The tragic death of a local teen spurred postal worker Arthur Lathan in the mid 1990s to use his own funds to create a community center for youth in this rural, underprivileged area of northwest Louisiana. Youth in the area began using the building as an after-school center, and Lathan solicited used encyclopedias, computers and other learning resources. In 1999, the center became part of a state-sponsored prevention program and offers year-round educational and recreational programs, including tutoring, computers, tobacco-cessation education, lessons in life skills, arts support and sports activities. Participating students have reported better grades, improved school attendance and fewer behavioral problems. Despite the demands of overseeing the center, Lathan continued to work full-time at the Postal Service.

Campbell, of Arcadia, is rural community organizer for the Domestic Abuse Resistance Team in Bienville Parish. DART provides a safe environment for children who have experienced or witnessed physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse. Campbell was also nominated in 2004.

A resident of Arcadia, Campbell is rural community organizer for the Domestic Abuse Resistance Team in Bienville Parish. DART provides a safe environment for children who have experienced or witnessed physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse. Campbell was also nominated in 2003.

Curtis has been involved in some two dozen volunteer groups and activities in Arcadia, many benefiting children, such as the Girl Scouts and Youth Justice.

Counselor who specializes in treating children with ADHD and other conduct or behaviorial disorders; often sees clients for free; creation and design of F.R.O.G.(Feelings, Responsibilities, Others, Goals) program; founded non-profit Children's Counseling Center in Princeton, La. McEntee was also nominated in 2007 and 2008.

Few of the 37 foster children who have been fortunate enough to come under Elaine Spivy’s wing would fit most people’s definition of “normal.” Since 1986, Spivy and her husband, Allen, have cared for prematurely-born infants, abused babies, mentally and physically handicapped children, and emotionally unstable adolescents. All were taken into the Spivys’ home without regard to race or family background. The Spivys are currently foster parents of five children, aged 8 months to 8 years, as well as the 13-year-old daughter they adopted as a 4-month-old with burns that required more than 20 surgeries. Spivy’s days are filled with therapy sessions, family and sibling visits, school meetings and family court hearings as well as church activities and other normal family errands. She considers each child’s needs a unique challenge and attends seminars and workshops to further her understanding of the special problems posed. An ordinary mother and homemaker in Bossier City, she has become an extraordinary figure in the lives of dozens of Louisiana’s neediest children.

Ed Weiland is more than just a coach for the Angels team of the Challengers League, a baseball league for special-needs children ages 5 to 18 in Bossier City. Providing love and encouragement each Saturday during baseball season, Ed gives these kids entertainment and a knowledge of the game as well as an all-important sense of self-worth.

After a 37-year career with the FAA, Maxwell "retired" to full-time volunteer work. He has put in more than 20 years with the first and only private foster care agency in northwest Louisiana, Bossier KIDS Inc.

Delgado is a troop leader for Girl Scouts in Haughton. She devotes about half of her spare time to community-oriented and hobby-related projects for the girls.

As a licensed mental health counselor, McEntee helps young people prevent and/or deal more effectively with stress, anger, anxiety and depression. He identifies potential problems and treats children both one-on-one and through summer camps that help them stay out of trouble and get better grades in school. McEntee was also nominated in 2002 and 2008.

Stewart and her husband Don have dedicated their lives to the welfare of some of the state's most challenging foster and adoptive children, taking in more than a dozen children whose extraordinary disabilities or problems prevented their placement in regular or specialized foster homes.

McEntee is a licensed mental health counselor who specializes in treating children with ADHD and other conduct or behaviorial disorders, often seeing these young clients for free. He founded the non-profit Children’s Counseling Center to provide individual and group counseling and improve the lives of both the children he treats and their parents. McEntee was also nominated in 2002 and 2007.

Shannon Russell is a teacher at Meadowview Elementary School who has dedicated her career to children with Autism.

Shannon Russell is a teacher at Meadowview Elementary School who has dedicated her career to children with autism.

Simone Hennessee was honored in 1996 for her work as executive director of Providence House, the largest transitional shelter in the state. “When we talk about people who are homeless, we talk about them having nothing. Nothing left, no hope, nowhere to go, nowhere to turn,” said Hennessee. “What that does to children is both profound and invasive, because it cuts at the very stability of life. Children pay the highest price for this homeless situation.”

