The Southside Advocate (01/22/15)

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The Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center’s exhibit ‘Metamorphosis: Quilt the Swamp 2015’ will be on display through Feb. 15. äPage 2G

ADVOCATE THE SOUTHSIDE

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THURSDAY JANUARY 22, 2015 H B O C AG E • C O U N T RY C LU B • H I G H L A N D • J E F F E R S O N T E R R AC E • K E N I LW O R T H • P E R K I N S • U N I V E R S I T Y C LU B THEADVOCATE.COM

Fellowship encourages students’ expressions 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 Photo provided by Woodlawn High School Fellowship of Christian Students is around 150 students, he said. Fellowship of Christian Students’ faculty adviser James Daniels recently leads an FCS meetDaniels suspects that their ing at Woodlawn. The school’s club, at about 150 students, is one of the larger in the parish. 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 op-

portunity 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 faithbased 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 äSee FELLOWSHIP, page 4G

ENCOURAGING

Darlene Denstorff

GROWTH

ON THE SOUTHSIDE

DDENSTORFF@ THEADVOCATE.COM

Residents invited to Brookstown 5K, expo Baton Rouge residents are invited to take part Saturday in Brookstown Middle Magnet Academy’s first 5K Run and Health Expo. The event starts at 7:30 a.m. with registration and the runs starts at 9 a.m. at 4270 E. Brookstown Drive. The other events on the school campus include a physician’s forum, Zumba and fitness classes, student activities and performances, as well as health screenings.

Arbor Day participants enjoy a hayride.

Hemline for Hearts

The American Heart Association, Macy’s and Hemline@LSU will host Hemline for Hearts from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Mall of Louisiana, 6401 Bluebonnet Blvd. The event will be on the first floor in front of Macy’s. LSU Fashion Merchandising students, who are members of the student group Hemline@LSU, have designed dresses to be built completely out of red paper hearts. The Hemline students each submitted sketches and the top entries were selected by the American Heart Association to participate in the build. The students will create red dresses from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. with only a mannequin and red paper hearts. The dresses will be judged at 4 äSee SOUTHSIDE, page 4G

Advocate staff photos by JOHN OUBRE

Brooks Callaway, 2, and his brother Sanders, 4, get instructions from their dad, Scott, as they plant a tree Trenton Johnson waves to his family from Saturday during an Arbor Day event at the Burden Museum and Gardens. a tree on Saturday during Arbor Day.

Eddie Vance, a second-grader at Gardere Community Christian School, finds radishes in the winter garden during a Martin Luther King Jr. program Monday. Advocate staff photo by C.J. FUTCH

Gardere Initiative celebrates MLK BY C.J. FUTCH

cfutch@theadvocate.com Students, teachers and volunteers with the Gardere Initiative gathered Monday for a daylong celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. About 50 students and adults ended a morning ceremony by joining hands in a giant unity circle and singing, among other

songs, “We Shall Overcome,� a gospel song that became the anthem of the civil rights movement. “But this is not just a celebration of Dr. King,� said Murelle Harrison, a member of the initiative. “This is also a day of service for our community, in the tradition of Dr. King.�

äSee GARDERE, page 4G


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