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The amount of culture and diversity that each city in Louisiana holds is endless. There is so much to see and do- how do you even begin to map out your Louisiana travel plans!?
With this interactive map that Louisianatravel.com offers, it makes the planning easier than you could ever expect. Not only that, but it guides, you city by city, on the best sights to see, things to do, and hidden gems only locals know of.
You can start out by picking the city or region of your choice, here. Each city will feature trip ideas, travel accommodations and popular events in that area around each time of year. Check it out!
What better way to celebrate the first day of fall than an amazing baked apple recipe!? Can you imagine how marvelous your house will smell after these bits of heaven have been baking in your oven? This recipe, which you can read more about here, is sure to satisfy everyone in your house- especially after you add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.
Ingredients
4 – Honeycrisp apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
4 tblsp butter
creamy caramel sauce (optional)
vanilla ice cream (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Slice approximately 1/3 off of the top of the apples and scoop out the core, leaving a well in the center.
In a bowl, mix brown sugar, cinnamon, cranberries and walnuts (using a spoon or fork) until blended.
Stuff each apple with 1/4 of brown sugar mixture.
Place apples in a deep baking dish, topping each apple with 1 tblsp butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Pour about 1/2″ of water into the baking pan, around the apples, and bake for 50 – 60 minutes, until apples are tender.
Serve warm, topped with caramel sauce drizzled on top of each apple, if desired.
Also excellent served with vanilla or butter pecan ice cream.
Notes
Keep an eye on the water level when baking. Add more water, if needed, to prevent the apples from drying out.
Benny Cenac, Houma Philanthropist, recently donated to the first annual Downtown Houma Fall Fest. Downtown Houma was able to successfully host its First Annual Fall Festival over the weekend. Presented by Cenac Marine Services and filled with a variety of local bands, the fall festival was a huge hit throughout the town. Cenac Marine Services owner and philanthropist Arlen Benny Cenac, Jr. jumped at the opportunity to help support this event as he is always an avid proponent of arts, music, and community and believes the incorporation of arts in a community significantly increases the strength of the community.
The vision that the creators of Fall Fest had in mind was brought to life as they received support from local companies, vendors and the very talented native music community. As stated on Downtown Fall Fest’s website, “Downtown Fall Fest, in its infancy, was an idea forged from the minds of local musicians, yearning to rebuild a local music scene that has largely been dormant the past few years. The idea gained traction quickly and began to grow as more individuals gave their input. Within days, a simple comment grew into an idea, then a concept revolving around building support for local musicians, while also giving back to the community.” All proceeds from the Downtown Fall Festival will benefit local music programs for the purchase and repair of musical instruments.
Music has been shown to significantly increase the strength of a community since prehistoric times. Music was one of the earliest forms of communication so it was not only inseparable from early communities, but was absolutely integral to positive community relationships. In fact it’s now been proven that early cultures with a strong musical tradition thrived whereas cultures without a musical tradition struggled to survive. One reason for this is because music evokes strong emotions and since music coordinates their emotions, it helps important messages to be communicated and motivates individuals to identify with and to support other members within their community. Recent research has shown that when an individual feels positive, relaxed and confident they are much more able to integrate with other members of their community which increases their capacity for social integration. This in turn strengthens the community as a whole because when all the members of a community are fully integrated each individual is able to contribute a diverse and unique set of skills and talents to that community.
There are two major benefits of incorporating music into the community- it improves the social development of the individual by increasing their feelings of well being and connectedness, and it also increases that individual’s ability to then integrate within their community which results in a stronger community for all of its members.
Residents, along with Mr. Benny Cenac, are hopeful that more affordable arts events will be brought to the area. There was free admission to all stages of the festival except for the Brick House Stage which was only $5. Local residents were able to enjoy their favorite local bands including Sheauxdown, Southern Cross, Category 6, and much more. The festival also includes a jambalaya cook off, BBQ cook off, craft booths, and more. To read a full article on the events, click here. To learn more about Mr. Cenac’s philanthropy efforts and community involvement visit here.
The 2017-2018 school year at Vandebilt Catholic Highwill be the first of many years for the Arlen Benny Cenac Jr. Sacred Heart Scholarship Fund. As stated by the Houma Times, the donation of $50,000 per year is directly provided from Arlen Benny Cenac Jr. and his foundation, The A.B. Cenac Jr. Foundation.
