French culture.  Cajun music.  Seafood.  A zest for living.  Swamp water.  And just a touch of hot sauce.  Put it all together, and you’ve cooked up one heck of a recipe for educational gumbo.  Musicians will be serving up a heaping pot of this concoction to students at South Boulevard French Language Immersion Magnet School on Thursday, October 16.  The goal:  to teach students about Louisiana’s culture and how the French have influenced it.
As an expansion of Acadian Heritage Week October 5-12, Roland Gauvin, an Acadian singer-songwriter from Canada, member of 1755, Order of Canada recipient and long-time cultural ambassador for his province and country, will be touring Acadiana and other schools, such as South Boulevard.  He’ll be offering a workshop for French immersion students titled Discovering my Acadian Roots. 

This workshop is designed to teach children about the state’s  heritage and the connection they have to Acadie du Nord, in Canada.  Acadiana’s own Louie Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Les Frères Michot will co-present this workshop with Gauvin.  The French music workshop will be held in the South Boulevard School gym at 9 am for K-through-fifth-grade students and again at 10:15 am for students in grades 3-5.

Gauvin has created special programs for young audiences, taking his unique entertaining and educational act on the road to schools throughout Atlantic Canada, Ontario, Western Canada and France.

The purpose of this educational cultural workshop is to introduce students to the historical, cultural and family ties that exist between Acadians living in Canada and the Cadiens or Cajuns of Louisiana.  The workshop uses humor and music and audio-visual presentations. Components of the workshop include:
*  Demonstrations of the importance of the language in the preservation of the Cajun culture

*  Illustrations of the Cajun culture’s important place and influence in the world’s Francophonie, or global francophone culture

*  Encouragement for students to communicate with other francophone children through an exchange program, using e-mail as a means of communicating between schools in Louisiana and Canada

Following the workshop, students will be invited to take part in an exchange program between schools in Louisiana and in New Brunswick’s Acadian Peninsula.  This region of New Brunswick is an ideal place to encourage kinship with Acadian students since it’s the host area for the next Congrès mondial acadien to be held from August 7 to 23, 2009. 

The fourth (2009) Congrès mondial acadien (World Congress of Acadians).  Anyone interested can share this once in a lifetime experience with their Acadian cousins from all over the world.  It is expected to attract  thousands to this Acadian coastal area of New Brunswick from August 7 to 23, 2009.  As proud sponsors of this year’s Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, the Congrès representatives will soon arrive in Louisiana to encourage Louisianans to attend the event. 

Congrès mondial acadien is held every five years.  The previous three were held in Southeastern New Brunswick (1994), Louisiana (1999) and Nova Scotia (2004).  The 2009 Congrès mondial acadien is proud to support Festivals Acadiens et Créoles 2008 and the “Discovering my Acadian Roots” School Workshop and hopes to welcome Louisianans to their event from August 7 to 23, 2009.  For more information, please . 
To reach Gauvin or a CMA representative, contact Rachelle Dugas at (337) 291-5489 or rachelle@louisiane-acadie.com.  Pauline Ewing, lead magnet teacher, is the contact for South Boulevard at (225) 343-6630.