Promote What is Uniquely Yours

After many months of preparation and collaboration, St. Martin Parish Tourism is excited to announce the launch of its new microsite!

    The Atchafalaya Basin microsite recognizes the beauty of St. Martin Parish, but it specifically highlights its flora, community history, and the Atchafalaya Basin.

     By launching this site, the St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission hopes to not only encourage more adventure-seeking tourists to visit St. Martin Parish but to educate its residents on the land’s history and instill its value. Embracing our history and the land where it is made, allows us to form a deeper appreciation for our culture, and equally important, it allows us to share it more effectively with others.

    In 2021, the St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission applied for the FY21 Atchafalaya National Heritage Area Small Funds Grant in hopes to fund a new project that would spotlight the Atchafalaya Basin within St. Martin Parish. The Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, Atchafalaya Trace Commission awarded this grant to St. Martin Parish Tourism in May of 2021. With the help of Calzone and Associates, Inc, idea generator, Jude Theriot, microsite author, and ANHA executives, plans to begin this project were quickly underway. 

    Theriot is a native and current resident of St. Martin Parish. His love for the outdoors began at an early age; he grew up exploring the woods and waterways of his hometown, Catahoula, Louisiana, a small fishing and farming community at the edge of the Atchafalaya Basin. In 2021, after working 20 years as a neurologist across the country, he moved back home to start his own practice and document the natural beauty of his native parish. St. Martin Parish Executive Director of Tourism Laci Laperouse took notice of his work via Facebook. Because of his organic and impactful way of uncovering the secret, natural treasures of the parish, Laperouse commissioned him to write the microsite’s articles. Through his adventures hunting for new stories, Theriot’s love for the outdoors has grown even further:

 

       I’m St. Martin Parish through and through. I grew up as close to the

      Atchafalaya Basin as you can be without actually being in it. Yet there 

      were still so many places I’d never seen, or even known about, until I 

      started getting out there in my kayak. So that has been a big revelation 

      for me—a deeper appreciation for the place I call home. The more I’ve 

      seen of the parish, the more I feel like we live in a kind of paradise and 

      don’t know it. We underestimate it. The Atchafalaya Basin is our Amazon.

      And in terms of raw natural beauty, St. Martin Parish can easily hold its  

own against any exotic location around the world.

  The St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission invites you to view the new microsite which can be found at www.experienceatchafalaya.com. 

 

Louisiana Veterans Owned Businesses Boosted.

Louisiana Veterans First Business Initiative

The Louisiana Veterans First Business Initiative was championed by Governor John Bel Edwards during the 2019 legislative session. It was created to honor the sacrifice that Louisiana veterans have made by recognizing businesses owned by a veteran, active-duty or reserve military, or Gold Star spouse.

The program will allow for veterans, active-duty or reserve military, or Gold Star spouses who have a fifty-one percent ownership in a business to apply for and gain certification to recognize and promote their businesses. In addition, a searchable database is provided for anyone seeking to patronize a veteran, active-duty or reserve military, or Gold Star-spouse business.

Embracing Heritage is the Brand.

ST. MARTIN PARISH / ORIGINAL LOGO DESIGN COLLABORATION WITH VISIT ST. MARTIN PARISH, LOUISIANA

I have a vivid memory of being a little kid of no more than eight years old. I was standing on a wooden chair stirring my grandmother’s roux (which is actually quite dangerous), and listening to them speak French at the kitchen table (which could be equally as dangerous). I knew very little about what it meant to be Cajun, or the rich and fascinating heritage that came with it. For me, it was simply the food, language, music, and culture of my family. Looking back, I now see it as a deep and rich connection to my parents, grandparents, extended family, and to my ancestors.

I’m no historian, but I’ve read about the Seven Years' War and The Great Expulsion (1755 – 1764), as well as a bit of an apology from the Queen. More on this incredible slice of history here, here, and here. From ‘Cajuns’ by Shane K. Bernard:

Cajuns are the descendants of Acadian exiles from what are now the maritime provinces of Canada—Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island—who migrated to southern Louisiana. Today they reside primarily in a twenty-two-parish region of southern Louisiana known as Acadiana.

The Acadiana journey was brutal. Families were forever broken, lives were lost, and an entire group of people had to start over with next to nothing. But from that darkness came a new light. A people and a culture, reborn like a phoenix.

That incredible journey was the lone source of inspiration for this particular design, and in particular, the map sketch where I discovered the implied “M” shape that became the core of this design.

Enjoy!

— Kody Chamberlain, September 12, 2022