July
2006 Edition
PRESIDENT’s
MESSAGE:
Awaiting my festival which is right around the
corner. I just finished having a successful pageant, which of
course as everyone is aware is a lot of work but great fun.
Outgoing queens for 2005 represented the 4th of July
Association with great pride. Sadly my daughter gave up her reign,
but had a great time this past year. Congratulations to the newly
selected 2006 4th of July Queens. 4th of July
Baby Queen, Kelbi LaShare,
Baby King, Tatem Suire, (both from Erath).
Little Miss 4th of July Macie Viator,
Young Miss 4th of July Sydney
Richardelle, Junior Miss 4th of July Kristine Landry,
Teen 4th of July, Sabrina Vincent,
Miss 4th of July Delannie Langlinais, Ms. 4th
of July
Millie Harris, and Lady Liberty Tamera Thomas.
Our 4th of July celebration begins on June 30, thru July
4th 2006. Everyone should come to see our spectacular
firework display at 9:00 p.m. in downtown Erath on the 4th.
I would also like to thank the judges that helped me out, I had
two district directors Chris Giordano and Alisa Yelverton judged my
pageant, I had Jim Meaux, whose daughter gave up her title, but you
know Jim, always willing to help, he worked the concession, I had
Mr. Rob Piraro judge my Junior Pageant, and he audited my Miss
Pageant. I had our treasurer Barbara Horaist attend my pageant, and
Janet Piraro also attended both pageants. A special thanks to Mr.
Byron Blanchard President of the Breaux Bridge Crawfish festival for
helping me out in the concession stand and also Auditing for my Miss
Pageant, and also a special thanks to Mr. Mark Bernard Crawfish
Board member for helping in the concession stand.
A very special thanks to our 2006 Queen of
Queens/Duck Festival Queen Miss Mischa Moore for judging our baby
pageant and attending our pageant. It is always great to visit with
Mischa.
During my pageant I observed some things that I
think that either pageant directors or board of directors should
address with their queens. During the pageant, several festival
queens were talking during the presentation of contestants and also
during the speeches of the outgoing queens. I know that these girls
are excited to visit with one another but
This should not be done during a pageant. I
had to address some of these queens but they still continued to
talk. Another thing that I observed was that some visiting queens
never sat down at their designated area, (an area that was reserved
for all visiting queens).
So just a reminder to let girls know that they
need to be respectful towards the queens that are giving up their
titles. They should not be disruptive, but instead attentive.
This month I have been busy traveling to
different fairs and festivals. To the board of directors of the
Jambalaya Festival I would like to thank you for your hospitality.
I know that you had a good crowd that Friday night, because when I
was trying to leave, they had three cars fighting for my parking
spot.
I also attended the Ray*La*Ne pageant. Marlene
Habits and Cheryl McCarthy did a great job with their pageant.
I attended the Gheens Bon Mange Festival, a
unique festival which raises money to help support their community
center. I enjoyed visiting with their queens, and also playing
bingo. My wife was excited because she won one of the jack pots.
Thanks to Ms. “Chee Chee”, for entertaining us.
I also attended Louisiana Corn Festival, I
watched the parade, and I even saw a corn shucking contest and a
corn eating contest. Corn was everywhere. Had a great time. On
the same day I attended the Catfish festival pageant. (It was a very
long day but I wanted to attend Kirk’s Pageant. Congratulations
to Kirk Dempster and his wife Lydia for an outstanding job on their
Catfish Pageant. Their introduction of contestants was very unique;
they even introduced a new category the grandma category. Their
pageant was enjoyed by all.
I attended the Strawberry pageant. I was
amazed at the production that their contestants had to present, all
of the girls had great skits, and they were very informational.
Gail LaFargue the wife of Mr. Jeron (our 2006
Hall of Fame recipient) and a past LAFF President’s passed away. our
prayers and thoughts are with his family.
This month is the 2nd quarter board
of directors meeting for LAFF. It will be held in Church Point at
10:00 a.m. on Saturday July 22, 2006. .
s/ Dennis
Mouton
TREASURER’s
REPORT:
Is it hot enough for all of you, or what?! I've been teaching 2 classes at UL at Lafayette, and it' is even hot inside the building. I surely hope that all the fairs and festivals are making a great profit and that the weather doesn't harm your attendance.
On May 27th, Neal, Warren Deemer, and I judged the Church Point Buggy Festival Pageant and were treated royally by Pageant Chairperson Virgie Courville and T.C. Cary. I feel that we selected 2 great queens for
them. Thank ya'll for your hospitality!
On June 3rd, Warren Deemer, Henrietta Caillouet, and I judged the Queen RayLaNe Pageant and were treated grandly by Pageant Chairperson Marlene Habetz and Theresa Prather and their committee. Their queens will do a
great job for them. Thank ya'll for the royal treatment!