Dr. G. Jeane Nichols was director of elementary schools for Caddo Parish when she was honored in 1996. “Children are what it’s all about. They’re so fantastic. Every day there is never a dull moment with their creativity and enthusiasm,” she said. “We like to say children are our future, but children are what we will be, what this world will be. They are the continuation of where we are now. They are our tomorrow.”

Ron Anderson gave up a teaching post at Southern University in Shreveport to direct the Lighthouse program in Shreveport, a division of Volunteers of America, which has preschool classes, after-school programs, job-readiness training, leadership training, parenting classes, a program for high school drop-outs and a mentoring program for at-risk youth. Anderson devotes untold hours to this program, making a difference in every life he touches.

As the driving force behind the creation of the first hands-on science center in Louisiana, Sylvia K. Goodman worked to resolve the need for supplementary science education in the state and provide wonderful educational opportunities. In 1991, Goodman began raising the money to design and construct a $20 million permanent science center through both public and private funding. Through her fund-raising efforts, an interim science center was established in 1994 that in 1998 has already served more than 300,000 children. With the success of the current interim center, Goodman continued to direct the process of creating a permanent center. At her own expense, she lobbied legislators and traveled around the country to negotiate contracts and get the project off the ground. As a result, a 67,000-square-foot, permanent hands-on science center, dubbed the Sci-Port Discovery Center, open in November 1998. Goodman’s goal was for the center to not only provide educational insight, but to also create a model of how to impact the economic lives of children. The center familiarizes children with science and gets them interested in it at an early age. Children are able to get jobs as center demonstrators while they are in junior or senior high school, with the hopes of producing some of the state’s best future scientists.

Rheumatologist Tom Pressly was director of the Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinic at Shriner’s Hospital when he was honored in 1999. He developed a program in 1993 to help families suffering from arthritis and/or rheumatic disease cope with these difficulties as a family. Known as the Jambalaya Jubilee, the program includes a four-day retreat that has touched the lives of more than 500 families. In addition to his hands-on role, Dr. Pressly has personally underwritten any deficit the retreat incurs.

As head of the state’s first drop-out prevention center in 1999, Joyce Price served more than 5,000 students. Beginning with a church-based tutoring program she developed, Price served as program director of the Student Referral Alternative Center since its inception in 1995. She worked with the Caddo Parish school system to provide a safe, supervised, academic environment for suspended students. Her program became a model for the state.

Sister Sharon Rambin and the sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows founded the Renzi Education and Art Center in the mid-1990s when they took an old, dilapidated house in a low-income neighborhood and turned it into a much-needed center for after-school programs. Sister Sharon’s tireless efforts in spearheading this project transformed a drug-dealing area into a cleaned-up neighborhood filled with hope and pride.

Gloria Millender retired after 26 years as a public school teacher, counselor and administrator, but she continues to nurture and educate young people as a full-time volunteer. In 2001, Millender marked her 12th year of working with the Winners’ Circle camp for inner-city kids in the Shreveport-Bossier area, serving as camp coordinator of the summer day camp. The rest of the year, Millender helped to orchestrate Saturday Rallies, a weekly bus-and-lunch program for at-risk youth. She also visited children in their homes in the underprivileged areas of Shreveport each month, and was developing an academy to help teaching parenting skills.

Funded and constructed Greenwood Equine Assisted Therapies (GREAT), a program in which fully assisted therapeutic horseback riding is used to address the special needs of mentally, physically and emotionally challenged children; added Camp Victory in 2001 to the program

Coordinator of Safe Kids coalition of Northwest Louisiana; child safety advocate

Lifelong educator and currently Director of Student Services for the Bossier Parish School System, working with students recommended for expulsion; she also makes 45-minute commute to serve as Director of Youth Dept. and Coordinator of Outreach Ministries (Youth at Risk), among other duties, at Springville United Baptist Church in rural Gibsland, where she grew up; foster partent to three children; also helped develop the Gingerbread House serving children ages 2-14 who have been sexually or severely physically abused

As a cardiologist and former chief of staff for the Willis-Knighton Health System, Phillip Rozeman was a leader in improving health care. He has used those same leadership skills, along with perseverance, sacrifice and hard work, to put people together to support public education. In 1999, he founded the Alliance for Education, a non-profit organization that combines human and financial resources in support of public education in Caddo, Bossier, Webster and DeSoto parishes. He developed the Alliance after personally researching school improvement and, on his own, traveled to other cities in the United States to learn about similar efforts. Through his efforts, he brought community and business leaders together, helping to raise $1 million to fund the Alliance. He donated $200,000 of his own funds to the organization, and has played a major role in nearly all the Alliance’s unique program ideas, which promote school improvement at all levels – government, school system, school building and classroom. Described as a facilitator who turns dreams into reality, Rozeman “is driven by passion to do the right thing for all children – black, white, rich and poor. He knows that education is the key to reducing poverty at the individual and collective level in our state, and he is doing something about it.”

