DONALDSONVILLE • DUTCHTOWN • GEISMAR • GONZALES • PRAIRIEVILLE • ST. AMANT
THE ASCENSION
ADVOCATE T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
Darlene Denstorff AROUND ASCENSION
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W e d n e s d ay, M ay 28, 2025
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Pick your paddle
Senior sock hop Friday May’s Garney Gautreau Sock Hop will have a Cinco De Mayo theme Friday at the LamarDixon Expo Center’s Ascension gym. The event, which features food and dancing, is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Justin Garner at Crescent Park Visit Crescent Park on June 7 for a free performance by musician Justin Garner. The Live@ Crescent Park concert series sponsored by the Donaldsonville Downtown Development District also includes vendors and food trucks. For vendor information, call (225) 473-4814.
Ascension Pride Festival Plans are underway for Ascension Parish Pride Fest set for June 21 at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center. Organizers are seeking volunteers and vendors are for the inaugural event. For sponsorships, email ascensionparishpride@gmail.com or visit the event page. Proceeds from the event will be used to host the festival, which will provide “entertainment and programming that reflect and celebrate our diverse community,” organizers said.
Cocktail Trail open The Louisiana Sweet Spot Cocktail Trail is open through July 31 at participating bars and restaurants. Order a Sweet Spot Cocktail, receive a stamp on your trail passport, collect eight stamps and turn your passport in for a chance to win prizes. Passports are available at the Ascension Tourism office in Sorrento, at participating businesses or visit visitlasweetspot. com/cocktailtrail.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY RHETT BOURGEOIS
Brittany White, left, lifts the double-headed ax plaque given to the winner’s helper at the Gonzales Jambalaya Festival, her husband Jared White, right, Sunday at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center.
Amid a new location, family of cooks takes top prizes at Jambalaya Festival
Jayden White, 14, right, stirs his pot of jambalaya along with assistant Jason Beck on Saturday during the Junior Jambalaya Cooking Contest at the Jambalaya Festival. White won the contest.
BY DARLENE DENSTORFF
PHOTO BY WENDY LOUP
Community news editor
It started Friday with 95 cooks vying for the World Champion jambalaya-cooking title at the Gonzales Jambalaya Festival. After three days of 140 pots of jambalaya cooking on the sand under the barns at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, Jared White lifted the golden paddle in victory Sunday night as the best jambalaya cook around. White, whose helper was his wife, Brittany, has been cooking in the festival for 12 years. He won the Boucherie Festival’s
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Junior competition welcomes new jambalaya chefs up to the pot BY WENDY LOUP
of patience Saturday during Gonzales Jambalaya Festival’s inaugural Junior Jambalaya Cooking Contest. The event was one of multiple Seven young jambalaya cooks simmered pots with meat cooked to perä See JUNIOR, page 2G fection, fluffy rice and a large dose Contributing writer
Summer STEM camp Community Sisterhood’s Summer 2025 STEM Camp registration is underway. The camp, for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 9-13 at First Pilgrim Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Geismar. The cost is $85. To register, visit www.paypal.com/ncp/ payment/5DEEYZASL7XDG. For information, visit www. communitysisterhood.org.
A long legacy: ‘He served us all’
Family, others celebrate life of La.’s oldest WWII veteran BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD
Dutchtown cheer mini camp
Staff writer
Pajama Party is the theme of Dutchtown High’s Cheer Mini Camp set for May 27-30 at the school gym. Children ages 4 and older are invited to register by May 23 for the camp, which costs $80, at tinyurl.com/dthscheerminicamp2025. A portion of all proceeds from the camp will be donated
On Friday afternoon in Baton Rouge, an honor guard performed a three-volley salute by firing three rounds of blanks and a military bugle call was played to signal the death of the oldest living World War II veteran in Louisiana. Gail Woodrow Richardson died May 19 at 105 years old. The Gonzales resident was born in St. Amant. He
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Gail Richardson, a World War II veteran, served in the Army medical corps and the infantry.
served with the Army in the medical corps, working in a hospital unit overseas before moving to the infantry. Nearly 100 people, including family members, local law enforcement and other veterans, gathered at Greenoaks Funeral Home and Memorial Park in Baton Rouge to celebrate the Richardson. Richardson was not only known for his military
STAFF PHOTO BY JAVIER GALLEGOS
A uniformed service member presents a folded American flag to Steven Richardson, son of Gail Woodrow Richardson, the oldest-surviving World War II veteran in Louisiana who died at age 105, Friday at Greenoaks Memorial Park and Funeral Home. On either side of Steven Richardson is his wife, Robin, and brother ä See VETERAN, page 2G Jimmie Gail Richardson.