Community beautification initiative comes to Acadia Parish

Project Front Yard is coming to Acadia Parish.
The community beautification initiative, launched in Lafayette in the fall of 2014, encourages individuals, businesses and government to take pride in their community by cleaning up, sprucing up and standing up for a cleaner, greener and more welcoming appearance.
“Everyone takes time to beautify their back yards, let’s use that same enthusiasm in the front yard,” said Laurie Suire, executive director of OneAcadia, the parishwide business alliance that is spearheading the move into Acadia.
The idea is to match South Louisiana’s proverbial “back yard” — its festivals, food and family-oriented culture — to an equally attractive and welcoming “front yard,” with revitalized gateways, improved streetscapes, litter free roadways and waterways and more.
“Volunteerism is a big part of Project Front Yard,” Suire said. “That’s why we’ve offered the program first to the schools in the parish. With the schools on board, we can create an army of litter-fighting soldiers.”
Acadia Parish public schools will become “Project Front Yard Schools” to kick off the initiative.
“We are anxious to be involved and assist in this community effort,” said John Bourque, superintendent of the parish public school system. “We will begin this summer and go full speed ahead in the fall.”
A Facebook page (Project Front Yard - Acadia Parish) has been established and Suire is asking any and all groups planning any type of “clean-up” project to post it.
That Facebook page has already garnered the attention of some here in Crowley.
Georgie Petitjean of Crowley urged support of the initiative in a recent post on the social media site: “The impression a community makes on industry and individuals at first glance makes a difference in whether they decide to locate here or somewhere elese. It is extremely important in so many ways.
“Project Front Yard helps to improve these impressions.”
Suire is encouraging groups to post their community clean-up activities on the page as well.
“Anything anybody does, we want to promote it and make it a part of Project Front Yard,” she said. “We’re reaching out to any and all groups to make them a part of this initiative.”
With an already established presence in Lafayette, Iberia and St. Martin parishes, Katherine Moody McCormick, who heads up the Lafayette effort, and organizers say the initiative was always intended to be a multi-parish, and even a regional, effort.
“We recognized early on that Project Front Yard wouldn’t work if it is just a one-time cleanup effort. We knew there had to be a cultural change within our communities and it had to cross parish lines,” said Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel.
“Project Front Yard was created with the idea that we would invite our neighbors to participate and we would share the project ideas and all collaterals. We are proud to add Acadia Parish as another Project Front Yard partner.”
“OneAcadia is excited to Project Front Yard to Acadia Parish,” said Suire. “We’re taking baby steps right now but we think this can explode if the community embraces it.”
She said informational meetings across the parish are being planned. Contact OneAcadia at 337-789-5244 for more information.