The Good Life: 4thekids Baton Rouge

The Good Life: 4thekids Baton Rouge

4thekids-playroom
Elizabeth Sherman, left, and Sydney Saia, co-founders of 4theKids, stand in the children’s playroom at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge. The women’s charity is helping fund the hospital system’s new standalone children’s hospital. (Sean Gasser/DIG Baton Rouge)

Feature on Elizabeth Sherman and Sydney Saia and their charity, 4theKids. 4theKids is a non-profit focused on fundraising for Our Lady of the Lake’s standalone Children’s Hospital, currently under construction in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Boogie Nights: Since childhood, Jonathon ‘Boogie’ Long has worked for the title ‘King of the Blues’

Boogie Nights: Since childhood, Jonathon ‘Boogie’ Long has worked for the title ‘King of the Blues’

Dig April cover
(Sean Gasser/DIG Baton Rouge)

Cover feature I wrote on Baton Rouge blues musician Jonathon “Boogie” Long, who was named Guitar Center’s 2011 “King of the Blues.” Long is currently working on two new albums; the first is a blues album with southern rock edge and the second is more of a slow burn, a soul-baring country and folk passion project.

Louisiana quilters stitch together effort to help flood victims return to craft

Louisiana quilters stitch together effort to help flood victims return to craft

quilters
Baton Rouge’s Anitra Isaac, left, laughs with volunteer Debbi Kelly, right, of Denham Springs, as Isaac and Baton Rouge’s Lorraine Morrisey, just behind Isaac, pick out fabrics Saturday, April 1, 2017, at the ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’ Flood Relief Campaign for Quilters distribution of sewing machines, fabric, specialized tools and pattern books to about 150 quilters who lost their quilting gear and supplies in the 2016 flood. All three of the women’s homes were flooded. (Travis Spadling/The Advocate)

The Advocate | April 1, 2017

A feature I wrote for The Advocate on the Bridge Over Troubled Waters Flood Relief Campaign for Quilters and the supply distribution they organized April 1. Flooding in the Greater Baton Rouge area in fall 2016 destroyed homes, businesses and schools, and decimated the collections of area quilters. Local quilters banded together to collect donations from around the state and country.

 

Meet Your Makers: Mason Dupré and Natalie John

Meet Your Makers: Mason Dupré and Natalie John

 

meet your makers photo
Mason Dupré, left, and Natalie John assess one of their traditional Woolly Threads pullovers in the company’s Baton Rouge headquarters. (Kalynn Barnum/DIG Baton Rouge)

A feature article on Mason Dupré and Natalie John, founders of Woolly Threads, a lifestyle company based in Baton Rouge. The company’s signature item is a nubby knit pullover sweatshirt. Dupré and John started the business in Dupré’s kitchen and used on-campus marketing and guerrilla visits to collegiate athletics departments