The HOPE for the Homeless First Annual Crawfish with Clergy Event Was Cookin'!

Steve and I attended a very special event last night:  HOPE Connections held their "first annual" Crawfish with Clergy event at their new facility on Levy Street.

I was just blown away by the facility and the people working there.  This could be such a fabulous thing for our area.  Be sure to read this article at Henry Harbor about the facility and their mission.  The bottom line is that HOPE Connections is a one-stop facility where the homeless in our area can go for everything from food and showers to job training and pet care.

The facility is still growing: they don't yet have the shelter in place but they do have that in progress and will soon offer shelter for both men and women.  Currently available at the Levy Street facility are computer stations, a women's room for quiet relaxation, phone use, and medical assessment just to start.  In the main room there are new couches and tables, computer work stations, a large screen television and art on the walls.  There are large bathrooms where patrons can shower and have privacy.  The drop-in facility is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00.  And while the center provides all of this great support and service, the goal ultimately of course is to help those in need find jobs, permanent shelter, and become self-sustaining.

Services include a comprehensive personal assessment, substance abuse and mental health screening, representatives from the VA come and help sign veterans up for services and housing through the VA, there are medical screenings and care, representatives to help register for governmental benefits, there is pet sheltering and pet therapy so that if you're homeless you don't have to give up your pet to come in for aid; there is also employment education and assistance, financial literacy and budgeting training, and of course assistance toward permanent housing.

What is cool about this place is that it is all under one roof (at least, once the shelter part of it is in place).   Once everything is in place a person won't have to go here for a meal and across town for medical help and across town for shelter.

These people are doing good work.

So we were tickled to death to buy two tickets to the Crawfish With Clergy fundraiser last night!  It was a big fundraiser for the center and was also to show appreciation for the area clergy who support them.

As soon as we walked through the gate we were offered slabs of cajun sausage and hot dogs.  There was another tent where you could get beer, wine, water, or soft drinks.  And in the back of the lot were the crawfish cookers and it smelled like heaven!


For our $25 we got all the crawfish we could eat, all we could drink, and all the hot dogs and sausage we could stand.  You can't be that with a stick.

The entire facility was wide open for tours.  Tables were set up both inside and outside for dining, all covered with bright red and white plastic tablecloths.  .

The event could not have taken place without these great sponsors:

And, of course there was live music!

Many members of the local clergy were in attendance such as Bishop Michael Duca of Shreveport, Father Paul from St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and Rev. Barbara Jarrell, among others.

After we stuffed ourselves with crawfish there were cupcakes and cakes for dessert.  Tiffany Shatto and Chelsie Liegey made this fabulous cake:

Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and absolutely everyone was impressed with the facility and the work that is happening there.  I heard that 400 people came through the gate so that was an excellent turnout for a truly wonderful cause.

If you want to learn more about what HOPE Connections is doing be sure to read the Henry Harbor article; there is also a HOPE Connections Facebook page here.  Be sure to check out their website.

HOPE for the Homeless is a 501c3 non-profit and they can sure use your donations.  You can make a general donation or you can specify an area for your donation such as "Pet Shelter" or "Medical Screening."

This is a great organization doing wonderful things that could significantly help our community.

Friday Night Crawfish

Steve and I are headed out to the Second Annual Barksdale AFB Crawfish Boil!  Bless them, they didn't wait until July to have it this year.  It's only 82 today, but last July - tooooo hot.  Good times!

Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: The Crawfish Boil Edition

We survived the inaugural Barksdale Air Force Base crawfish boil and that's saying something because it was hot as blazes out there yesterday, at least, until the sun went down.  It was still hot then, but it was better.  In my FMJRA today I'll be lacing through some pictures of the event.  The crowd was not as large as I expected but I'm blaming that on the heat.  It was still a mighty respectable crowd and early in the afternoon lots of families were out with their kids. 

As always, Steve and I were the first to get there and the last to leave; it's becoming a tradition for us at these things.  We registered for door prizes which we did not win.  We got a couple of beers (Sam Adams, Boston Lager) and milled about, bought t-shirts, shook hands with Clawed, the mascot for our local hockey team, and finally took a seat and watched the band finish setting up.

The band was The Red River Playboys and they were fabulous!  They've been around the music scene here for years and years, but I'd never heard them.  I'll post a short clip of them at the bottom of this.  They played Cajun/Zydeco music, Swamp Pop, and blues complete with accordians, fiddles and a washboard.  Awesome!  At the end of the night the wife of one of the guys gave me one of their CDs and I felt a lot better about not winning a door prize earlier!  Steve and I listened to some of it on the way home and it's great!  They're on sale here, at their website. 

