The Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians Foundation has successfully completed the 2005-2006 school year as the State Coordinator of the National Tar Wars Program.
Tar Wars 2005-2006
State Poster Contest Winners
The Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians Foundation has successfully completed the 2005-2006 school year as the State Coordinator of the National Tar Wars Program.
The mission of Tar Wars is to educate students about being tobacco-free, provide them with the tools to make positive decisions regarding their health, and promote personal responsibility for their well-being. By utilizing a community-based approach to mobilize family physicians, educators, and other health care professionals, Tar Wars can accomplish its mission.
Midday on Friday 21 April 2006 at the Baton Rouge Public Library on Goodwood Boulevard in Baton Rouge, LAFP’s Foundation facilitated the 2006 judging of the state-wide Tar Wars poster contest. The 19 regional winning posters from all over Louisiana had been on exhibit in the children’s area of the Library during the week prior to the judging.
The judges were Cathy Gabel of the Library, Sharon Davis of Generation Hospice, Inc. Mark Hebert, Executive Director of State of Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners of NFA, in Baton Rouge, and artist Kay Rees of Lafayette. LAFP Executive Vice President Sonora Thigpen and LAFP Administrative Assistant Linda Foster had arranged the poster exhibition, recruited the judges, and counted the judges’ ballots.
The top three posters were from these children:
3rd Place winning a $100 US Savings Bond, Trevor Truax of Annunciation Catholic School in Bogalusa
2nd Place winning a $300 US Savings Bond, Jessica Benoit of Ernest Gallet School in Youngsville
1st Place winning $1000 to attend the national Tar Wars poster contest
Tyler Sparrow of Greenville Elementary in Baton Rouge.
Senior Louisiana Tar Warrior Richard F. Burroughs, MD, Medical Director of the Pennington Cancer Center at Baton Rouge General Medical Center also attended the poster contest judging. Tyler Sparrow experience Tar Wars under Dr. Burroughs’s leadership. He and Donnie Batie, MD, on staff at Baton Rouge Medical Center both joined LAFP staff in recognizing Tyler Sparrow on 19 May at Greenville Elementary. It’s one of the many East Baton Rouge Parish and Ascension Parish schools experiencing Tar Wars under Dr. Burroughs’s continuing and appreciated area leadership.
On Friday 28 April at Ernest Gallet Elementary School in Youngsville, Second Place winner Jessica Benoit was delighted to receive her LAFP Certificate of Achievement signed by LAFP Foundation President Derrick Anderson, MD, and LAFP President K. E. LeBlanc, MD. Jessica was also presented a $50 Barnes and Noble Book Sellers gift certificate by the Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center, representative Jennifer Burris. Congratulating Jessica were her classmates, teachers, and Jessica’s grandmother. Also attending the presentation was Maxine Hamilton, Supervisor of Lafayette Parish School System Safe and Drug-Free Schools Prevention Program.
Much appreciated in Bogalusa was Annunciation Catholic School’s recognition of Trevor Truax. Southeast Louisiana Area Health Education Center’s Jeff Stevens forwarded Trevor’s poster and many others to LAFP.
Louisiana’s Tar Wars greatly appreciates the time and efforts of all four Area Health Education Centers in Louisiana, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, and others who made the 2006 poster contest successful. As state coordinator, I especially want to recognize LAFP’s Linda Foster, whose organizational skills were essential our success.