ERIK SANZENBACH and LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / August 7, 1999

It was a busy night Tuesday for River Parishes law enforcement, but it wasn’t all putting bad guys in jail. They were having fun with friends andneighbors as everybody left their houses, turned on their porch lights and celebrated a Night Out Against Crime.

In LaPlace, there were plenty of parties to choose from as people blocked off streets, put up balloons, started barbecues and tuned up their guitars.

Up in the Belle Terre section of town, the Flynns put together a fete at their house that included a spacewalk for the kids, a huge barbecue pit with St. John Sheriff’s deputies doing all the cooking and a rock-and-rollband blasting away on the Flynn’s front porch.

Sheriff Wayne L. Jones paid a visit to the party and chatted with residentsof the neighborhood.

Over at the River Forest subdivision residents gathered in the park to enjoy free food drinks and conversation. They were also entertained bydemonstrations from the students at the Unified Tai Kwan Do karate school. They young students taught neighbors how to defend themselves incase of attack.

The Sheriff’s Office brought out its K-9 corps, and these animals ran through a complex obstacle course to show how well trained they are.

Also at River Forest, the deputies fingerprinted youngsters and explained to them the do’s and don’ts of dealing with strangers.

In St. Charles Parish a dozen parties broke out with chips, barbecuedsausage, tuned-up amplifiers, campaigning politicians and dancing in the streets.

“We understand what we need to do to bring the community together,” Clyde Taylor of Norco’s Diamond Subdivision said at the Bethune Park block party.

He proudly introduced local children who attended a leadership conference in Sherman, Texas, in early June. They displayed hand-lettered signspromoting peace, non-violence and anti-drug messages.

Shell/Motiva had sponsored 25 Norco children to attend the conference, in conjunction with DARE. Locally, the children have been working on severalprojects to improve the community.

Taylor called young people ages 17-25 a lost generation and said efforts are being made, aided by the Greater Good Hope Baptist Church and the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church, to save the upcoming generation, those ages 16 and younger.

Over in Ormond Meadows, Susie Breaux of Sheriff Greg Champagne’s community relations division practiced what she preached by hosting a party of her own, jammed with small children, tons of food and neighbors flocking to her carport.

Over in Hahnville’s Pioneer Drive, Tanzer Lorio, Helen Cannon and Deneen Mott co-hosted a street party with pizza, bone-rattling music and street dancing to promote neighborhood togetherness.

“There is such unity back here,” Lorio said. “It’s one of the most close-knit neighborhoods around.”While neighbors visited, children played and parish president candidates Albert Laque and Rusty Rebowe worked opposite ends of the block, neighborliness was the watchword.

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