DENHAM SPRINGS • LIVINGSTON • WALKER • WATSON • AMITE • HAMMOND
ADVOCATE THE LIVINGSTON -TANGIPAHOA
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, A p r i l 8, 2026
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Crawfish Kingpin Cook-off on Saturday The Walker Kiwanis Club’s Crawfish Kingpin Cook-off is Saturday at the Livingston Parish Fairgrounds. The event, which starts at 10:30 a.m., includes the best crawfish cooks around competing, vendors, entertainment and funs for the children.
Class of ’76 reunion planned If you’re an alum of the Denham Springs Class of 1976 — my class — your help is needed to organize the upcoming reunion. The event is planned for June 13 at Forrest Grove in Denham Darlene Springs. To volunteer or share Denstorff your information with the AROUND organizers, email LIVINGSTON daleh76DS@gmail.com.
Boil & Berries Crawfish Cook-off coming to Springfield Boil & Berries Crawfish Cook-off fundraiser is coming to Springfield from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 18 at Fayard Field. Bracelets for the event are $20 for adults and $10 for children. Kids 3 and under are free. You’ll get to sample from all the crawfish pots and strawberry desserts. The day includes crawfish cook-off, strawberry dessert bake-off, strawberry patch contest, Hungarian treats and cultural performances, strawberry-eating contest for kids, music, vendors and inflatables. Fayard Field is at 32127 Church St., Springfield. All proceeds benefit the Árpádhon Hungarian Settlement Cultural Association to help preserve our Hungarian heritage. If interested in participating in crawfish cook-off or dessert bake-off, call (225) 278-3770 or (985) 974-6883. If interested in being a vendor, call (225) 9558239.
ä See AROUND, page 4G
District 5-5A softball, ready for next chapter French Settlement pitcher reaches milestone With high school softball set to conclude its regular season next week, it’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge how well District 5-5A has performed this season. For most of the season, the district’s top four schools have been rated in the top 10 of the LHSAA’s Division I nonselect power rankings, and there is a Charles good chance that Walker, Salzer St. Amant and East AscenSPORTS sion will finish in the top ROUNDUP five. Walker is set to finish at the top of the rankings and in district, and its been a fun ride. Just ask Wildcats coach Hali Westmoreland. “Everyone jokes that our district is the SEC of (Class) 5A softball, and I genuinely enjoy it because it’s great softball,” Westmoreland said last week. “You have to show up and be ready to compete. There are no days you can take off.” Walker and St. Amant are at the top of the district standings, each with two losses, but Walker handed the Gators both of their setbacks. East Ascension, Live Oak and Dutchtown have also had their moments this season with big wins over teams that currently sit higher than their current place in the standings. Part of the highly competitive nature of the district comes from the familiarity that athletes in Livingston and Ascension parishes have with each other. It doesn’t hurt to have good coaching, either. “The room for error is so small in our district, especially when you get to round two,” Westmoreland said of the district’s round-robin schedule.
ä See SALZER, page 4G
STAFF PHOTOS BY JOHN BALLANCE
Rhonda Landry-Poché, a fourth-generation strawberry farmer, shows a wooden hand carrier that was used to pick strawberries.
‘IT TAKES A VILLAGE’
In Louisiana’s Berry Belt, family-owned strawberry farm navigates a changing industry BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer
Rhonda Landry-Poché remembers picking strawberries with her Paw Paw side by side, as he told her to pick them fast and by the stems. Her grandfather was the second owner of the family farm, taking over in the 1930s, and he and his family put in years of long hours of manual labor to ensure the success of the strawberry
business. “He’d sit in the rocking chair and talk to the kids about his mule named Ada, and how they didn’t have tractors then (on the farm) and how he and his mule would work,” Landry-Poché said. Now decades and plenty of technology advances later, at 61 years old, Landry-Poché owns the family farm as it celebrates its centennial this year. The fourth-generation, family-owned Landry-Poché Strawberry Farm was
Student pilots:
established in 1926 and is located in the small town of Springfield. This strawberry season, the farm planted 120,000 plants across 6 acres. The farm currently supplies the Robert Fresh Market stores in the New Orleans area, but customers can also come to the farm to buy strawberries during the season and even pick them themselves. The farm also hosts field trips nearly every day.
ä See STRAWBERRY, page 3G
High school aviation classes teach teens how to fly BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer
On a February afternoon, Luke Hetherwick took off flying in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk over the Mississippi River as Kaiten Campo manned the air traffic control station to ensure a safe flight. “I’m currently at 1,500, and we’ve established twoway communication into Class C airspace,” Hetherwick said into his headset to STAFF PHOTOS BY JAVIER GALLEGOS Campo. After a few minutes of flyThe Live Oak High School’s aviation class, joined by Sgt. Yolanda Rankins, ing, Hetherwick begins his bottom left, and Tara Tessier, Air Service Coordinator, bottom right, watch a descent with Campo checkfiretruck demonstrate the use of its water hose during a field trip to Baton ing to make sure the air Rouge Metropolitan Airport on March 25. space was clear for landing.
Hetherwick smoothly touched down at Baton Rouge Metro Airport. “He regularly sticks the landing — but it’s far more advantageous to crash in a simulation,” Campo said, because while the pair have aspirations to relive this exact situation as professionals one day, they are now still only high school students who were using a flight simulator that afternoon inside a Livingston Parish classroom. Live Oak High School offers aviation classes to students like Hetherwick, a junior, and Campo, a
ä See AVIATION, page 2G