Giving honor to whom is due
The Bible says to give honor to whom is due in the Book of Romans and Wanda August, Parent Facilitator for Ascension Parish Schools, holds the Word to be true. August took lead to arrange and execute an academic celebration parade for Donaldsonville High at Railroad Avenue on Dec. 21st that honored the school for its 27-point school performance score increase.
“The Word of God tells us to give honor to whom it’s due,” August said after the parade, “and, certainly to bring scores from a 76.4 to a 108.8, equivalent of a B, that’s awesome.”
August said she talked to the Mayor Leroy Sullivan and Rev. Melvin Williams who both thought it to be appropriate to show the school how pleased the community of Donaldsonville was for its success.
“It’s a collaborative effort of the community and that’s what is so wholesome about living in the fair city of Donaldsonville,” August said. “It was a team effort, this could not have been done without the power of God bringing us together. And all of the credit goes to God.”
August said the parade was to encourage the kids that they can and they will, and they have done what “we have expected and we expect more out of them.” Sullivan could not attend, but sent a declaration that August read to say Dec. 21st is now “DHS Celebration Day.”
The community showed up in mass numbers to support the parade and all gathered at by the gazebo as August and Dr. Esrom Pitre, principal of DHS, each thanked the crowd for the turnout, and thanked the faculty and students for their successes in the classrooms. Pitre led the parade as the Grand Marshall.
“I think the response has been wonderful,” August said about the parade. “So wonderful until individuals call to see what I can do to help make this day a great success. Every entity of this community helped in some way.”
The finale of the event was a fireworks display and August said they showed they were “doing it with a bang” and “keeping the spirit of togetherness.”
Ronald Comeaux Jr., DHS Senior Class president, said it was good to see everybody come together for a good cause and rewarding the school for the hard work it put in to achieve its performance goal.
“Thanks to everybody that’s been working hard to improve our performance at school and improve our overall community,” Comeaux said, who is the DHS band’s drum major.
Being honored with parades for its success says a lot about the DHS and its culture. It shows it is moving in the right direction and is under good leadership.
“We have a strong future,” Comeaux said. “This year we had a lot of leaders in my senior class and we just setting an example for the younger generations and they look up to us. We show them a positive way of doing things instead of what they are used to doing.”
He said the school’s culture thought it was cool to be a drug dealer, but now the community is changing and school is now focused on improving each other.
“It’s more of an educated competiveness,” Comeaux said. “They see it’s more to Donaldsonville and more to the world.”