Group Tries to Revitalize Island
By RICHARD BURGESS
LAFAYETTE – Like many south Louisiana residents, Bob Stewart has a soft spot in his heart for Grand Isle.
“When you cross the bridge at Leeville, it’s like you’re entering another world,” he said of the road leading to the coastal community at the end of La. 1 in Jefferson Parish. “It’s got this old-world- fishing-village feel.”
Stewart, a top administrator at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and former director of the National Wetlands Research Center, has owned a camp on the island since 1995.
It was with much distress that he and other camp owners watched Hurricane Katrina ravage the small island in 2005.
And when the water receded, they decided not only to fix their camps but to help revive the island community as a whole.
A loosely assembled group of camp owners had met shortly before the hurricane with the idea of working on beautification projects.
The hurricane quickly focused the efforts of the group, which took the name “Friends of Grand Isle” and began offering small grants, grocery vouchers and gasoline.
“We initially got together to help the islanders, the residents themselves,” said Dr. William Barrois, a Lafayette dentist who bought a camp on the island about three years ago but has been making regular trips there for more than a decade.
The group’s mission has expanded a bit in recent months, with plans for a fishing rodeo, a crab festival and a long list of beautification projects.
The camp owners are organizing trash sweeps and have just begun offering seeds for bluebonnets, sunflowers and other wildflowers to enhance the spring blooming season in the area.
And next week, the group will begin taking applications for interest-free loans of up to $5,000 and grants of up to $2,000 for Grand Isle business owners.
Stewart said Friends of Grand Isle was awarded $150,000 from the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation for aid to businesses on the island.
He said about 170 letters have been mailed out to people who had businesses in Grand Isle before the hurricane – grocery stores, restaurants, small shops, craftsmen, fishermen.
“The whole idea is to generate a feeling of community and bring people back,” Barrois said.
Many businesses have already reopened, but recovery is still a work in progress and the money – besides funding rebuilding and equipment replacement – can also be used for advertising, supplies and inventory.
“Every little bit helps,” Grand Isle Tourism Director Josie Cheramie said.
Cheramie said the Friends of Grand Isle has “done a lot of small, quiet projects that go a long way.”
The hurricane wiped some parts of Grand Isle off the map, but Cheramie said most of the major businesses have returned, though two hotels and a marina remain shuttered.
“We’ve bounced back from the storm really well,” she said.
The island is known for its fishing rodeos, crabbing and beaches, which are in short supply along the state’s marshy coast.
It is also a summer retreat – the “Cajun Bahamas” – for scores of south Louisiana residents who either own camps on the island are rent beach-front cabins.
The Friends of Grand Isle now has about 170 members, Stewart said.
“All of the people who started this live in Lafayette,” he said. “But we hope others will join in the future.”
Stewart said he has seen more interest recently from camp owners in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the Houma-Thibodeaux area.
“We’re trying to reach out to everyone who goes down there,” Barrois said.
Meetings will be held at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. at the Grand Isle Community Center for business owners interested in grants or loans from the Friends of Grand Isle.
ON THE INTERNET: Friends of Grand Isle: http:// www.friendsofgrandisle.com
(c) 2007 Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.