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American Press
18-07-2025
- Climate
- American Press
Westlake Fire Department trains with MedEvac unit from Fort Polk
1/3 Swipe or click to see more A 1st Battalion, 5th Aviation Regiment helicopter from Fort Polk is used during a training session Thursday morning with members of the Westlake Fire Department. (Emily Burleigh / American Press) 2/3 Swipe or click to see more A 1st Battalion, 5th Aviation Regiment helicopter from Fort Polk is used during a training session Thursday morning with members of the Westlake Fire Department. (Emily Burleigh / American Press) 3/3 Swipe or click to see more A 1st Battalion, 5th Aviation Regiment helicopter from Fort Polk is used during a training session Thursday morning with members of the Westlake Fire Department. (Emily Burleigh / American Press) Firefighters with the Westlake Fire Department spent Thursday morning conducting joint training operations with the 1st Battalion, 5th Aviation Regiment. The 1st Battalion, 5th Aviation Regiment – otherwise known as Cajun Dustoff – collaborated with WFD to organize hoist and water rescue exercises. WFD gathered on the shore of the Calcasieu River while the Cajun Dustoff helicopter landed. Within the hour, participants were practicing hoist operations, extraction efforts in which civilians are rescued from land or water via helicopter during emergencies. The training simulated several real-world disaster scenarios to bolster the fire department's emergency response capabilities. The multi-organizational training is paramount with a rise in natural disasters, a phenomenon Southwest Louisiana is all too familiar with, said Maj. Shane Curran, commander, Cajun Dustoff. The region is still recovering from Hurricanes Laura and Delta, while simultaneously fortifying in preparation for future events. 'This is why we're trying to build these relationships with our local emergency friends,' Curran said. 'This is going to help us if we ever get called to work on, whether it be a natural disaster or a local emergency, we've already done the training with the local fire departments.' Cajun Dustoff is an active-duty MedEvac unit stationed at Fort Polk and the Joint Readiness Training Center. The regiment conducts all military training events on Fort Polk, responds to search and rescue missions, and is utilized for local hospital transfers, he said. The main goal of the exercises with local emergency response teams is to continuously increase interoperability between Army assets, like Cajun Dustoff, and local emergency response teams, he said. WFD Chaplain Kyle Doty, who has been with the department for two and a half years, said WFD's role during emergency response scenarios is 'Rural One.' Due to the department's proximity to the water and swift water rescue training, WFD is the immediate response team. 'We're first on scene.' The firefighters are already trained and equipped for land and water rescues, but the joint training operations will integrate aviation-based response into WFD's toolbelt. 'Hoist' is one of the most difficult emergency operations, Curran said. By familiarizing the Westlake firefighting personnel with hoist operations, WFD will be equipped with the expertise they need to help retrieve civilians during emergencies. WFD Fire Chief Jonathan Duff said one of WFD's new firefighters, John Dalgleish, put the training in motion. Dalgleish spent most of his career teaching at the United States Military Academy, West Point. After joining the department, he worked to coordinate the training with Cajun Dustoff, a regiment that has worked with WFD before. 'We're always looking for something new and cutting edge,' Duff said. 'If we're going to use them, we might as well spend some significant amount of time training with them. 'We like to think that we're one of the hardest-working fire departments around, and we've got the best military in the world, so, here we are.' Later down the line, Cajun Dustoff officers will come to Westlake to get swift water training in return. The partnership is an exchange of emergency preparedness education that will continue to strengthen the region's emergency response readiness, he said. A majority of WFD's firefighters are retired military and are already cross-trained, Doty said, but this is the first paramilitary training he has participated in. He was 'pumped' to get up in the air. 'I'm not really as nervous as a lot of people might think,' he joked. 'I'm just looking forward to the next time we can do this again.' Curran said this exercise was hopefully the first in a series of training events with the Westlake Fire Department. 'We just love getting out, getting to work with the local community,' he said. 'That's what it's all about – just taking care of each other and we're super excited to train with these guys.' Duff said they expect joint training to occur on an annual or biannual basis.