On June 4th, Neal and I attended the Louisiana Pageant Judges Association meeting in DeQuincy. We hadn't met since last July and had a lot of things to catch up on.
On June 24th, I attended the Erath 4th of July Queens' Pageant and saw 4 wonderful queens selected. Congrats to Dennis and Natalie Mouton for a job well done!
Please contact me if you need any assistance of any sort with your festival or fair. Neal and I love to judge or help out in any way.
Until next month, KEEP COOL!!!
s/
Barbara T. Horaist
SECRETARY’s
REPORT:
Please make the information in the newsletter
available to your fair/festival members. If you wish anyone else in
your event to receive the newsletter via email, please either type
or print very clearly these email addresses and send to laffadupre@yahoo.com.
Also, check the website (www.laffnet.org)
for the newsletter, updates and other member information.
If you need any help with your fair or
festival, especially in judging a pageant or other type of contest
or just needing any assistance in general, please send an e-mail to:
GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ laffadupre@yahoo.com or call me at: 985-447-4658
or write: 2402 Elizabeth Street, Thibodaux, LA 70301
s/ Al Dupré
DISTRICT 3 DIRECTOR
This month we had the pleasure to attend
the Church Point Buggy Festival. We were there for the opening
ceremonies. There was really great music and food. We also attended
the Erath’s 4th of July pageant. Dennis and Natalie
Mouton did a great job with the pageant as they always do. We were
sad to see Leslie give up the title because she did such a fantastic
job, but we may see her with another title before too long.
What I would like for everyone to do now is
to start thinking about the LAFF Marketing Awards for the
convention. If you are interested in sending something in please go
to the website and download a form and fill it in. All you have to
do is get your attendance, see what division you fit in and fill in
the info. There are two categories - Fairs and Festivals.
Division 1 0 --
25,000
Division ll 25,001 -- 50,000
Division lll 50,001 --- over
There are all different kinds of categories
(again, please see the website) so find the ones you need or just
send them all in. Until next month see you at a fair/ festival.
s/ Jim Meaux
DISTRICT 5 DIRECTOR
Greetings from District 5. I traveled to
Erath, LA on Friday, June 23rd to judge the pageant that
occurred on Saturday. I really had a great time in Erath. I was
impressed with the warm hospitality and the tight-knit community.
It was obvious that the people of Erath love their country and
state. There was a great group of ladies competing for the Queen's
Pageant and it was not an easy task to choose a winner. They were
all winners in my book. I send my gratitude to Dennis and Natalie
Mouton and the rest of the Erath 4th of July Celebration board for
the invitation to experience the town of Erath. It sounds like they
have a lot of fun at the festival.
To my friends at the LA Peach
Festival in Ruston, LA, I hope you had a successful event this
year. I'm sorry I couldn't attend. As we are approaching July, I
look forward to the LAFF Board Meeting being held in Church Point on
July 22nd.
A reminder about the State Fair of
Louisiana Queen's Pageant. It is the 100th Anniversary
of the State Fair and the 1st annual pageant. The entry information
is on our website at
www.statefairoflouisiana.com.
On the menu, go to State Fair Queen's Pageant. It is being held in
Hirsch Coliseum on Saturday, November 4, 2006 following a Blake
Shelton concert on Friday. I hope you can be there.
s/ Chris Giordano
DISTRICT 6 DIRECTOR
Hello from District
6! Glad to be back on the road for June, but wow it's hot out
there! Louisiana fairs and festivals are really heating
up! (Literally!)
I attended the
Louisiana Corn Festival in Bunkie on June 10th. I
enjoyed watching the parade and visiting with everyone. There were
approximately 5,000 people in attendance for the 20th annual
Louisiana Corn Festival. I helped Lois McCrimon in the corn
shucking and corn eating contest as a timer. The second place
women's winner was none other than Mallory Juneau, the 2003/04 Miss
LA Corn Festival. Mallory was glad to help out and show her support
for the festival. Congratulations Mallory! I got a chance to visit
with Autumn Burket, Miss LA Queen of Hope, her mother, Kim, and the
Mayor of Bunkie, Gerald Moreau. Mr. Moreau gave us some history
behind the corn, the festival and the Town of Bunkie. I have to
agree with him, that was some of the best corn I have ever
tasted! They must make the girls (ladies) a little tougher in
Bunkie. During the parade, Phyllis O'Quin's (Corn Festival Pageant
Director) daughter had an accident with her horse. They took her to
the emergency room to get checked out. But, in just a little
while she was back at the festival trying to enjoy herself. What's
the saying, "Can't keep a good woman down"? On Sunday, there was a
talent contest and pirogue races. Both were huge successes and
enjoyed by many. Congratulations to Bunkie on their 20th
year for the LA Corn Festival and here's to 20 more! Don't forget
to visit Bunkie for the 21st LA Corn Festival in June of
2007 for a "corn shucking" good time! Aw Shucks!
