Giving Back to our Community

40 & 8 Voiture 137 on Cross Lake

Today is one of those glorious days in the South when you're just glad to be alive: clear blue skies, sunshine, low humidity, nothing but promise in the day!

Actually, there's a baseball game scheduled in my day, and what's better than sitting outside watching a college baseball game?

Yesterday we attended the annual Confederate History month memorial service in Keachi hosted by the local SCV chapter and it could not have been a more beautiful day.  The cemetery is in the piney woods around Keachi and, after several years of hard restoration work and true dedication by the Lt. General Richard Taylor Camp #1308, the cemetery is now immaculate and well tended.  The work they have done to care for this resting spot of over 100 Confederate dead is remarkable. Preservation of history is important.

Keachi Confederate Cemetery

The ceremony yesterday was well attended and it was a nice afternoon of fellowship with friends and taking time to remember people who sacrificed so much.

We also attended the 40 & 8 Voiture 137 Nursing Scholarship Banquet fundraiser last night on Cross Lake.  Again, a beautifully attended event with really great people, much love, much fellowship.  Their site is located on a beautiful cove on Cross Lake studded with cypress trees and it was really nice to just sit outside and watch the breeze ruffling the trees or hear a fish rolling over in the water. We dined on grilled steaks and listened to some nice music, talked to friends, laughed, and felt very grateful for the dedication the 40 & 8 shows to helping nursing students complete their education through these scholarships.  Such a great cause!

The Shoemakes won dinner at Ernest's as a door prize.

On the way home we decided to pull into Shehee stadium and catch the last inning of the Centenary baseball game...except the game went on through thirteen innings!  Even though Centenary lost the game, it was nice sitting in the cool evening air taking part in the All American rite of passage that is baseball.  There's no more beautiful game in my mind.  I love it.

Centenary College v. Trinity, 2018

We truly live in a wonderful community here and while I realize Shreveport has plenty of problems that we need to take care of, we also have a lot of good. I think sometimes we spend a lot of time focusing on the negative - I've certainly been guilty of that - but I also think it's very important for us both mentally and emotionally, to focus on the positive as well.

As we get ready for Give for Good 2018 this week (Tuesday, May 1), I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions if you're looking to make our community a little better through a donation to a non-profit.

One of my favorite charities is Nova's Heart.  This group is fully funded by donations.  They do community outreach to help the animals of our most vulnerable citizens: the homeless.  Through their outreach program, Nova's Heart provides food, basic medications, leashes, collars, blankets, toys, and medical services for these animals. A homeless person may only have his pet left and being able to care for this pet, and to keep him with you, is of such importance.  What Nova's Heart does in our community is so often overlooked and underestimated.  Please consider them when you make a donation this year.

There are so many great non-profits in our area that I could list for days: all the animal rescue groups are there, many of our local museums like the Shreveport Water Works Museum and the Spring Street Museum, all can use donations.  The Shreveport Little Theater is also a non-profit that is a good steward of your donations.  You can just go to the Give for Good page and search for your non-profit, or just type in Shreveport, and see who comes up!

Whether you're able to donate back to our community or not, take a moment to get outside, take advantage of this great weather, talk to your neighbors, visit one of our local museums, the riverfront, a small business, or just take a walk.  We really do have a great community if we take the time to appreciate it.  Sometimes it's the little things.

Two Excellent Choices for End of Year Donations

Credit: Advertising Media Plus

It is almost time to turn the calendar to a new year and so typically we tend to reflect over the previous twelve months and assess what kind of year we had and perhaps set goals for the next twelve months.

I feel like I came out of 2017 fairly unscathed.  That's not to say it was a great year - there were some great moments and some really bad ones, but isn't that the same for us all?  It appears I'm going to make it to 2018 alive and that's what counts.

And 2018 looks to be pretty exciting for me.  I don't want to jinx anything or count chickens before they hatch, but there are some exciting things coming up.

