New generation, new ideas: Rotary forum lets students propose projects

Mayors, presidents, chiefs, councilmen and commissioners were there. But Thursday night belonged to the sophomores, juniors and seniors and their ideas for improving St. Mary Parish communities.
For the 21st straight year, the Rotary Club of Morgan City brought high school students and their project proposals together with the public officials that have the power to make things happen. The New Generation Forum at Morgan City High drew teams from eight St. Mary high schools.
“We promote this forum to hear idea from our students in the parish,” Rotary member Scott Melancon told the audience. “Tonight, these young people become stakeholders in the community.”
The high schools and their projects:
—Berwick High wants a parishwide anti-bullying effort. The school already has a 2-year-old organization called ARK, for Acts of Random Kindness. Its members have cleaned up Lincoln Park, ran an Easter egg hunt for special needs students, and collected items for Christmas presents and packages to send to soldiers overseas.
—Patterson High’s team hopes to create a job fair that matches community employers with students seeking work or internships. Team members said the program might help keep young people and their talent in St. Mary Parish after they graduate.
—Hanson Memorial students want to create a team that can talk to both parents and students about the dangers of synthetic drugs, including synthetic marijuana and bath salts. These drugs, which can cause psychosis and severe physiological damage, often elude drug tests imposed by employers and the courts.
—Morgan City High students want to create a dog park, and they have located a site at Morgan City Complex Park. They have also checked into prices for water fountains, fences and waste management systems.
—Franklin High students are lobbying for a course, or maybe an entire curriculum, focusing on broadcasting. Students say learning to produce, shoot and edit video would prepare them for work in a variety of fields.
—Centerville High students want to fix or replace aging playground equipment in their town.
—West St. Mary High wants to have trained juniors and seniors serve as caretakers and tutors in the after-school hours for younger students with working parents.
—Central Catholic students tackled the traffic mess created by cars picking up students at their school and Morgan City High.
The Centerville students in particular might be in luck. Parish President Paul Naquin said a recreation district recently leveraged a $25,000 match into a $75,000 grant.
Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi thinks the dog park idea might work, too.
“I tried to survey some people to see if there was any interest,” Grizzaffi said. “There’s a lot of interest.”
Parish Council member Ken Singleton was interested in several of the students’ ideas.
“I just want to say I’m impressed with all of you,” Singleton said.

This story was written by Bill Decker of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at bdecker@daily-review.com