pipes laid on the floor and covered with sand, Johnson said. After the structure is built, the long process begins, as the äSee HOLIDAYS, page 6G