But rather than post a dull retrospective of my year (because really, who cares?), I just want to leave a couple of things here:

If you need to make some end-of-the-year donations to non-profits there are at least two that are near and dear to me:

Nova's Heart is a local non-profit that helps the pets of the local homeless population.  I've written about the excellent work they do here:

It's a statistical fact that many people that are homeless refuse to give up their pets and will feed their pets before they feed themselves. Their pets don't judge them and offer unconditional love and support. Sometimes those pets also offer protection. Living on the streets disrupts whatever your normal life was and caring for a pet lets them retain some sense of control, routine, and normalcy. Nova's Heart recognized all of that and stepped

up to help. Nobody else in the area is doing this service for the homeless or those in crisis. Nobody else in this area is doing what Nova's Heart does. 

As more and more of the homeless pet owners heard about the help Nova's Heart offered, it soon became clear that this organization was growing faster than Loraine and her friends realized; they needed a bigger space and they needed some help. They applied for and received their 501c3 charter in February 2015, about a year and a half ago. Shortly after their application was approved, Nova's Heart was invited by HOPE Connections to partner with them as HOPE worked with the homeless population to provide a one-stop access point to a variety of services for them.

They are not a rescue and they don't take in animals; their goal is to keep the animals of our homeless population fed, vaccinated, and up to date on the most basic veterinary services.  The goal is to keep the animal with the owner.  It's such a noble mission.

Nova's Heart has a Facebook page here, and an Amazon Wish List here.  If you would rather mail a check, send it to Nova's Heart, 2350 Levy St., Shreveport, LA  71103.  They need donations of dog food, ziploc bags, blankets, leashes, collars, harnesses, and cash is always good for the veterinary needs.

Another non-profit that is important to me right now is the Shreveport Chapter #237 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy for their non-profit and charitable work as well as their Legal Defense Fund established to fight to keep the Confederate monument in downtown Shreveport.  The monument is in danger of being moved (and irreparably damaged in the process) which would be a tragedy if for no other reason than for the artistic beauty of that statue.

I've written extensively about the monument here.

The UDC also does a great deal of charitable work in our city by donations to the food pantry, projects that benefit our local veterans, and through donation of Christmas gifts to children in foster care.  They also make charitable donations to museums, which are poorly funded these days, and to scholarship funds.

The Shreveport UDC Facebook page is here; if you'd rather mail a check, the address is: Shreveport Chapter #273 UDC, P. O. Box 52083, Shreveport, LA, 71135-2083.  Their website is here.  If you want your donation to go specifically to the legal defense fund, please note that on your check.  You will receive a receipt or letter in return that you may use for your tax purposes.

As the new year approaches, I'm less inclined to look back but instead choose to look forward.  If I have any goals for 2018 it is to be a nicer and more charitable person doing good wherever I can.  None of us are perfect, but sometimes we are all a little too judgmental, opinionated, materialistic, and self-absorbed.  I am as guilty as anyone.

In 2018 I will do better.

Have a safe and happy New Year celebration from SIGIS!  I will be wrapped up in blankets with a good book, a nice beer, and staying off the streets.

Nova's Heart: Caring for the Pets of Shreveport's Most Vulnerable

I was at an event last weekend and ran into my friend Loraine who was spending her Saturday under a hot tent at the Highland Jazz and Blues Festival as part of her service with Nova's Heart.  I told her about a man I saw under an overpass near the LSU Med Center with his dog, and I worried about them because I had no dog food with me; I told her how I wished I had a Nova's Heart bucket in my car filled with small, manageable bags of dog food to hand to people in need like this man.

Loraine's face lit up, she smiled, and said, "Oh, that's Frank!  He's one of our clients - he has food, I promise you!  We take care of him ...".  I don't think his name was Frank - I can't remember the name she told me, but the point is, she knew the man, knew the dog, and knew where their normal location is.  The dog is micro-chipped, vaccinated, and on heartworm preventative thanks to Nova's Heart.

I've written about Nova's Heart before; the group is a relatively new 501c3 non-profit organization that was formed about two years ago in Shreveport when some people working in local animal rescue realized there was a need for service for the pets of our city's homeless citizens.  The group started small, working out of The Hub in downtown Shreveport with a handful of volunteers coming together several times a week to distribute food, leashes, and harnesses to the large homeless population downtown who had pets in need.

