Dancing

Back and bigger than ever after the pandemic, Louisiana’s festival culture is a boon to tourism

THOUGH SHE WAS born well over a century after the Civil War, Katelyn Calhoun practically grew up on a battlefield.

A native of the northwest Louisiana community of Pleasant Hill, Calhoun has been participating child. When she wore the Miss Battle help promote the unique celebration

Louisiana, we most likely have a fair types of cultures and traditions and a bustling community that surrounds

Calhoun says she believes the passion that pervades Louisiana’s festival-loving way of life stems from a desire for preservation. “It’s about preservation of the traditions within communities— preservation of our industries and all of the things that bring people together,” she says. “The Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, for example, celebrates crawfish there in the Crawfish Capital of the World, but it also preserves that culture by only allowing traditional Cajun and Creole bands to provide their entertainment.”

Fair and festival culture was alive and well in Louisiana even before the 20th century. The state’s oldest fair still in existence is the Tangipahoa Parish Fair, which first welcomed visitors to Amite in 1888. Tradition abounds at several other festivals that are approaching the century mark, including Morgan City’s Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, which began in 1936; the International Rice Festival in Crowley, which was first held in 1937; and the Plaquemines Parish Orange Festival, which launched in 1947. “And of course there are new ones that pop up all the time,” Calhoun says. “So you can find a fair or festival pretty much at any stage of its life in Louisiana.”

While the biggest festivals like Jazz Fest and French Quarter Fest in New Orleans and the Louisiana Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula get the most headlines, there are plenty of lesserknown events with unique themes. The Louisiana Tournoi in Ville Platte features jousters on horseback, while the Zwolle Tamale Fiesta honors that area’s Spanish and Indian heritage through food. In Abbeville, would-be chefs gather for the Giant Omelette Celebration—featuring 5,000 eggs cooked in a 12-foot skillet— each November, and Houma’s Rougarou Fest celebrates a werewolf-like creature from Cajun folklore. Some up-and-comers are instant favorites, like the Scott Boudin

Festival, which launched in 2012 and has become a big regional draw.

No matter the theme, many Louisiana festivals have one major element in common: the crowning of a queen. “They’re like walking, talking billboards,” Calhoun says. “They get to go around and promote our festivals throughout the state. A lot of times, they are the people that the public meets first, and they’re beautiful and they have all their regalia on, so they become icons and role models, essentially.”

Louisiana’s festivals have bounced back stronger than ever after the shutdowns caused by the COVID pandemic, Calhoun notes. “Everybody that has had a festival has seen double or triple in profits and attendance,” she says. “I think when we had our festivals taken away, people hadn’t realized how much a part of their lives these events had been.”

Such a wide array of vibrant events is also a major boost for tourism. “We get so many international visitors every year just because of our culture here, and fairs and festivals play a huge role in that culture,” Calhoun says. “Festivals are essential to tourism in this state, and we work very closely with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office. We’re all working to accomplish the same goal of bringing those tourism dollars into our state and into our communities so we can make a difference on the local, state and national levels.”

BY ASHLEY GORDON

PHOTOS BY COLLIN RICHIE

DOWN AN INDUSTRIAL street in Lafayette, peppered with tired office towers built in the heyday of the decadesago oil boom, not far from the airport, stands a gleaming 270,000-square-foot national company headquarters with state-of-the-art technology, modern aesthetics, full-service employee amenities and the capacity for future growth. It’s an anomaly in an area of Louisiana rich in history and prone to construction that honors the past. Instead, the new LHC Home Office, situated on 17 acres of land, boasts a structure of concrete, steel and glass more commonly spotted in a metropolis than a smaller municipality.

“When people walk into our building, they often say, ‘We can’t believe this is in Lafayette,’” says Brach Myers, Senior Vice President of LHC Group, a national provider of in-home healthcare services and innovations. “We are bringing something new to the community: a more progressive workplace. And it’s exciting.”

Future-focused design was the intent when LHC Group began imagining its employees from four separate office buildings in Lafayette all working under one roof. Keeping the bones of a former AT&T 66,000 square-foot building, the LHC team planned to add on significantly to accommodate all facets of a company that services and manages 29,000 employees in more than 900 locations in 37 states and the District of Columbia. And the structural addition was a doozy: 204,000 square feet. Jay Chase of Chase Marshall Architects in Lafayette served as the lead architect with Gensler Architecture and Design doing the heavy lifting. Justine Hebert of J Design in Lafayette handled the interiors, and CARBO Landscape Architecture orchestrated the grounds. A small internal team of employees joined in the effort, and together they visited modern, open-concept office spaces in Chicago to get inspiration. Construction began in 2019 and the new LHC Group Home Office opened for business in the fall of 2021.

Office Space

“We really had a lack of conference space, and that was a necessity,” says Marcus Macip, Chief Administrative Officer of LHC Group. “We would drive all over town for meetings with our own employees, because this was before online meetings were available. Now, all our meeting areas encourage collaboration, which is imperative to what we do.”

Today, LHC headquarters houses 25 conference rooms, 22 “huddle” rooms (smaller conference rooms that can be booked on the spot) and two large training rooms. In addition, there are 36 “focus” rooms for singular use throughout the building if someone needs to take a private phone call or work at a desk away from the fray. Many of the 1,000 employees on site sit (or stand) at ergonomically planned workstations where the desks can be raised or lowered with the touch of a button. White noise in the more populated areas ensures that conversations don’t distract others. And printing stations strategically placed throughout can access each employee’s printing needs with the swipe of an ID tag. All elements of workday needs were considered in design.

