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LAPLACE — Krewe of Dagé of LaPlace kicked off the 2023 Carnival Season with a Soiree on Saturday, February 4 at 321 Events in LaPlace. The Krewe of Dagé will parade through LaPlace with 25 rental floats, a live band, horses, dance teams and visiting queens beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday, February 19. The parade will follow its traditional route, and the following ladies have been selected to reign over this year’s festivities.

Gwenesta Breaux Fenroy – GRAND MARSHALL

Gwenesta Breaux Fenroy is married to her husband, Abram Joseph Fenroy. The two have recently celebrated 52 years of marriage. They have five children, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She has been transforming students’ lives serving as an educator for the past 52 years. Still today, she is molding young minds as she is East St. John Preparatory Academy’s seventh grade English Language Arts teacher.

Mrs. Fenroy is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a product of the Calio Projects. Her father was an educator and played an integral role on her following in serving in the educational field. Her father has always stressed to his children to believe in themselves and never let your environment or anyone stop you from achieving your personal goals.

In 1975, Gwenesta went on to change more young lives during her move to Los Angeles, California.  During this time, she was assigned to teach a bilingual class at Stanford Elementary in South Gate, California. At first, this seemed like a daunting challenge, but due to her dedication and perseverance her students scored higher than all the other fifth and sixth grade students in the school. As a lifelong advocate for education, she continued her education, earning a scholarship to Pepperdine University and Dominguez Hill University, where she received her lifetime teaching credential for the state of California. She also has earned a lifetime credential in Louisiana.

During her time in California, she served as director/sponsor of Stanford Ave Drama Club, leading multiple glamour school production, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Cinderella. Gwenesta has also served as her school’s monolingual speech teacher.  Students who were bilingual students transitioned into Proficient English classroom speaking and reading classes on grade level. For all of these and many other achievements, Gwenesta was recognized as Stanford Ave Elementary Teacher of the Year in 1978. This was one of many nominations for teacher of the year she would hold throughout her teaching career. She continued on with the same school for 22 years.

A visit back to LaPlace in the summer of 1995 became permanent. She still resides here today, 22 years later. Once settled in, she began teaching at GMMS, where she met many beautiful children and a loving and accepting community. She continued to receive many awards and was named Teacher of the Year in 2002 and District Teacher of the Year.

After 19 years, she began teaching at East St. John Prep, where she met a wonderful work family. She was named Teacher of the Year in 2019 and  also received numerous other awards. There is no denying her amazing spirit and dynamic personality captures the heart of all she meets. She is an educational icon in the community and a model for all who know her. She is whole-heartedly loved by this community and is a treasure to all.

Miranda Tregre-Perrilloux – QUEEN

Miranda was the first child born to Wilbert “Trigger” Tregre, Sr. and Emelda D. Tregre. She is sister to Wilbert Tregre, Jr (Irela), LisaTregre-Wilder (Sherrod Sr.), the late Wendell Tregre, and Sheriff Michael Tregre (Tanyia). She was the wife of the late Melvin “Bud” Perrilloux, Sr., and the stepmother to the late Gaynell Perrilloux-Ellis (Lamar), Melvin “BJ” Perrilloux, Jr (Brandi)., and Dayna Perrilloux-Mitchell (Blaine) and Samantha Thomas. She and her husband also reared their grandson, Darien Young.

Miranda is a 1976 graduate of Leon Godchaux High School, 1980 graduate of Southern

University in Baton Rouge with a BA in Elementary Education, and a 1993 graduate of Moler Beauty College. She was also the owner of “Gorgeously You Hair and Nail Salon” and “Unique Shoes” retail store.

Miranda is a very devoted family member who puts the needs and happiness of her loved ones before her own. She always supports, both emotionally and physically, no matter what.

Miranda believes every gift and talent is created within each person for the purpose of serving and uplifting others. Because of her compassion for people’s needs and their welfare, Miranda is a proud contributor to several nonprofits and charitable organizations including: American Red Cross, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, St. Jude Children Research, Habitat for Humanity and New Orleans Covenant House Homeless Shelter.  Miranda’s goals were always to service the community and to make life better for people in need.  She has a servant’s heart, and is willing to make changes and make things happen.  Her life has always been centered around helping others.

