INSIDE: PERMITS ä 5G
ADVOCATE THE SOUTHSIDE
1G
THURSDAY MARCH 12, 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
Family presents part ofYMCA donation
Darlene Denstorff
BY C.J. FUTCH
cfutch@theadvocate.com
ON THE SOUTHSIDE
DDENSTORFF@ THEADVOCATE.COM
A Night of Character raises money for Scouting The Istrouma Area Council, Boy Scouts of America will host A Night of Character at 6 p.m. March 24 at the LSU Rural Life Museum. The evening will feature food, music, an open bar and auctions. Proceeds support the delivery of the Scouting for Character program to eligible at-risk youths throughout the Istrouma Area Council, a news release said. Tickets are $100. For information, contact Istrouma Area Council, Boy Scouts of America at (225) 926-2697. The Scouting for Character program provides at-risk youths an opportunity to experience Scouting activities and values, supported by trained adults in a safe environment, the release said. Since 1917, the Istrouma Area Council, Boy Scouts of America has delivered programs to residents in Ascension, East and West Baton Rouge, East and West Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. James, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes, and Washington and Wilkinson counties, Mississippi.
Job fair planned
nods and laughs from everyone at the celebration, from Faye, Eric Lane’s mother and Gerry Lane’s widow, and granddaughter Ashton, to the administration and patrons of the YMCA in the audience. Part of the donation will fund a memorial walkway for Gerry Lane at the youth sports complex located on the campus of the Paula G. Manship YMCA. The memorial will be dedicated March 28 in conjunction with the opening of the baseball season, YMCA CEO Bob Jacobs said. For information on the Y and its programming, visit any branch, or the Y’s website, www.ymcabatonrouge.org.
Rockin’out
Advocate staff photo by ANGELA MAJOR
Alexander’s Highland Market will host a job fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the store’s upstairs office space, 18111 Highland Market Drive. The local company is looking to add 10 to 15 new positions to its growing fullservice supermarket. For information, call (225) 615-7800 or visit www. alexandersmkt.com.
Science Bowl advances
Baton Rouge Magnet High School’s science bowl team has won the regional leg of the 2015 National Science Bowl. The win qualifies the team to compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C. The NSB brings together thousands of middle and high school students from across the country to comäSee SOUTHSIDE, page 3G
Rendering provided by KRISTEN HOGAN
A rendering shows the concept for a memorial walkway dedicated to Gerry Lane outside the Paula G. Manship Youth Sports Complex.
While Baton Rouge knew the late Gerry Lane as a businessman and owner of Gerry Lane Cadillac, members and staff of the YMCA of the Capital Area knew him as a loyal patron. And for just about every child participating in the Y’s youth sports programs, he was the name written on their jerseys. Lane’s son, Eric, now CEO of Gerry Lane Enterprises, said he remembers the first time his wife, Lisa, asked the dealership to buy T-shirts for YMCA programs. “We bought 2,100 shirts at $6 each. And that has grown
to I don’t know how many thousands of T-shirts over the years,� Eric Lane said at Gerry Lane Cadillac on Feb. 28, where he presented the first installment of a $300,000 donation to the YMCA in memory of his father, who died in 2013. “When dad was alive, he thought of this as the best thing we do,� he said. In addition to supporting YMCA programs financially, Gerry Lane also exercised there. “He went to the Y every day, though anybody who stood beside him on the treadmill probably knows he didn’t get a lot of working out done because he was probably talking,� Eric Lane said, prompting knowing
Children choose geodes to cut Saturday during the sixth annual Rockin’ at the Swamp event at BREC’s Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center.
IN SYMMETRY BY C.J. FUTCH
cfutch@theadvocate.com Tammy Frazier wouldn’t argue that she’s got among the cooler job titles as art education curator at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum in downtown. “I absolutely love my job,� she said, stopping occasionally at each table Saturday in the art classroom to answer questions about the day’s project. On Saturday, Frazier taught a group of about 20 children and parents a little about the history and purpose behind mandalas — a piece of artwork, usually circular, that includes perfectly symmetrical elements in each of four quadrants. “The word mandala in Sanskrit means unity and represents balance,� Frazier said. The art form has been around
LASM class re-creates ancient art of mandalas
for thousands of years, she said, and is easy to teach because it’s so well-represented in nature. A slice of an orange, or banana, a horizontally sliced apple, snowflakes, starfish, cells or heads of kale can, with the right perspective, be a mandala. Once you start looking for them, you find them everywhere, she said. But sparking that creative connection to the beauty of symmetry is not only a way to reliably produce a piece of art — no matter how artistic one considers themselves to be — it’s also a handy way to teach radial symmetry, or the quality of having two symmetric halves. “We try to make learning about science fun,� she said. Jan Faulkner, who attended the workshop with her granddaughter Jorja Harp, 6, said that
element of fun is what keeps them coming back. “Learning shouldn’t be work. It should be more like play,â€? she said. “I’m learning about symmetry,â€? Harp said, gluing shapes to her mandala. To be symmetrical, she said, “it all has to be the same.â€? Jorja explained how she was constructing the mandala, which first requires several sheets of decorative or colored paper folded into fourths. She trimmed the outside edge of one piece of paper, cutting a pattern of her choosing along the nonfolded sides, then unfolded it to reveal a perfectly symmetrical circle divided into fourths by the fold lines. She repeated the process with the other sheets of paper, this time cutting random shapes out äSee MANDALAS, page 4G
Advocate photo by C.J. FUTCH
Nikki May and her son, Rex, 6, learn about symmetry through art on March 7 at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum. They place paper shapes in each quadrant of the paper circle to create a paper mandala.
!XzP !eLC`œ 2Wem !eLC`ÂœĂ‹ =eup $PXVWKepWeeN 2umPpbCp_Ptœ