The Lake Charles Chapter of the CFMA is continually encouraging our young people to participate in all of our activities. Until recently the young were not divided by age and the majority of our focus was on the very young. With the election of Lesa Cormier as our current president, we have initiated a revision to this policy.

In September 2003, youth activities for teen and pre-teens were placed under the leadership of Eva Gidlow. It was requested that she get this group of young people more involved in our organization. In the past we had taught the young people to speak our language, dance to our music, play our music, encouraged them to sing with our French choir and to compete in French language competitions at our National Festival. LeCajun.

With the reinstatement of this youth group and with Eva as its’ chairperson, we hope to provide additional opportunities for our older youth membership to learn our culture, history and customs so they will be better able to pass them on to future generations.

We will again offer the following activities for this group to be taught at their level and age:

Dance Classes/Dance Troup
French Language Classes
French Choir
Musical Apprentices
French Mardi Gras Krewe
Scholarships for College

We also involve our youth in other local activities such as Food for the Needy, Festival of Trees, parades, jam sessions (to encourage our youth to carry on our music) and numerous other activities. We feel that it is important to provide our youth with the opportunity to learn their Cajun culture and history not only for it to be preserved but also so they will have the knowledge to teach it to future generations.