Church pastor who developed a youth ministry program and a community coordinator with the Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal program, working with middle and high school youth in the Highland neighborhood

Fraser, of Shreveport, is a former teacher and counselor in the Caddo Parish schools. She works with the Court Appointed Special Advocate program of the Volunteers for Youth Justice.

Mitton, a Shreveport stockbroker, has worked for 13 years with Volunteers for Youth Justice, a group providing advocacy for first-time offenders that aims to keep children in school and out of the courtroom. She also mentors elementary school students through one-on-one language arts tutoring. She was also nominated in 2004.

Driven by her passion for dance and the arts, and by her passion for educating and helping others, Carol Anglin has built a world-class program for young artists in Louisiana. She has taught dance to more than 5,000 students since 1982 and serves as volunteer artistic director for the Louisiana Dance Foundation, which brings internationally renowned guest artists to the Shreveport area to perform and teach workshops. Anglin ensures that 50 percent of the performances are given for audiences from underserved populations, and 10 percent of her own dance students are on full scholarship.

As principal of Oak Terrace/J.B. Harville Alternative School in Shreveport for more than 12 years, Brown goes far beyond her job description to reach out to non-traditional and at-risk students. She organizes students, parents, educators and community leaders to develop programs and address critical educational needs. The TAPSIS (Teenage Parents Stay in School) Program that Brown founded in 1990 has resulted in a significant decrease in early pregnancy and high-school dropout rates for this vulnerable population.

Burks has served on Rotary Club committees benefiting local children, including those presenting gifts to children in hospitals and providing computers for use in schools.

Delaney volunteers an extraordinary amount of time supportin the youth of the Shreveport area as a summer camp director, youth program coordinator and motivational speaker. He directs Camp Anytown, a week-long diversity and leadership program for students selected from varied cultural backgrounds. Anytown teaches youth to celebrate diversity through projects, entertainment, recreation and discussion groups.

A teacher for 17 years at Youree Drive Middle School in Shreveport, Heacock imparts more than Louisiana history to her students. She gives them lessons in tolerance and compassion as well, striving to instill a respect for those with special needs. She has been the school's student council moderator for 12 years and sponsors numerous events and trips for her students, tutors kids for LEAP tests and also volunteers at the local food bank. She was also nominated in 2006 and 2008.

Mitton, a Shreveport stockbroker, has worked for 14 years with Volunteers for Youth Justice, a group providing advocacy for first-time offenders that aims to keep children in school and out of the courtroom. She also mentors elemetary school students through one-on-one language arts tutoring. She was also nominated in 2003.

Parker has served disabled children for more than 35 years through work as instructor, program manager, director of residential services and now director of community outreach and development for the ARC of Caddo-Bossier. Parker uses her detailed knowledge of children with disabilities to create public policy positions, apply for funding and represent the ARC on the boards of various local and statewide agencies.

Sutton has committeed his time and monetary resources to bringing a full-service children's hospital to the Shreveport-Bossier area. Sutton was also nominated in 2005.

Veterinarian Dr. Gordon created Right to Play, a non-rofit organization to fund and oversee a playground that is at least 70 percent accessible to developmentally disabled children. She has raised more than $300,000 for the effort, and saved another $70,000 by organizing more than 100 volunteers to assemble the play structure.

In her role as a member of a health system leadership team, Sister Rose Marie has developed many programs serving children, including a teen mom program, a referral center for suspected victims of child abuse, school-based health centers, a mobile health unit serving low-income neighborhoods and a technologically advanced children's hospital.

Simpson is children’s coordinator at the Highland neighborhood Friendship House operated by Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal. She was the first coordinator, starting in 1997 and she set a model for others to follow. Instead of just working with children in a low-income, high-crime area, Sandra moved into the area to live among them. Now, more than 350 children have come through her program.

Williams, a retired educator, provides hands-on science summer workshops for area children.