“This construction kept the employee experience in mind,” says Karl Comeaux, Vice President of Facilities Management at LHC Group. “We have a health clinic on site, with a nurse practitioner and two exam rooms. If an employee starts feeling bad, he or she can simply go downstairs and be examined on the spot. There are Mother’s Rooms on every floor for nursing mothers. And we even offer a dry-cleaning service that offers pick up and drop off at our location.”

Perhaps the greatest employee benefit is located on the first floor: an onsite cafeteria serving hot and cold breakfasts and lunches at greatly reduced rates. Dubbed The Hub, this food service area—with a state-of-the-art kitchen that would be a professional chef’s dream— also produces home takeaway meals in a refrigerated section in addition to the daily offerings. Employees can eat on site and take home a meal for their families. Seating for The Hub extends to a threestory atrium that is the centerpiece of the LHC headquarters and to the expansive outdoor courtyard beyond.

“All of our amenities assist with our focus of collaboration,” says Macip. “Before, employees would leave for lunch or eat lunch at their desks. Now they meet up with others who work in different departments.”

Now, in addition to eating in the atrium, the area plays host to LHC Group’s Home Office Fun: a stream of activities organized by front-line staff to get different departments connected with one another. It can be as simple as serving smoothies one day to playing cornhole and Jenga another.

“Having space in the atrium allows us to get teams together and collaborate or recognize something important that is taking place,” says Macip. “We also have kiosks that solicit feedback from employees on what it is like to work here. For participating, they receive a $2 discount at The Hub.”

This focus on employee wellbeing fits into the LHC Group Pillars of Excellence which serve as operational guideposts where every aspect of the business is focused, measured and evaluated. They include the following: People, Service, Quality, Efficiency, Growth and Ethics. The paintings of these pillars serve as the only artwork on the walls throughout the headquarters, reminding employees what the company stands for. And a large painting on the three-story wall in the atrium sums up the greatest focus of LHC Group: “We are in the Business of Helping People.”

This mantra goes back to the company’s 1994 beginnings around a kitchen table in Palmetto where Keith and Ginger Myers, LHC Group Co-Founders (and Brach’s parents), first dreamed of creating a home health agency to service the people in their rural area. At the time, Ginger, a nurse, generously helped those in her community after she got off work at a local hospital, and the couple could see the need for this at-home care growing.

With only four patients, Louisiana Health Care Group was devised. Its first joint venture was with Opelousas General Hospital a few years later. Word spread about its dedication and its commitment to excellence. Today, LHC Group is the preferred in-home healthcare partner for more than 400 leading hospitals, caring for more than 100,000 patients every day across the country.

“We never dreamed it would become this. It happened so organically. I attribute it to the servant leadership we have in Louisiana and how this organization treats people,” says Myers. “When LHC Group was first created in 1994 with our first home health agency opening in Palmetto, the company incorporated and operated as Louisiana Health Care Group. When we expanded into Texas in 2001, we changed the name to LHC Group which enabled us to grow into Texas and other states. The original name says it all right there. We had not planned for it to become this large.” But the significant growth does not negate the company’s focus on community and its belief that all healthcare is local. This outward-facing outlook is no less apparent than on the executive level of the LHC headquarters, where the company executives’ offices are comparable in size to offices on floors below.

"Our Home Office expansion was modestly designed so that every office— from directors to the CEO—is exactly the same size in keeping with our culture of a flat organizational structure. All leaders are equally valuable and valued,” says Myers. “In fact, we call our office in Lafayette our Home Office rather than our ‘corporate headquarters’ as our mission is to support those in the field who care for our patients in their home or place of residence.”

This focus on personal care and the success of the LHC Group business model caught the attention of Optum, part of UnitedHealth Group. Now Optum and LHC Group are combining to accelerate their ability to provide compassionate and comprehensive care to patients and their families in settings that are most comfortable for them, improving the patient experience and care outcomes. According to the company, this combination will advance value-based care and patient outcomes by uniting a national provider of high-quality home health and post-acute care services with an innovative leader in improving operational and clinical performance. The merger is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.

“LHC Group’s Home Office operations will remain in Lafayette where the combination of these two organizations positions Lafayette to become the home healthcare center for the largest healthcare company in the world,” says Myers. “All other remote and home office operations will continue from existing locations and LHC Group leadership, management, and employees will continue to provide service and support from its more than 900 locations across 37 states and District of Columbia.”

This dedication to its employees and caregivers, as well as to its patients in communities throughout the United States, is reflected in the LHC Group Home Office in Lafayette: built to provide, built to bond and built to last. With two additional floors in one building just waiting to be built out for future growth, the LHC headquarters is constructed with all the modern amenities of today with a keen eye on the future. The principals maintain that it is only going to get better.

“The vision our leaders have shown in building this company, and the financial investment in the building and in the community shows our confidence in the stability of our company,” says Marcus. “We are booming, and we still have room for growth. With our partnership with Optum, I feel like it’s going to take off like a rocket ship.” 

LABI’S FREE ENTERPRISE AWARDS: BUSINESS & BOOTS

It’s one of our favorite events of the year! The 2022 Free Enterprise Awards was a night of celebration for Louisiana’s Main Street as we honored the people and businesses who make Louisiana a better place to live. Following the ceremony, we finished up the night in our cowboy boots dancing with country band Parish County Line.

2022 DC FLY-BACK

In October, LABI was pleased to host a number of board members for insightful panels, DC updates and messages from the Louisiana congressional delegation in New Orleans for our annual Washington Fly-Back.

Washington Dc Mardi Gras

While LABI certainly cannot claim this festive work/ celebration at the nation’s capital in January as its own, we still got a lot of facetime with many of our members and friends. The Mystick Krewe of Louisianaians—and all of the banquets, parties and networking—did not disappoint!