The Sacred Heart scholarship is inspired by Fr. Andre Coindre who established schools for the poor children in Lyon, France. He later founded the Brothers of the Sacred Heart to run the schools he began. Fr. Coindre showed concern for the dilemma of orphaned children by making available to them the education that theirs families could not give them as well as provide them with a trade. The goal of the Sacred Heart Scholarship is to offer quality Catholic education to children from families that might otherwise not be financially able to afford one.
Father Andre Coindre was born in Lyon, France, in 1787. Devoting his life to the restoration of the Church following the Reign of Terror at the end of the French Revolution, his chief mission became the moral, intellectual, and religious development of young orphan boys left in distress by the consequent disintegration of family life.
Father Coindre had envisioned a community of brothers trained to work with the poor through the establishment of schools; in 1821 that dream became a reality with the formation of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. After Father Coindre’s death in 1826 and at the end of Father Francis Coindre’s administration, Brother Polycarp, the first Brother Superior General, assumed leadership of the struggling community. His tenure was marked by a period of tremendous growth. By the time of his death in 1859, the Institute had grown to over 400 Brothers in 70 schools. For obvious reasons, Vandebilt was inspired by Father Coidre and this scholarship has been a wonderful addition to the Vandebilt repertoire.
The amount of $50,000 will be dedicated towards tuition assistance of children from families in financial need. The awards will range from $1,000 to the total cost of tuition per year and may extend multiple years while a student is enrolled at Vandebilt Catholic High. The criteria for being eligible for this grant will be based on need, desire, recommendation and selection.
“Because of generous donors like Mr. Cenac, we are able to witness the true mission of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart lived out today within our school,” said Melanie Prentice, the advancement director at Vandebilt, in a recent interview with a Houma Times reporter. “The impact that this scholarship will have is immeasurable in assisting a student’s financial need to continue their Catholic education. We cannot thank Mr. Cenac and his foundation enough for this blessed gift.”
For one reason or another, these households are unable to afford to send their children to Vandebilt Catholic High but through Mr. Arlen Benny Cenac Jr’s gracious impact he has helped nine families change their lives forever, just this year. We look forward to seeing the impression this scholarship fund has in the years to come. “The influence of a great education is something that cannot be replaced. I want to make sure I am doing my part in helping these young adults achieve greatness along with building strong core values of integrity and excellence,” said Cenac.
For more information on the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, click here. For more information on Benny Cenac’s philanthropy work, click here.
Louisiana Public School’s ACT scores are on the rise! According to data released by the Department of Education. The graduating class of 2017, which included 25,704 public school graduates earned a score of 18 or higher while the class of 2012, only had 18,307 graduates achieve this level. That makes a phenomenal increase of 7,397 students over the last five years.
Not only does an ACT score of 18 or higher allow the students’ admission intoto college without the need to retake high school classes but it also helps to qualify them for the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) scholarship that also grew at every level of the scholarship award this year.
This is a wonderful accomplishment for not only these students but the hard working teachers of Louisiana Public Schools.
You can find more information on the increase in Louisiana Public Schooling ACT scores, here.
A new high-resolution map of the floor of the Gulf of Mexico was released to the public recently. Parts of interest, particularly along the coasts of Louisiana and Texas have become one of the most geologically interesting stretches of the Earth’s surface.
According to nationalgeographic.com, the strange geology of the floor of the Gulf is mostly caused by thick underlying layers of salt. Scientists think the salt probably accumulated around the time when Africa was just starting to separate from the Americas around 200 million years ago. At that point, the Gulf was probably a separate basin that was filled with seawater that later evaporated, leaving a blanket of salt behind. Later, as the basin became a gulf, the salt was covered with sediment deposited by rivers.
In 2010, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) created a way to make a high-resolution map by combining the data from several 3-D seismic surveys that several exploration companies had done in small area of the Gulf. After that project was successfully completed, they realized they could map the whole Gulf of Mexico the same way. This led to compiled data from more than 200 individual maps made by exploration companies, which has given us this extremely detailed and pixelated updated record. For more information on the new high resolution map, you can read the full article here.
Benny Cenac, Houma Philanthropist, recently donated to the first annual 