Loraine and her volunteers scratched together food donations, stored it in bins, bagged it in quart and gallon sized Ziplocs for easy transport, and distributed it themselves. Word spread, more people in

Bags of food ready for distribution to those in need.

need came out of the shadows with the knowledge that finally there was a group who would not look through them as if they were invisible, a group that would treat them like human beings, and a group who cared about their animals.

It's a statistical fact that many people that are homeless refuse to give up their pets and will feed their pets before they feed themselves. Their pets don't judge them and offer unconditional love and support.  Sometimes those pets also offer protection.  Living on the streets disrupts whatever your normal life was and caring for a pet lets them retain some sense of control, routine, and normalcy.  Nova's Heart recognized all of that and stepped up to help.

Nobody else in the area is doing this service for the homeless or those in crisis.

Nobody else in this area is doing what Nova's Heart does.

As more and more of the homeless pet owners heard about the help Nova's Heart offered, it soon became clear that this organization was growing faster than Loraine and her friends realized; they needed a bigger space and they needed some help.  They applied for and received their 501c3 charter in February 2015, about a year and a half ago.  Shortly after their application was approved, Nova's Heart was invited by HOPE Connections to partner with them as HOPE worked with the homeless population to provide a one-stop access point to a variety of services for them.

Now, Nova's Heart has a donated building (a former railroad container converted into a building) that sits right next to HOPE Connections on Levy Street.  This provides a place for food storage, a place for pet owners to bathe their dogs, and to obtain services for their pet while they get services for themselves at HOPE.  There was one lovely Saturday when a group of volunteers came together to paint the building "Nova's Heart Red" and install flooring. With the warm, spring sun blazing down, we turned up the radio and painted our hearts out -- volunteers coming together for good.

Saturday morning outreach

Every Saturday morning Nova's Heart and other local groups meet to provide outreach, food, and services to the homeless population in downtown Shreveport. Nova's volunteers also have an outreach program during the week where they go to various homeless camps and locations where their clients stay to check on the dogs, their owners, and provide what help is needed.

The success stories are many; just look at the Nova's Heart Facebook page to see one story after another. Click on the pictures tab; it's the pictures that get me. Look into the eyes of a dog that some stranger has helped and you see pure love. Look at the good work they are doing.

The love and compassion spread by Loraine, Bo, Carla, and all of the other volunteers is immeasurable. I have seen this with my own eyes.  I have never been downtown with Bo that he did not walk up to some person living on the streets, reach out and shake his hand, and pet the dog. Bo knows them all by name -- they are people; not "homeless" people.  There is no judgment at Nova's.

Nova's Heart is still a new, growing organization with an unfathomable potential to do good. However, there have been growing pains. These are all volunteers -- uncompensated volunteers -- that run this organization and none have had experience running a non-profit before. There is no high-salaried CEO and there are no plush offices. Nobody gets paid one dime for their work.  They don't want to be paid.  But as a new group they are still learning a few things about running such a 501c3.  Mistakes have been made, learned from, and corrected. Nothing egregious, fortunately, which is remarkable for such a new group.

They set up a Board of Directors, established bylaws, and called in an accountant to help oversee

Outreach

things.  The need for the organization far outpaced the learning curve and Loraine and her group worked hard to get these positions in place to help manage activities and donations.

In the past year, Nova's Heart has arranged and paid for the spay/neuter of over twenty dogs, provided at least thirty rabies vaccinations, and provided food, kennels, leashes, sweaters, harnesses, water bowls, and blankets for over seventy-five dogs; the number of food packages distributed is countless.

Social media can be a strong and positive tool for good and it can also be the devil. It is never the place to air grievances or personal issues, especially when others could be hurt.  The vicious attacks on Nova's Heart this week on Facebook have hurt my heart.  I know Loraine and I know her love for this organization; I know the deeply personal story that caused her to found this group.

Loraine is a quiet, private woman whose only concern is for the animals in need and she works very hard to do the right thing for them. She's learning on the go with this non-profit and when I say "on the go" I mean that literally.  She volunteers almost 40 hours a week.  Her heart is in absolutely the right place. She is the perfect woman to run this non-profit.

I write this post as a plea for a cease fire to the Facebook trash talk. If you haven't heard any of it -- wonderful.  Don't go looking for it; don't sink to that level. I don't want the work that Nova's Heart does to be damaged by disgruntled people with personal vendettas. Put personal drama aside and do good for our community.

