Challenger dad Tim Basden presents Ind Account Executive Amber Burkholder with a plaque thanking the paper for its support last summer.
This past summer the Lafayette community rallied around the Little League Challenger Division team from the Hub City, a roster comprising special-needs kids for whom the Challenger Division is virtually their only avenue for playing America’s pastime. Local media including The Independent helped publicize the team’s fundraising efforts after the team was one of only two nationwide selected to play in a televised exhibition at the 2011 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn. — a journey that cost many thousands of dollars due to team members’ exorbitant travel costs (many require medical equipment to travel, not to mention adult supervision.)
But our Challengers raised the money and in August played in that once-in-a-lifetime game. The Ind was proud to play a small role. On Wednesday, Tim Basden, father of one of the players, stopped by the office to present us with a plaque thanking us. We’re flattered, Tim. The plaque is going onto a prominent place.
In appreciation — for the team, its spirit of sportsmanship and a handsome plaque — we put together a slide show of photographs taken at the game by Baton Rouge photographer Marie Constantin, fluffed up with some schmaltzy music we downloaded from the ’Net.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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