By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – If there’s one thing people in this part of the state like to do, it’s dressing up in costumes. Of course, Mardi Gras and Halloween are the two most popular times for people to don costumes, but just about any occasion will do, especially the autumn Sunday ritual of cheering on the Saints.

With this in mind, at the start of the 2010 football season, L’Observateur asked its readers to send in photographs of the area’s biggest Saints fanatics.

The paper received a wide range of pictures, from dogs in jerseys to infants with footballs to Saints license plates. Throughout the course of the contest, L’Observateur ran 35 photographs of the biggest Saints in the River Parishes.

At the conclusion of the regular season, the staff at L’Observateur rounded up all the pictures, and each staff member ranked their five favorites. With everyone’s votes tallied, the top three were chosen.

Taking home the honor of best Saints fan photo and the accompanying $300 prize was a picture sent in by LaPlace resident Natalie Tatje. Tatje, a season ticket holder, is never far from other diehard Saints fans, and she always has her camera ready. This enabled her to snap a photo of Rion and Stacey Loisel as they cheered on the team at the Superdome with their jewel-studded Super Bowl ring hats.

Earning second place was a photo of Faith and Chad Ryder, Faith’s mouth wide open as she sings the “Who Dat” song.

Faith and Chad and their parents Jennifer and Lewis Ryder live in Atlanta, but they are

no fans of the Falcons. Their loyalty still resides in South Louisiana, where their grandparents, Gail and Lewis Ryder, who submitted the photo, and Mike and Joanne Richard reside. The photo was good enough to earn the children the $200 second-place prize.

Rounding out the list of winners was little Maddie Richard, who was pictured in L’Observateur wearing a cheerleader outfit and getting ready to complete a pass. The daughter of Michelle and Neil Richard and granddaughter of Robin and Mervin Guillot, Maddie may not be sure of what role she’d like to play on the field, but L’Observateur was sure her photo was the one to take home the $100 third-place prize.