Each Wednesday, L’Observateur recognizes individuals and businesses in the River Parishes that have gone “above and beyond” in their efforts to make this a better place to live, work and play.

We believe an integral part of a community’s wellbeing is an attitude and arena where people who do good things … who work to improve life for others … who try to make a difference … are recognized and saluted.

Because this is a salute to members of the community of the entire River Parishes, we solicit your recommendations for groups or individuals to be considered for inclusion.

This week we salute:

• Employees from Marathon Petroleum’s Garyville refinery, who recently volunteered time at East St. John Elementary School for a Science Expo with the school’s third-grade classes. The employees conducted a variety of hands-on experiments with the students.

• Students at East St. John High School, who used a recent football game against Destrehan as a food drive for Second Harvest Food Bank. The school was able to amount more than 9,000 pounds of food for the food bank, the largest single donation by any school in the area.

• Students at South Central Louisiana Technical College in Reserve, who spent the past month collecting various items for the Adopt-a-Soldier program. Students, faculty and staff donated enough magazines, toiletries, snacks and other items to fill 25 flat rate postal service boxes.

• Various student clubs at Destrehan High School, who were awarded more than $14,565 in service learning grants from the Brown Foundation for various activities held throughout the year. The WISE club, the Child Development Class and the JROTC were among the groups taking advantage of funding.