The bottom line is this: there is a need for what Nova's Heart does. This city has a huge animal overpopulation problem and a huge homeless population. There is no other group that does what they do and certainly nobody that does it with the love and compassion and untiring devotion that they do and we are beyond lucky that this group exists.

Nova's Heart and its current Board of Directors has my one-hundred percent faith, trust, and devotion.


Disclaimer:  This post is from my own heart and the people at Nova's Heart had absolutely nothing to do with my writing it.

The Softer Side and Doing Good Deeds

Your Speed: 27 mph

One of the reasons I backed off of political blogging is because I found myself angry and agitated all of the time.  As hard as I worked trying to tell people that in my opinion, Barack Obama would be a terrible president and would spread socialism, would weaken our national security, and would do irreparable damage, it seems no one listened. As loudly as I screamed that Obamacare would be a disaster and would result in thousands of people losing their private insurance coverage or paying higher rates, nobody listened.  I was either preaching to the choir or arguing with brick walls.

I burned out.

I got tired of being mad all of the time.

In place of politics I've diverted my attention to writing on other things and to research for my book.  We've been working on the house and the yard, and spending time with friends and neighbors. Instead of anger and frustration, I'm finding joy in the simpler things that warm your heart.

Last night for example, we sat outside under the magnolia tree, pulled up chairs for my neighbors, built a fire in the fire pit, and the four of us talked and laughed long into the evening. The tabby cat sat in the swing between me and Gena in utter contentment.  Three teenage boys walked by, their voices and laughter carrying across the cool air, on their way to one of the fast food joints on Kings Highway. One of them noticed the flashing speed sign mounted to the light pole so they took turns running past it to see how fast they were going.  The 13 mph champion raised his hands in a Rocky-esque victory celebration before they continued on their way.

It was all so much nicer than thrashing out the latest tax increase advocated by John Bel Edwards or digging through the qualifications of Obama's Supreme Court pick.

For the most part, I'm leaving all that to others these days, with the occasional exception.

My focus right now is on my book.  I want to thank donor Steve for hitting my tip jar yesterday, very generously.  That will help fund my trip to Natchitoches over spring break to get some final research that I need to finish revisions on the book.  I'm feeling some new motivation and inspiration to finish strong!  If anyone else feels so inspired, you can hit the tip jar over there in the right sidebar for the good of research!

In other matters: I've been greatly remiss in not watching the Shape of Shreveport series.  I happened to discover, through a Facebook conversation on the tragedy of Fairgrounds Field, that Episode 4 of the SoS series is online at Real Shreveport. This episode covers two crashes that devastated Shreveport: the plane crash that killed six prominent Shreveport businessmen, and the oil crash that killed the banking and real estate industry in Shreveport.  If you haven't seen it, go over to Real Shreveport and watch it.  It's just over sixteen minutes and worth every second.

You may remember my lamentations over the shape of Shreveport last summer.  It continues to make me sad at the wasted potential of this town.

Another thing I wanted to point out before I get back to work today is the good work Nova's Heart is doing. They always step up to help the less fortunate in our city care for their pets most basic needs and the flooding situation of recent days has taxed their resources to the bone. If you can make a donation of cash or supplies to them, that would be greatly appreciated.  If you aren't familiar with Nova's Heart, this is what they do:

Our mission is to help the pets of those in crisis. We are not a rescue and cannot foster or take in any animals. Our services include minor vetting, food, collars, harnesses, and leashes. We are not funded nor do we have the means to take on critical care for pets ( Parvo, Heartworm positive, or any extensive health problems ) We can set up a Vet appointment for a diagnosis but can't at this time provide treatment. We help the pets of those experiencing homelessness, rescues in need, and individuals that are going through crisis.

Their Facebook page is here. Their Amazon wish list is here. There are many items on that list that don't cost very much. For $20 you can send a flat of dog food. For less than that you can send them leashes and harnesses.  Help them out if you can.  If you don't want to donate online or from Amazon, I'll happily accept leashes, harnesses and bags of cat or dog food and take them to the Levy Street office of Nova's Heart for you.

Time to get back to work.  Take time to do something nice today.  The rewards are tenfold.