American Press
11-07-2025
- American Press
Geocaching: Playing hide and seek in Sam Houston Jones State Park
Geocaches are hide-and-seek containers purposely hidden, eagerly sought, and enthusiastically found by hobbyists around the world. Geocachers use a geocaching app, found at to view maps of nearby geocaches and to log their finds. (Emily Burleigh / American Press) At the beginning of June, my best friend of 14 years, Wesley Jackson, and I embarked on a new adventure: geocaching. In a time where digital worlds dominate the day-to-day, geocaching offers a real-world adventure that uses the technology that keeps us indoors. A modern-day treasure hunt, geocaching invites people of all ages to get outside, engage with the environment and find hidden containers (geocaches) anywhere and everywhere. Geocaching was created in 2000 by Dave Ulmer after the United States Government fixed a GPS error called GPS signal degradation, making GPS devices significantly more accurate. It was originally called 'Great American GPS Stash Hunt,' and after a few passionate hobbyists with pencils, paper and a whole lot of creativity picked up the game, it spread like wildfire. The process is much simpler in 2025. You download the app – Geocaching – to your GPS-enabled mobile device, create an account and look for the caches. On June 6, I did just that before picking up Wesley and making our way to Sam Houston Jones State Park. Taking a hike in Sam Houston Jones State Park is one of our favorite Friday activities, so we were familiar with the trails. And a quick glance at the app showed us that there are dozens of geocaches throughout the park, especially on our favorite trail: the Orange Trail. The Orange Trail runs alongside the Calcasieu River. You'll often encounter animals – squirrels, rabbits, snakes – and boaters blasting Top 100 Hits as they ride the water. Friday was no exception, except instead of just walking the trail, Wesley and I were on the hunt. The 1.9-mile trail usually takes us about 30 minutes to traverse, but this time around, we were there for an hour and a half. That is because there are 12 geocaches on the Orange Trail. I did the math – we averaged about nine minutes per geocache. Then I did more math – we only found 66 percent of the nine geoaches we attempted. While these stats might be a bit embarrassing, it's certainly because we were not prepared. We quickly learned a few lessons. One: Bring. Bug. Spray. And if you can, wear pants. As park regulars, we were not expecting the trees to fight back, but we walked out of that trail with some battle scars. Two: Bring trinkets! I've never met someone who geocaches, but what we discovered is that the hobby has a thriving (and fun) community. All of the caches we did manage to find had papers with dozens of names of geocachers who have found them within just the past few months. Alongside them were chotskies left behind. After stalking a few forums, I learned that this is a common practice. Leave a doohickey. Take a doohickey. Three: Geocaching is a skill. The difficulty ranges from 'hidden behind a piece of bark on the ground,' or difficulty one, to 'I don't think this geocache actually exists,' difficulty five. They also range in size, typically from 'micro' to 'large.' We mostly found the micros, and never encountered anything bigger than 'small.' Wesley and I left the trail sweaty and scratched up, but filled with a deep sense of community that we've been longing for. There is a message board for each cache called 'past logs' where you can see messages from fellow geocachers who found (or didn't find) the loot like, 'Found! Too scared to touch at first' and 'Thanks for my first find! My 6 year old loved it!' In the end, the both of us found solace knowing that we would be back on their trail soon to find the caches that evaded us, excited to share our successes with our newfound treasure-hunting friends.
American Press
30-06-2025
- Science
- American Press
Mobile ‘Makerspace' provides students tools to create, inspire
1/4 Swipe or click to see more Technology Facilitator Meredith Boullion assists students Monday in the Mobile Makerspace Bus. (Emily Burleigh / American Press) 2/4 Swipe or click to see more (Emily Burleigh / American Press) 3/4 Swipe or click to see more (Emily Burleigh / American Press) 4/4 Swipe or click to see more (Emily Burleigh / American Press) The Mobile Makerspace is making sure Calcasieu Parish students have access to STEM education all summer long. The Calcasieu Parish School Board Mobile Makerspace Bus is a repurposed school bus that has been retrofitted with lab space to bring STEM education directly to students. The bus is decked out with technology and resources used to introduce students to high-tech tools and foundational STEM skills. The Mobile Makerspace made a stop at the Donald Ray Stevens Community Center on Monday morning. This stop was the third in a series of stops the Makerspace is making this summer in collaboration with EPIC Adventures by the city of Lake Charles Recreation and Parks Department, an eight-week summer camp hosted by the city. Each week, EPIC Adventures presents campers with a new theme, and this week's theme is 'Party in the USA.' The activity in the Makerspace is tailored to this theme, said Technology Facilitator Meredith Boullion. On Monday, students were tasked to direct a KaiBot — a small coding robot that uses Blockly or Python coding — to different landmarks in the United States with cards that represent blocks of code. This is a form of offline coding, which doesn't require technology like an iPad or computer. By solidifying their understanding of the pre-coding skills through tactile engagement, the students become more equipped to understand more advanced coding techniques and languages. 'If you were to do block coding, the block is just like a sentence in a language. The cards represent the block coding, so they understand sequencing,' she explained. 'They understand the process of coding devices — loops, conditionals, all the things that they need. The language is built into the cards.' The Mobile Makerspace was created last year after five years of planning by Calcasieu Parish School Board Chief Technology Officer Kim Leblanc with the goal to enhance teachers' curriculum with hands-on, tech-integrated lessons. 'Connecting to the curriculum is key,' Bouillon said. Teachers can request a bus visit or plan field trips to the technology labs for Makerspace experiences that are customized to their lesson plans, which are often already integrated with technology skills. The Makerspace provides additional support that prompts coding, critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills, she said. The Makerspace is mobile and available to every grade level to increase students' accessibility to technology education, because coding is a skillset that is becoming more and more necessary. Coding became a language recognized by the Louisiana Department of Education in 2022, and as artificial intelligence (AI) integrates into daily life, students must gain a fundamental understanding of coding, she said. The dynamic hands-on STEM activities engage the students, and the facilitators on the Mobile Makerspace are no strangers to a lightbulb moment. 'Ultimately, if you walked around right now, there'd be a couple kids who just get it and they just run with it. And it's so exciting to us because we see it,' she said. 'It's a spark that's lit, and that's really what we wanted to do. We wanted to light the spark.' Gillis Extended Day and Dolby Extended Day were visited earlier this month, and the Makerspace will stop by the Henry Heights Community Center on Thursday, July 3. It will also be at Vinton Middle STEM Camp on July 22 and E.K. Key Extended Day on July 24.
