Maresa Adalyn Watson, president of her senior class and a recent graduate of Scotlandville Magnet High School, is one of the 2013 Gates Millennium Scholarship Recipients. Watson was in the top two percent of her senior class and carried an un-weighted GPA of 3.8 and a weighted GPA of 4.35.  She has a composite score of 29 on the ACT and is a National Achievement Participant.

She placed first in the District English IV Literary Rally this year and second in the District English III Literary Rally in 2012.  She has also earned several scholarships, including the Gates Millennium Scholarship, Scotlandville High School Alumni Scholarship, Tulane University Book Award, Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society Award, Pelican State Credit Union Scholarship, as well as scholarships from Southeastern University, University of Louisiana in Lafayette, George State University and other colleges and universities. 

Rev. Nathaniel Thomas, pastor of the Greater New Hope Baptist Church, was honored by family, members, ministers and friends, on his 40th year anniversary at the church, on Sunday, May 19.

In reflections, Ernest Morris, pastor of the Church of the Burning Fire, said that he was one of the first persons who were baptized in the church’s sanctuary.  Pastor Morris said that he was thankful that he came up during a time where he could hear him preach, and he truly appreciated his genuine friendship.

Deacon Quentin McCray recalled the time when Pastor Thomas came from Chicago to live in Zachary.  McCray’s father and another deacon approached him to become pastor of New Hope, which was then a small white church in Lindsey.  As a teenager, he said he saw a holy dance done by Thomas for the first time, and he thought it was cool.

How do we start solving difficult problems?  Creag Banta, an associate with LegalShield Legal Services for families and businesses, said it takes a village to solve problems, but we have not been defining our villages properly.

According to Banta, president of the Baton Rouge Early Risers Kiwanis and guest speaker for the morning, your village is all of the people in your life to whom you relate primarily through love, trust, friendship and kinship.  “A village takes years to build and constant effort to maintain. Villages are unstable and dynamic.  Every change in our relationships alters our village and all of the other villages we touch,” he said.

In his presentation, he noted that our village is the place where we learn about character, responsibility, duty, honor and love.  On the other hand, he said, we have the veldt, the great out there, the place of competition and production.  “It is a place of institutions, corporations and governments.  The veldt is where we go every day to produce the abundance that provides 90 percent of our support.”