On the 24th,
I traveled to Erath to judge the Erath 4th of July pageant. I
enjoyed meeting and talking with all the lovely ladies vying for the
titles of Teen Miss, Miss, Ms. and Lady Liberty. Leslie Mouton, the
2005 Miss Erath 4th of July, gave her farewell speech and I don't
think there was a dry eye in the place. I wish her the best in all
her future endeavors. The 2006 Ms. Queen is Millie Harris. Tamera
Thomas was crowned the 2006 Lady Liberty. Last, but not least the
2006 Miss Erath 4th of July is Delannie Langlanais. Delannie will go
on to represent Erath at the 2007 LAFF Convention and Queen of
Queens pageant in February 2007. The pageant went well,
congratulations to the pageant directors, Dennis and Natalie
Mouton. Sunday at the park in Erath everyone attended Mass. After
Mass, there was a bar-b-que cook-off and children's parade. The
Erath 4th of July Festival will be held June 30th thru
July 4th. The Town of Erath invites everyone out to join
them for a parade, different contests, good food, great music and
fireworks! Please join them in celebrating 60 years for the Erath
4th of July Celebration!
Please
remember, I am going to be in charge of the General Store at the
2007 LAFF Convention. If you have any item for the store, please
let me know. You can bring it with you to convention or I can get
it from you early. Items can be festival t-shirts, pins, festival
caps, books, posters and just about anything associated with your
festival. Thanks to Phyllis O'Quinn and Dorothy Martin for
volunteering to help with the store.
One last thing,
if there is anyone in District 6 that needs help with their
festival, pageant or preparing for convention, please let me know if
I can help in anyway. My email address is on the LAFF website,
along with my phone numbers. A reminder to all pageant directors
and delegates going to convention in 2007, call now and book your
room and your queen's room. It is your responsibility this year to
get your own rooms. Let me know if you have any questions or
concerns regarding the reservations.
s/ Alisa Yelverton
DISTRICT 7 DIRECTOR
Greetings, from District 7. Another month has
gone by and the weather has been fabulous. The temperature is
rising now and the afternoon thundershowers seem to have become a
way of life for Louisiana. I had the honor of emceeing the
Louisiana Catfish Pageant on Saturday June 10th. I must
commend Pageant directors Lydia Dempster and Aimee Champagne, along
with their committees for a fantastic production. I would also like
to commend the past royalty, Rachel Held, Miss Queen XXX and Amanda
Dempster, Teen Queen X, for their hard work and dedication to their
festival. The new Royalty is Brandi Matulich, Louisiana Catfish
Queen XXXI, and Teen Queen XI. I would like to invite everyone to
District 7 for the weekend of July 7th, 8th
and 9th to the Louisiana Catfish Festival fairgrounds at
St. Gertrude’s Church in Des Allemands Louisiana. There will be the
best food you could ask for, with the signature dish, CATFISH. You
can get catfish, fried, courtboullion, broullettes, jambalaya, fried
soft shelled crabs, shrimp po-boys and the usual fare of hamburgers,
hotdogs, nacho’s and some of the best plate lunches you would ever
believe. Don’t forget the sweets, they are all calorie free for the
weak willed, but just for that weekend.
I had the opportunity to travel to Tunica
Mississippi the week of the 11th through the 16th
of June. I contacted Larry Liddell to say hello and had the honor
of having lunch with Larry and he invited me to the Rotary club
meeting at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Larry, I want to thank you for
the opportunity of meeting so many upbeat and smiling, happy people
at 8:00 a.m. and the best food ever at the Hollywood Café that has
been featured in both movie and literary features. The owner, Mr.
Bobby, is one of the most down-to- earth people you would ever want
to meet.
I would like to again request every
organization in District 7, to e-mail me the dates of their next
festival, as we will be preparing the new Fair and Festivals Guide
for the upcoming year. We want to publish the correct dates and
contacts and need your input to be able to accomplish this endeavor.
I am very proud to announce that Miss Lana
Meche, our immediate past Queen of Queen’s graduated from ULL with
HONORS in early June and is now employed as a Morning Talk Show Host
on Lafayette radio station KXKC, 99.1 FM, Monday-Friday from 5 a.m.
till 9 a.m. Also her predecessor, Miss Taryn Sanford was crowned
Miss City of Ruston on June 10th, which is a Miss
Louisiana prelim. On behalf of District 7, we wish you both the
very best in your future endeavors.
That is about it for now, but remember that the
LAFF board meeting will be July 22nd in Church Point, and
all member organizations are welcomed to attend these meetings.