Christopher was one of the founders of Reach Out and Read, where volunteers read to children in the waiting room of the Children’s Hospital at LSU Health Science Center in Shreveport. She still works with the group as a volunteer reader and spearheads an annual book drive for the LSUHSC Medical Library.

Delaney established the first Louisiana Masonic Learning Center to provide additional instruction to elementary and middle school students with dyslexia. He has grown the program from one class to five classes at two locations in the Bossier/Shreveport school districts, and his successful experience with the program has been used by other Masonic Districts statewide in founding their own similar learning centers.

Dubin has shared her entrepreneurial skills with children through Junior Achievement and other programs for more than 12 years. Two of the programs she started were "Coolgear by Teens," a t-shirt production operation, and the "Teen Talk" live radio show.

Veterinarian Dr. Karen Gordon created Right to Play, a non-rofit organization to fund and oversee a playground that is at least 70 percent accessible to developmentally disabled children. She has raised more than $300,000 for the effort, and saved another $70,000 by organizing more than 100 volunteers to assemble the play structure. Gordon was also nominated in 2005.

Heacock is a middle-school teacher who constantly encourages her students to get involved in community service activities, from working with handicapped students in their own school to collecting funds for hurricane victims. Her classes have earned awards for their community service work, and her students constantly come to her for advice and counseling or to talk over their new ideas for projects to help others. She was also nominated in 2004 and 2008.

McCarter is the founder of, the inspiration for and the driving force behind Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal. He oversees the operation of eight Friendship Houses, where children from low-income, high-crime neighborhoods can come for tutoring after school and join in community service projects on weekends.

Spikes has served the children of Vivian and the surrounding area through his participation in Kiwanis International, of which he was a member for more than 50 years, and the American Legion, where he served in many positions. Some of the projects he participated in for these organizations were sponsoring high school juniors for Boys State, a flag program for first graders and sponsoring Key Club in high school and Builders Club in the grade school.

Beckham has spent 34 years volunteering for organizations that care for needy children in Bossier Parish, most notably as a 24-year member of the board of Bossier KIDS, Inc., a faith-based private foster care agency.

Christopher was one of the founders of Reach Out and Read, where volunteers read to children in the waiting room of the Children’s Hospital at LSU Health Science Center in Shreveport. She still works with the group as a volunteer reader and spearheads an annual book drive for the LSUHSC Medical Library. Christopher was also nominated in 2006. Christopher was one of the founders of Reach Out and Read, where volunteers read to children in the waiting room of the Children’s Hospital at LSU Health Science Center in Shreveport. She still works with the group as a volunteer reader and spearheads an annual book drive for the LSUHSC Medical Library. Christopher was also nominated in 2006. Christopher was one of the founders of Reach Out and Read, where volunteers read to children in the waiting room of the Children’s Hospital at LSU Health Science Center in Shreveport. She still works with the group as a volunteer reader and spearheads an annual book drive for the LSUHSC Medical Library. Christopher was also nominated in 2006.

Dubin has shared her entrepreneurial skills with children through Junior Achievement and other programs for more than 12 years. Two of the programs she started were "Coolgear by Teens," a t-shirt production operation, and the "Teen Talk" live radio show. Dubin was also nominated in 2006.

Hollins runs an after-school program in Caddo Parish that has helped thousands of students from inner-city areas improve their test scores and school attendance and develop skills in sports and the arts. The programs have also been responsible for a reduction in juvenile delinquency.

May serves on a voluntary basis as executive director of the Queensborough Neighborhood Association in Shreveport, which provides jobs and a mentoring program for children in the neighborhood. She also helps provide affordable and safe housing for children and their families.

Sims is founder of "Cheerful Givers," a community outreach ministry in Oil City. She gives of her personal time and funds to help needy families in her area.

Cooksey works extensively with The Lighthouse, an organization that combats rising high-school dropout rates. Cooksey established The Lighthouse Scholarship Committee to help children in the program achieve their dream of attending college.

Heacock is a teacher at Keithville Elementary/Middle School, where she is the Student Council sponsor, organizes donation drives for local nonprofits and provides emotional support to her students. She was also nominated in 2004 and 2006.

As president of the Alliance for Community Development, Hicks coordinates service-learning programs for African-American boys in the Caddo Parish School District, which has led to a decrease in student discipline referrals and an increase in academic achievement.

Ely and Jesus Bulnes established a temporary residence for families from Central and South America with children being treated in the U.S. for prolonged illnesses.

