News

The annual WHS/WSHS alumni reunion will be Saturday, June 25, 2022. Activities include a coffee on Saturday morning from 10:00 to 12:00 at WSHS. Please use the entrance adjacent to the bus dock. The banquet will be at the Central Louisiana Technical Community College beginning at 6:00 PM with a meet and greet hour from 5:00 to 6:00. Doors will open at 4:30. It is not too late to register and pay for the banquet meal. If you need a registration form, contact Jimmie Frazier Davies at 318-628- 6622 or by email at jimmieleedavies@hotmail.com. Deadline for registration is June 11, 2022. If you would like to receive three alumni newsletters a year, contact Ms. Davies to be added to the database. With the exception of 2020 and 2021, the reunion has been held yearly on the fourth Saturday in June since 1955. The graduating class celebrating their 50th year hosts the reunion.

Mike and Kaylin Davis have a story that could inspire even the most broken of hearts. Both have faced many defeats and challenges in life, but through each have become stronger and grown as human beings and servants of the Lord.

Kaylin’s story is both heartbreaking and inspiring. She admittedly struggled with addiction from an early age. This addiction landed her in jail, but through that experience her life was changed for the better as the courts allowed her to enter the Teen Challenge program. Kaylin credits God and his use of Teen Challenge in transforming her life. She now works as the men’s case manger for that same ministry that changed her life and is able to help others who are going through what she once went through. Kaylin is also pursuing a Social Work degree at NSU.

Each year the Dugdemona Soil Water and Conservation District gets input from landowners, groups, and other units of government on what their natural resource concerns are in the parish and district, stated Kalee Dorton, Watershed Technician for the Dugdemona SWCD. The number one resource concern is ALWAYS property and wildlife damage from feral hogs. DSWCD began to seek out avenues to help with this issue. In the beginning it was done with funds from their own projects such as the conservation tree sale and other self-generated local funds. Glenn Austin, District Conservationist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service states that with those funds, DSWD was able to purchase two Jager Pro Hog Trapping Systems. This trapping system has electronic gates that are compatible with cell phone cameras which also allows the gate to be dropped through the cell phone. These large traps were loaned out to landowners in the parish.

Rotarian of the Day for June 8, 2022, Ted Wold, secured Winnfield’s mayor-elect, Gerald Hamms, to speak to the Winnfield Rotary Club about his goals and plans as he takes office in July.

Mr. Hamms, born and reared here in Winnfield along with his four siblings, graduated from Winnfield Senior High School in 1978. He attended Louisiana Tech, and then joined the United States Marine Corps. After a military career of 24 years in the Marine Corps, Hamms returned to Winnfield, where he has continuously lived and worked since.

Along with working in leadership positions in different businesses, Mr. Hamms served Winnfield as the City Councilman for District 2 for two terms before running for mayor. He served on the Budget/Finance Committee, the Public Safety Committee, and several others in his time on the city council.

Cowboy Bob will be performing at the Winn Parish Library as part of the 2022 Summer Reading Program. Cowboy Bob is the craziest, singing, balloon making character in the west! Come visit the library and participate in a show that is fun, encouraging and inspirational. The times and dates of the performances are: June 21, 2022 – Atlanta Branch Library at 10:00 and the Main Branch at 2:00, June 22, 2022 – Calvin Branch Library at 10:00 and the Sikes Branch Library at 2:00.

Old Post Office Museum located at 513 Prairie Street in historic downtown Winnsboro, Louisiana is proud to present “the Language of Color” featuring the bold and dreamy abstracts of Louisiana native Traci James Canterbury.

After spending 30 years working in the technology and banking industries as a financial executive, Canterbury re-established herself as an artist in 2019 with pieces in homes from North Carolina to New Mexico.

“ The Harvey Rabbit and Friends Show” will be performing at the Winn Parish Library as part of the 2022 Summer Reading Program. It features Harvey Rabbit, Cecil the Orangutan, and T-Boy the Alligator with Laura and Tim Allred in a funfilled, energetic show of ventriloquism, puppetry, music, magic, comedy, and audience participation. The times and dates of the performances are: June 14, 2022 – Atlanta Branch Library at 10:00 and the Main Branch at 2:00, June 15, 2022 – Sikes Branch Library at 10:00 and the Dodson Branch Library at 2:00.

Winnfield’s Rotary Club hosted two of its scholarship recipients for lunch on June 1, 2022. Our Rotary club awards scholarships to three graduating seniors annually, the Thomas Harrel and the Lawrence I. White scholarships to students attending four-year colleges or universities and the Don Purser scholarship to a student attending the Huey P. Long campus of Central Louisiana Technical and Community College.

Ninety-three cats and dogs were altered during the recently sponsored Rosie “Sug” Wells Spay & Neuter Event!

An immediate outpouring of interest since day one of posting for the event resulted in Heart of Louisiana Humane Society (HLHS) reaching out to local veterinarians to see if they would help honor the sponsored prices offered through HLHS. Odom Veterinary Hospital in Farmerville took 16 appointments to help, Kees Park Animal Clinic in Pineville took 4, Jonesboro Animal Clinic in Jonesboro took 14, and Natchitoches Animal Hospital in Natchitoches also took 16. Combining a total of 50 appointments that HLHS was able to schedule thanks to their help!

HLHS is very grateful that these clinics, their doctors and teams, support their mission statement.

Winnfield Animal Clinic took most of the burden, assisting in 43 procedures themselves over a 2 week period.

Seeing a need for energetic, nonprofit work in this area, Feeding 5000 was formed to provide sensible solutions. The organization has grown since forming in October of 2021. The ministry has now fed over 4000 people locally. There are currently 38 million Americans that struggle with poverty.

Households with children that are headed by a single woman have the highest rate of food insecurity. 16.7% of all children do not know where their next meal is coming from with 22 million children relying on school for their meals. 12% of senior citizens are food insecure as well. New Mexico, Mississippi and Louisiana have some of the highest rates of hunger.

Reaching Forward Ministries and Feeding 5000 Outreach has a goal to take care of home first. They are passionate about helping people, no matter their situation.