Looking forward to seeing you all somewhere along Louisiana Highways
at a fair or festival, I wish you all great health, wealth and
weather.
s/ Warren Deemer
2007 QUEEN OF
QUEENS INFORMATION
As stated above, the Queen of Queen’s Pageant
information packets have been mailed; your director should have
received their packet. The information can also be accessed from
the website.
It is very important
that every sponsoring fair or festival know that LAFF will not
be blocking hotel rooms for queens in 2007.
It is up to each individual organization to make their hotel room
reservations for their queens EARLY.
The deadline
to enter Queen of Queens and to have all ads turned in will be
December 1, 2006 because of the early dates for Convention 2007.
LAFF will still take entries until January 1, 2007, but no
photographs of any queens entered after the deadline of December 1st
will be put in the program book. Encourage your queens to have
their photographs done early and to get their entry forms and
photographs turned in to me, Janet Piraro, no later than December 1st,
2006.
If your organization
has a new Pageant Director, please mail me her name and mailing
address in order for her to receive the 2007 Queens’ Packet which
will be going out in early May. My mailing address is 4304 Sarver
Street, Lake Charles, LA 70605 or you may email me at
robpiraro@aol.com or telephone me at 337-478-2355.
If anyone is interested in serving on the 2007
Pageant Committee, please get in touch with me. 2007 will be my
last year to serve as Pageant Coordinator and I look forward to
working with as many of you as possible.
Please be aware that LAFF is not
going to be blocking rooms for queens in 2007. It will be the
responsibility of every fair or festival to make arrangements for
their queen and, as always, we advise you to book EARLY; as rooms
will be not held for anyone!
LAFF LIBRARY
Announcing a new service for LAFF members – the LAFF Library. The
Board purchased a CD of the sessions of the 2004 IAFE Convention and
will make CD’s available to member events for the nominal fee of
$5.00 per title (some sessions are two or three CDs, but will still
be yours for the same cost). This will not be a rental. For $5.00
per title you will own the session on your CD. The $5.00 per title
was settled on to simple defray the cost of CDs and mailings, there
is no intent at a profit.
Titles available are:
Advertising - What Works, What Doesn’t & Why
- Roy H. Williams
Board
Members Only - Adding Value as a Board
Janice Moore and Steve Edwards, CFE
501(c) (3) or 501(c) (6) - What Should You Be?
- Rob Lyons, CPA
Keeping the Prosecutor’s Nose Out of Your Tent: What You Need to
Know About
Criminal Law and the Amusement Business
- Ron
Burback, John Hinde, R. Wayne Pierce, Dave Durkee
“Las
Vegas - The True Story”
- Bo
Bernhard - Spouse Program
Secret to Your Success – Communication
-
Kevin McGrath, CCE
Save
Time and Money in the Workplace -
Edwin B. Feldman
Take
Charge of Your Resources
- William Nelson
How
To Catch Your Breath When You Are Losing Your Mind
- Greg Risberg
E.coli - What We Are Learning from Litigation
- Stephen Neel, Ken Renner
You
Make A Difference
- Greg Risberg
Web/Electronic Entry Systems - Vision of the Future/Consider the
Possibilities
Robert Fogle, CFE, Mike Bradley, Linda Elderton, Dena Luthi
Media
Training
- Suzette Heiman
Commercial Exhibits and Concessions
- Pat Moroney and Ellen Andrus
Internet Marketing
- Dr. Wenyu Dou
Physical Plant/Operations
- Marv Witt, CFE, and Greg Lybeck
AgroTerrorism - The Possible Effect on Fairs
- Dr. Joseph Broz, Dr. Carl Heckendorf
Facility Usage
- Phil Clark and Bill Edmondson, CFE
Exotic/Specialty Animal Show Management
-
James Goodrich, Bob Dineen, Jerry Dunn, Bob Potter
Agriculture
- Heidi Herriott and Debbie Dreyfus-Schronk, CFE
Sponsorship Reality Check: Resources to Rewards
- Jeff Milgrom, Torri Aprile
Competitive Exhibits
- Becky Brashear, CFE, and Candace Blancher, CFE
The
Marketing of Entertainment
- David Grimm, CFE, Holly Gleason, Paul Goldman,
Vivian Sayler
Advertising, Promotions & Public Relations
- Kim Allen, CFE, and Nancy Smith
Is
Your Carnival Up to Industry Standards
- Guy Leavitt, Jerry Aldrich, Jim Sinclair, CFE, Mike Heffron, CFE
Pick
and choose or order a set, $5.00 per title. Send your title request
plus a check to cover the $5.00 per title to:
LAFF Library
P O Box 1608
Abbeville, LA 70511-1608
Your request will be processed
and your CDs mailed to you.
NEW
ADDRESS FOR MEMBERSHIPS/CONVENTION REGISTRATION, ETC:
LAFF
Treasurer
P O Box 1608
EVENTS TO ATTEND
With the
recent storms, information has been updated as available, always
call before going; especially this year!