American Press
02-05-2025
- General
- American Press
Second Harvest Distribution Center opens
The 24,000 square-feet Second Harvest Food Bank Distribution Center is equipped to receive, store and distribute thousands of pounds of food weekly. (Emily Burleigh / American Press) Second Harvest Food Bank is now even more equipped to battle food insecurity in Southwest Louisiana. The Southwest Louisiana Distribution Center opened on Friday on La. 397. The grand opening was celebrated with a performance by the Barbe High School show choir, giveaways and a tour of the 24,000 square-foot facility. With refrigeration and freezer space and the surface area to store up to 450 pallets of pantry items, the multi-million dollar distribution center will increase the food bank's delivery capacity to 8 million pounds of food annually. This amount of food will meet 80 percent of food assistance needs in Calcasieu Parish, where 21,000 people do not eat at least 170 meals a year. This is the third Second Harvest distribution center to operate in Louisiana, with a fourth one set to open later this month in the Houma area, said Jon Toups, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana. Two other distribution centers are in the New Orleans and Lafayette areas. The new distribution center is a 'long time coming' that has only been possible through partnership. Feeding a community Second Harvest Food Bank was established in 1982 to eradicate hunger in South Louisiana. Forty-three years later, the organization operates in 23 parishes. About 430,000 people in those 23 parishes face food insecurity, which Toups said is 'nothing more than anxiety around where the next meal will come from.' This can happen to anybody, he added. 'This could be a senior. This could be a veteran. This could be a child. This could be family.' Southwest Louisiana stepped up to the plate to join the mission. About 3.4 million meals were distributed in Southwest Louisiana in 2024 — more than 2.5 million of these meals were handed out in Calcasieu Parish. This is a feat that could only be accomplished with a passionate community, said Bill Hoffman, board president of Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans & Acadiana Board of Directors. There is a network of volunteers and 30 'pantry partners' supporting Second Harvest in the region, and 200 across all of South Louisiana. 'We can provide money and we can provide buildings, but we can't reach out and touch everybody.' Second Harvest's reach has range. Bulk food is distributed through a web of mutually beneficial partnerships. The center, which has a backup generator, will serve the community during major emergencies and disasters, but this is a role Second Harvest has always played. Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter recalled not only how Second Harvest has responded during disasters like Hurricanes Laura and Delta, but also during the every-day hunger challenges. It operates as a shelter during severe weather events and supports the city's after-school programs. Those at Second Harvest also help by picking up the phone. 'People have been fed because I called Second Harvest, and at the turn of a minute, they were there with food to provide for those people in need,' Hunter said. McNeese President Wade Rousse is also well acquainted with Second Harvest's local impact. The food bank and McNeese State University partnered to establish the McNeese Community Kitchen in 2022. The kitchen allows Second Harvest to enhance its services with cooked meals and McNeese to enhance its nutrition curriculum with a fully-functional kitchen. Providing food to Southwest Louisiana aligns with McNeese's mission to provide the premier higher educational experience in Louisiana and Southeast Texas. Students can't enjoy this experience, excel in school and enter the workforce without their basic needs met, he said. 'We can't do any of that if we have students on our campus who are worried bout their next meal.' Expansion Toups said this is just the beginning of the journey. There are 20 more organizations on the waiting list to become pantry partners and further expansions have already been discussed. Looking forward, he envisions Second Harvest distributing more hot meals to the area. This is already in the works. The food bank has been discussing the possibility of a new facility that would serve as a kitchen, as well as an education center. It would facilitate the production of hot meals and have meeting space for farmers and food producers, he said. The facility would solidify Second Harvest's capability to meet community needs, including disaster-related needs. 'When disaster hits, having a kitchen, a place for people to go for hot meals, makes a big difference.' Food shortages The shelves in the new distribution were more barren than they would usually be, Toups noted. Second Harvest is 'significantly struggling with food shortages' following funding freezes at the federal level. The food bank is seeing its food supplies cut back, leaving leadership to make 'tougher decisions.' He said they do have the capabilities to maintain their current operations, but that takes money. One of the basic human fundamental rights is access to food, he said, and right now that access is teetering on the line of crisis, he said. 'While I understand and can even appreciate cutting out waste and fraud. … feeding people, especially in South Louisiana … that's not fraud. That's not wasting.' How to help Residents are integral cogs in the hunger-fighting machine, and there are three main ways they can help: awareness, donations and manpower. This year alone, the volunteer hours logged for Second Harvest are the equivalent of 30 to 35 full-time employees. Financial donations, be it from an individual or a Fortune 500 company, help keep the food bank up and running. But nothing makes more of an impact than spreading the good word, Toups said. Awareness is not only necessary to spotlight the severity of food insecurity, but also to let people know where to go if they need help themselves. 'Telling our story, that's truly the way to get involved.' For more information on Second Harvest or to donate, visit
