June 30
June 30, 2009
Elsie Rhodes Theriot Andrews
July 2, 2009
This Independence Day weekend, Tri-parish residents will have plenty of free entertainment options to celebrate America’s 233rd birthday.
After a year without any public festivities in Terrebonne Parish, the first ever Patriot’s Parade and Fireworks Display in Houma, promises to be the biggest, loudest bash on the bayou.
The festivities feature a parade, free food and drinks, concerts and a massive fireworks show.
“Houma needed something like this to honor not only America, but the men and women who serve to protect it,” said C.J. Christ, president and CEO of the Regional Military Museum Foundation.
A. J. “Dr. D.” dela Houssaye, medical director at Specialty Eye Care, the Regional Military Museum Foundation and the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, are sponsoring the events.
The celebration begins Saturday at 5 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park on La. Highway 311 with a wreath-laying ceremony and 21-gun salute.
Houma native Maj. Gen. Hunt Downer will commission Judge Morris Lottinger’s daughter as an Air Force second lieutenant and give a speech.
After the pledge of allegiance by the Boy Scouts and a few words from Parish President Michel Claudet, the Patriot’s Parade will begin on Museum Drive at the Southdown Plantation House.
The parade honors the Army National Guard’s Charlie and Delta companies based in Houma and Thibodaux. The parade includes active and retired service members in track-laying vehicles provided by the Regional Military Museum.
Several local Carnival krewes will provide floats for the parade, exchanging their green, yellow and purple Mardi Gras decoration for the red, white and blue.
Christ said he needs 40 to 50 more veterans to fill all the vehicles. Any veteran interested in riding in the Patriot’s Parade should contact Christ at (985) 873-8200 or (985) 872-2843.
Riders will hand out over 100 T-shirts to onlookers.
“We want to finish this parade with zero garbage,” Christ said. “We’re not handing out anything that unwraps and leaves garbage on the ground.”
The co-marshals for the Patriot’s Parade will be the youngest and oldest local veterans that organizers can find.
So far the oldest veteran is 92-year-old Louis Ruffin, who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Ruffin is a Purple Heart recipient, wounded in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Organizers won’t know who the youngest veteran is until today.
From Museum Drive, the parade heads right onto St. Charles Street, then takes a right onto La. Highway 311, then makes another right onto Civic Center Boulevard and ends with a left into the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center parking lot.
At the parade’s conclusion, skydivers will free-fall from 13,000 feet trailed by red, white, and blue smoke and an American flag and land near the Main Public Library.
Attendees can enjoy free hot dogs, gumbo, soft drinks, water and snowballs. There will be a children’s tent featuring puppet shows and face painting to entertain the kids.
Waylon Thibodeaux and the Houma-Terrebonne Community Band will provide musical entertainment. Between performances, interviews with veterans will be shown on large screens.
The fireworks show starts at 9 p.m.
“It’s probably going to be the biggest fireworks display Houma has seen,” Christ said. “I haven’t seen them all, but I know this one will be huge.”
In Thibodaux, the 11th Annual Let Freedom Ring Festival in Peltier Park is Saturday with an opening ceremony from 2 to 2:30 p.m.
The ceremony includes Lockport native Hank Boudreaux singing the national anthem, a 21-gun salute and the release of white doves.
Bonson Billiot and Bayou Rain performs from noon to 2 p.m. and 2:30 to 3 p.m. Way Down South plays from 3 to 6 p.m., and Treater performs from 6 p.m. until the fireworks commence at 9 p.m.
An auction will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Items include a certificate for the Honeymoon Suite at the Days Inn and Suites Bayou Land, a gift basket from the Amelia Belle Casino, a slaughtering gun from Frost Lumber Inc., golf umbrellas, swing sets and more.
For the youngsters’ amusement, there will be a bounce house, water slide, a small train to ride around the park and free sheriff’s office ID cards.
“It’s like a driver’s license with the child’s picture, height and weight, eye and hair color,” said Leland Hoffman, festival committee chairman.
The park opens at 8 a.m. to festival-goers. Barbecue pits, lawn furniture and tents are welcomed.
Veterans of the Vietnam War Inc. sponsors the festival.
“This is going to be a great big party for our nation’s birthday,” Hoffman said.
Morgan City is incorporating its six-week Rhythms on the River concert series with the Independence Day holiday.
Morgan City will hold its Fourth of July celebration on Friday on Front Street between Everett and Freret streets.
Musical group Déjà Vu will perform from 6 to 9 p.m. The fireworks show begins immediately afterward.
“This is the first time we’ve had music with the fireworks,” said Bonnie Knobloch, concert series organizer. “With the Fourth of July being a long weekend, (city officials) figured people will be there, I guess.”
For the 11th consecutive year, Veterans of the Vietnam War Inc. will sponsor the Let Freedom Ring Festival in Thibodaux’s Peltier Park on Saturday. Other Independence Day celebrations include the Patriot’s Parade (pictured above) and Fireworks Display in Houma on Saturday and Rhythms on the River in Morgan City on Friday night. * Photo courtesy of LELAND HOFFMAN
