By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LUTCHER – With technology expanding at an ever-increasing rate, the lives of today’s youth are drastically different from those of their grandparents and great-grandparents.

While this change has made people’s lives easier and in many ways better, it has also threatened some cultural aspects of life in south Louisiana nearly to the point of extinction.

That is why six years ago Rachael Schexnayder, who heads the ProStart program in St. James Parish, began offering the Cajun/Creole Celebration for high school students in the parish.

“These kids don’t really know what makes us so unique,” said Schexnayder.

Funded with grant money from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the Houma Regional Arts Council and the River Region Arts and Humanities Council, each year the program brings in artisans talented in local crafts such as wood carving, net making and file grinding. As the head of a culinary program, she also brings in local chefs who specialize in some of the area’s specialties.

Schexnayder said she tries to represent all of the different nationalities that came together to form the local community — sausage from the Germans, beignets from the French and jambalaya from the Spanish. She said the event is an extension of the things she does with her students throughout the year, such as culinary walking tours of the French Quarter.

In groups of about 20, the students visit each of the artisans. They must to fill out a form that is their ticket to the eating portion of the program. All the while, Cajun music plays in the background as some of the students are swept onto the dance floor for some traditional Cajun dancing or maybe just a round of the Chicken Dance.

“It’s a good day for them to come out and learn,” said Schexnayder. “Of course, the music just adds to it.”

While the cultural enrichment aspect is reason enough to hold the event, part of the hope is that some of these arts may be passed down to a younger generation, as many of the crafters are getting up in age.

“Unfortunately, a lot of these things are not being passed on,” said Schexnayder. “Hopefully (the students) can kind of form an appreciation for the things in our culture that make us so unique.