The crawfish was catered by #1 Crawfish from Haughton, La., and they were some of the best I've had.  It's getting sort of late in the season so I wasn't really expecting the crawfish to be as big as they were, but man, when I got my box, they were great - super hot and spicy, and accompanied by the traditional corn and potatoes.  They also had some sausage in there, and mushrooms, which I've never seen thrown in a crawfish pot before but Steve ate 'em.  I mowed through my box in no time while the Iowa boy took a little more time. 

Then it was back to the band.  We found a seat near the front and sat next to a couple of Navy fellows from Houston who were having a wonderful time enjoying the hospitality of the base and the locals.  We talked to them for a while and gave them our free beer tickets (Miller Lite - ick).  When it was time for the crawfish eating contest we urged them on over to enter, but this  guy ate his entire box in under two minutes and won.  He mowed through he crawfish faster than anyone I've ever seen, finishing with time to spare.

By the end of the evening even I was on my feet doing the Cha Cha Slide or something; the DJ was trying to teach us a more complicated line dance but gave up on us and did the Cha Cha Slide which any moron can do!  I nearly died of heat stroke but it was lots of fun.  Before the night was over I'd even scored a cookbook from one of the sponsors, Lula Hill of Coldwell Banker Realtors.  I was tickled to death! 

We went up on the Hangar 2 deck so I could cool off and finish my last Sam Adams before we cut out for the night only to find a beer pong game in progress.  No, I did not play. 

All in all it was a fun night and we hope they do it again next year, but maybe a little earlier in the season before it hits 98 degrees outside! 

Enough about that - on to the links; I'll spread some more pictures through the rest of the post:

Stacy McCain has been spending too much time on YouTube but he has found some cool stuff!  When America Was a Great Country...; love it!

Pirate's Cove is totally over The Whiner in Chief.  Over it.  And on a related note, Doug Ross has a suggestion for modification of the inaugural oath.  And Pundette notes that Obama is not exactly fair.

No Sheeples Here is supporting Mosab Yousef; if you don't know about him, go check out her post.  Bob Belvedere has more.

Legal Insurrection has an interesting post about a congressional race in Massachusetts. 

Fishersville Mike gives me reason to hope for better blog stats, but you know, I don't really want September to come alllllllllllll that fast.  I'm on vacation, ya know.

Red has the lowdown of the Hallmark card yanked because of "raaaaacism."

Little Miss Attila is not a fan of Obama's drilling moratorium.

WyBlog reports on the UN resolution against Israel and Obama's support of it.  Disgusting.  Yukio at Critical Narrative has some thoughts as well.

Bride of Rove has a spot on assessment of the Alvin Greene deal.

Ruby Slippers points out that Rosie O'Donnell is still an idiot. 

A Cop's Watch is not impressed with the disclaimer on the Constitution.

and finally,

Pecan Corner links to a blog by an Army wife in Germany; she's got a great Normandy post!

That's it for now.  I have Saturday things to do.  Be cool and I'll catch you later!  But first, listen to a little of The Red River Playboys:

Crawfish Boil Time!

Steve and I are steppin' out tonight and heading to the BAFB inaugural crawfish boil.  Since we have so much (too much?) fun at Okotoberfest, we're going to give the crawfish boil a try!

I love love love crawfish!

What are we in store for?  There will be lots to eat, of course, Cajun/Zydeco music from the Red River Playboys, crawfish races, crawfish eating contests, and lots of stuff for kids to do, like bounce houses and play areas.  Clawed, the Mudbugs mascot, will be there and lots of door prizes given out with the grand prize of the evening is a trip package to New Orleans, or as my friend Heather would say, "N'awlins!"

Watch for a report, pictures, and maybe video tomorrow in my Saturday round-up.

Can't wait!  If you've got base access, c'mon out!  You can get tickets at the door.

Too Pretty to Eat

From the KTBS website:

"A research project begun last summer placed ordinary brown-red Louisiana crawfish in aquaria at the Aquaculture Center. Four months later, more than 60% had turned a vivid blue. Researchers say it may be a form a camouflauge, since the crawfish were in a blue tank. The project was designed to determine whether the amount of light crawfish are exposed to affects their growth. The color change, Delabbio says, was a complete surprise."

These are WAY too pretty to eat!