Because of her adventurous spirit and willingness to learn new things, Miranda loves to travel, especially to celebrate her birthday.  She also enjoys decorating, shopping, entertaining, bike riding, walking, exercising, reading and music.

Kash’Mir Foley – MAID

 

Kash’Mir Foley is a senior at Xavier University of Louisiana. She is on the pre-medicine track, majoring in biology with a double minor in chemistry and creative writing.

In 2016, Kash’Mir had the honor of representing St. John The Baptist Parish as Teen Andouille Queen as she traveled around Louisiana promoting the parish’s history and culture. Following her reign as Teen Queen, Kash’Mir elegantly won the title of Homecoming Queen of Riverside Academy in 2018-2019.

In high school, she received a myriad of accolades for her continued academic success and admirable character. These accolades included being elected as Senior Class President, Fellowship of Christian Athletes President, and receiving the Student Academic Athletic Award, President’s list honors, and many scholarships.

After completing her undergraduate degree, she aspires to attend medical school to become a surgeon whose career focuses on providing equitable resources and equal access to healthcare for all in need. In addition to this, she aspires to be a superb caregiver who provides the best care to every patient she encounters.

In her career and throughout her studies, she has been very prominent about making the world a much better place for everyone living in it. This has been a passion of hers for as long as she can remember as she has been immersed in the healthcare field for a multitude of years now.

As a young girl, she committed her time to caring for ill individuals in her family as she still commits a vast majority of her time to doing now. She volunteers at various healthcare institutions such as Compassus Hospice University Medical Center – New Orleans, and by working as a caregiver with Home Instead INC. On campus, Kash’Mir spends her time advocating and spreading awareness as she is a Sexual Assault Prevention Health Educator and the community service chair of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated.

Kash’Mir is committed to making a change in the healthcare field and she strongly believes that the change begins with providing a helping hand. She truly lives by the saying that one tiny seed of faith can move mountains, in hopes to be one of these tiny seeds of faith that embarks a change in society.

 

In her free time, Kash’Mir enjoys reading, writing, laying on the beach and drinking boba tea.

Miriah Ashley Wilder – MAID

Mariah Wilder is the daughter of Lisa and Sherrod Wilder. She is the oldest of two children. Although her early life was simple, Mariah never allowed that to stop her from experiencing new things. With a curious mind, she quickly found her inner creativity and showed a real passion for learning new things and problem-solving abilities. Mariah was never a shy child; from birth, she was full of energy, talkative, curious, and had a very outgoing personality. She is still looking for new experiences daily. Her childhood is what led her to obtain a degree in communications and public relations from Tulane University. She is once again enrolled at Tulane University, pursuing her MBA with a concentration in business development.

Her developing career in project management has fueled her drive as a strategic operations developer.  She specializes in strategic development and planning for small business projects, which include both the public and private sectors. She is responsible for leading several teams using a variety of systems and applications while also recruiting the best candidates for each project from around the nation. Mariah has also worked with several non-profit organizations, where she organized funding on the state and local level. Her career goal is to continue to thrive in the project management field by successfully developing and leading new organizations and small start-up companies.

 

Her career goes hand in hand with her beliefs in personal development. Mariah believes there are three important aspects to personal development: physical, mental and emotional. Prioritizing your mind and body is a way for people to identify and improve their skills and maximize their own potential. Mariah tries to read at least one book a month that will help her better herself.  She believes personal development is a big part of life; it is the key to developing great character, which ultimately represents who you are in life.

Inspiring her to help others, one of Mariah’s favorite quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reads:  “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Mariah strives to volunteer twice a month at The Women’s Shelter in Baton Rouge, where she prepares meals for women who are in need. She volunteers for back-to-school drives and is a mentor for young girls through the National Guard Youth Challenge Program. She believes it is a great way to give back and have community involvement. Mariah says it provides her with a sense of purpose while also helping her grow her inner self and avoid becoming self-focused. She enjoys meeting so many different people and hearing the stories of the people she has encountered. A few things she has learned from volunteering are compassion, empathy and active listening. She hopes to continue being an active member in her community.