After retiring, Daggett dedicates herself to improving the reading and writing skills of children in addition to volunteering for numerous causes. Facilitating and leading the “Using the Writing Process” program, she taught content to elementary teachers

Eddie Rivera dedicates his time to The Soldiers of Compassion Center, a group that assists the homeless and poor families in Shreveport.

A septuagenarian, he worked for free supervising the construction of a Claiborne Boys & Girls Club, buying some of the materials himself; bought the organization a van; rewards youths for good report cards

Williams, of Homer, has been a teacher for 25 years. Her volunteer work with children includes sponsoring the St. Jude Math-a-Thon and the Junior 4-H Club and teaching an at-risk tutorial class after school.

Hall is the founder of Restoration Center Inc., an After School for All Program to help at risk students with math and English Skills. The Center also has a teen pregnancy prevention program that has cut the risk of teen pregnancy in De Soto parish by 80 percent.

Gray is director of the Desoto Multicultural Community Center, where arts, dance and sports classes keep children off the streets in the summer and a tutorial helps them during the school year. In addition to her hands-on work at the center, Gray also spearheads grant projects for funding for the programs.

A school bus driver in DeSoto Parish, Parrott uses her bus, or if it's in the shop her own car, to make sure children get to the library's summer reading and performing arts programs.

Gray is director of the Desoto Multicultural Community Center, where arts, dance and sports classes keep children off the streets in the summer and a tutorial helps them during the school year. In addition to her hands-on work at the center, Gray also spearheads grant projects for funding for the programs. Gray was also nominated in 2006.

A Mansfield mother, Hudson cares for children of working mothers.

Phillips returned to her hometown of Mansfield after her retirement three years ago. In that time, through her work with the DeSoto High School Alumni Association, she helped establish programs in foster grandparenting, home instruction for parents of preschoolers, after-school homework assistance and enrichment for elementary level children and teen leadership.

Knight has spent years helping children in her community, even moving troubled teens in with her family when they needed help.

Bossier finds time after her regular jobs as a school bus driver and bank teller to chauffeur a busload of local children to a Wednesday evening church program that she has organized for them.

Phetteplace is a 15-year-old professional country music singer who takes time out of her touring schedule to give benefit concerts for charitable groups, including a concert to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina. She also donates proceeds from CD sales revenue to organizations such as Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children, Camp Bluebird, Central Louisiana Cerebral Palsy Telethon, March of Dimes, Ronald McDonald House Charities and many more.

Martinez, of Minden, opened the Hope Youth Ranch, a residential facility for boys age 7-18, in 1996.

Whitaker is a resident of Minden and pastor of the Victory Praise and Worship Center. He founded the Victory Community Development Corporation, which sponsors tutorial services, sexual abstinence seminars and college entrance test preparation classes for area youth.

Broussard has championed children’s involvement in the arts and regional culture for two decades, providing a much-needed filling in a gap in the curricula of Webster Parish schools. In addition to the hours she spends working with Cultural Crossroads of Minden, which she cofounded in 1993, she teaches afterschool art classes with nominal fees and directs area children in plays – one featuring more than 300 children from around the parish. Broussard has also raised more than $500,000 for arts programs. She was a winner in 2008.

In addition to her 33-year career as a schoolteacher, Wilson has served the children of Minden in a variety of ways. She has tutored fourth graders for their LEAP tests, mentored children in other grades, taught Sunday school, collected school supplies and worked with girl Scouts and the 4-H Club.

Brewster is active in many programs benefiting children in and around Heflin, especially youth baseball leagues and tournaments.

Martinez operates the Hope Youth Ranch, where since 1994 he has helped more than 800 youg boys in the state's foster care system.

Broussard has championed children’s involvement in the arts and regional culture for two decades, filling a gap in Webster Parish school curricula with art, music and dance instruction. In addition to the hours she spends working with Cultural Crossroads of Minden, which she co-founded in 1993, she teaches after-school art classes with nominal fees and directs area children in plays – one featuring more than 300 children from around the parish. Broussard has also raised more than $500,000 for arts programs. She was also nominated in 2005.

A retired schoolteacher, Rhynes founded the James C. Rhynes Foundation to honor her late husband, also a lifelong educator. The Foundation provides free school supplies, free haircuts, back-to-school tips, gift cards and incentives to encourage area youth to continue their academic pursuits. Rhynes also organizes an annual Back-to-School Event in August to help parents who need free supplies for their children to attend school.