Rebecca Henry’s goal is to keep the Creole Heritage alive and to pass on the Creole tradition to school age children of St. Landry Parish. For the past 25 years she has been doing just that by holding the annual Creole Summer Enrichment Program held for one week at the Creole Heritage Folklife Center in Opelousas,
On Tuesday afternoon Henry was giving the campers a lesson on how to preserve okra, the way it was done when she was growing up in the Prairie Laurent area of St. Landry Parish. As she explained the canning method the campers were awe struck to see how Creole traditions were carried out before many rural area of St. Landry Parish were introduced to electricity. Some of the campers return year after year to repeat the enrichment program. Two of her former campers were on hand this week. Nile Nicholas, who is volunteering as a counselor, attended the program since she was eight years old. She will be attending Dillard University in the fall. Another camper volunteering this summer is Donovan Leday who recently graduated from Southern University,
Henry has several Zydeco musicians giving of their time to teach the campers the history of Zydeco/Creole music and entertain with a tutorial concert. Other volunteers include Joella LeBlanc teaching Creole cooking; Regina Guillory, wax flowers; Larry Mayo, woodworking; Jerome Ford, painting and art and Sigrid Donatto, quilting and crocheting.
The program concludes on Friday, July 30.
