Steve & Addy Panzram – Crawfish Aquatics
Rotary 5/6/14
Presenter: Steve & Addy Panzram
Steve Panzram is a Marinette, Wisconsin native and has over 35 years of competitive swimming coaching experience and coached at all levels of swimming from beginning to national level. He has coached several #1 Nationally Ranked Age Group Swimmers along with both Junior National and Senior National Qualifiers. He has produced over 30 Top 16 Nationally Ranked Age Group swimmers and several Top Ten United States Masters Swimmers. Several of his swimmers were finalists at Junior Nationals. In 2012 his swimmer participated in the Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska swimming in six events and placing among the Top 50 in each event. He has coached in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Nevada. He has won several coach of the year awards during his career and has visited the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs six times. In 2012 Steve was recognized as one of the top 100 coaches in competitive swimming in the country. Steve is a graduate of Auburn University. Steve serves as the 13 & Over coach of Crawfish Aquatics and is the Director of Crawfish Aquatics at Nicholls State.
Addy Panzram, born in Upland, California brings a wealth of experience at the highest levels of competitive swimming in our country. Graduating from the University of Washington in 1999, she was the first swimmer to earn a full scholarship to UW. Addy lettered all four years in addition to being named Most Valuable Freshman and Most Valuable Swimmer her remaining three years. She was a Senior National Qualifier and Top 16 finisher, Record Holder at UW, PAC-10 finalist, and Junior Nationals-West High Point Swimmer. She attended the Division I NCAA Championships all four years while at the University of Washington. In 2013 Addy won the 200 meter backstroke at the United States Master Nationals in Mission Viejo, CA. Addy works with the 12 & Unders at Crawfish Aquatics and serves as the program administrator.
Katherine Toups with Fusion Wellness Solutions |
February 4, 2014
By: Vera Holloway
Katherine Toups is the owner of Fusion Wellness Solutions which is a wellness consultant company that specializes in helping people stay on track with their health and fitness goals. Katherine has a BS degree in Kinesiology from Louisiana State University. She has over 8 years of experience in corporate wellness and has previously worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield in their weight loss program. Katherine is a certified wellness consultant, certified personal trainer, and certified bootcamp instructor.
The types of services Fusion Wellness Solutions offers are initial wellness consulting which includes lifestyle assessment and guidance to eating healthy, exercising, stress management, and goal setting. Fusion also offers services like regular follow up appointments, ongoing coaching, in home workout plans, pantry makeover and grocery planning, and bootcamp classes. Katherine feels that it is necessary to create individual wellness plans for each client and she provides the motivation, support, and accountability that is necessary to achieve those individual goals.
Katherine has recently joined Advance Physical Therapy in Thibodaux and is looking to expand her services. She is currently working on location space so she can begin to offer yoga classes and more bootcamp classes. In March, she has plans to begin teaching various kid fitness programs.
Katherine informed us that Louisiana is now the most obese state in the United States. She stated that 34.7% (including children) are obese in Louisiana and that statistic has risen by 22% between 1990 to 2013. She stated that over 60% of adults don’t get the recommended diet and exercise and 70% of diseases and illnesses can be prevent if diet and exercise is done. Katherine gave some reminders of things to avoid:
- Overeating – Eat when your hungry not full!
- Eat Natural Foods – If it can’t rot it is probably not good for you!
- Take baby steps!
- Move more!
Cardinal Place | Thibodaux Rotary Club
July 16, 2013 Meeting
By: Kevin Gros
This past Tuesday the club was visited by Ann Thibodaux and Natalie Barbera of St. Joseph Manor to talk about Cardinal Place, a new residential community being developed adjacent to “The Manor” in Thibodaux.
Ann is the administrator of St. Joseph Manor; Thibodaux’s only assisted living community, since 1995. She has 37 years of experience in the senior living industry. Her prior work included her serving as Director of Nursing and Administration of a local nursing facility for nineteen years. She has been a lifelong resident of the Thibodaux area.
Natalie has been the Marketing and Social Director for St. Joseph Manor since 2011 and she has over ten years of experience in the healthcare industry working in medical records at Ochsner, Thibodaux Regional and a local nursing home.
Cardinal Place will be unique to our area and afford residents 55 years and older maintenance-free living. The development will consist of several three-story apartment buildings containing one and two bedroom living units of varying configurations and sizes.
Mark S. Kearns – History and Mystery of Life – Thibodaux Rotary Club
December 18, 2012 Meeting
By: Kevin Gros
The ninth but not last installation of “Meet My Cousin” Series returned to Rotary on December 18, with Mark S. Kearns, M.A., N.H.D. (Energy Therapist & Life Enhancement Coach) presenting “History and the Meaning of Life”.
Mark was the 2010 Rotarian of the Year and operates the Breath of Life Natural Healing Center on Bayou Road. He was accompanied by his wife Meg and daughter Mary Katherine.
According to his cousin Craig, Mark is a descendant of the late 19th century American Pioneer, Jim Bowie. Aside from his professional accomplishments which are touched on below, Craig expounded on some of his personal achievements during his introduction, which in addition to many similarities with Jim Bowie, including living in a house that looks like the Alamo and cutting a lizard in half with a pocket knife, include establishing the Nicholls student radio station, being an avid base player and drummer, and earning a brown belt in karate.
Mark received his Doctor of Natural Health, NHD, from Clayton College of Natural Health in Alabama. He has his masters degree in counseling. Mark is also a certified master practitioner and trainer in NLP, and is a certified hypnotherapist. He is the developer of the Life Enhancement Process, a dynamic life strategy.
Dr. Kearns has co-authored an NLP practitioner and Master Practitioner manual and has authored manuals for, developed and taught The Power of Self, How to Gain Personal Power and keep It, and Forgiveness (the key to all healing) seminar series. For the past several years, in addition to maintaining a private practice, Mark has taught numerous instructional classes on hypnosis, NLP, relaxation training, linguistic cues and representational systems, life coaching and the techniques of EFT, BSFF and The Life Enhancement Process.
Mark began his presentation with a photograph of an ancient Mayan calendar and being the last speaker before the 2012 winter solstice noted that if things don’t work out he’ll be the final speaker for the Club. Alas the sun came up on December 22 and we are all here to ponder his words. Much has been made of “12/21/12”.
Not only is it the winter solstice, it’s the last date on the 2,600 year old Mayan calendar which many have predicted will be the apocalypse. Many cultures have predicted some sort of event on 12/21. Planetary alignment, collisions with comets, and the second coming of Christ have all been predicted by some and debunked by others. In any event all the hype of these apocalyptic events has caused many of us to ask the question “why am I here?”
To help him answer this question, Mark began his quest for an answer where many of us begin looking for information – the internet. Unfortunately when he Googled his name he found his obituary, in Miami! Aside from now knowing there is life after death, Mark continues his search for an answer.
For most of us reality is external. We react to events. Our brain interprets them and our egos distort them. We are like passengers in a car driven by others. What should we do? We must learn to no longer be the effect, rather be the cause. Be the director in our own “movie” of life. Understand the universe and how it works. Understand our desires and how they can be positive or negative. Have an appreciation for events around us. Thoughts are the formation of things to come.
Most of us go through many thoughtless routines in our lives without considering what we are really doing. We must understand we can take control or our thoughts. Consider miracles, the earth, planets and solar system or many other things not widely considered miracles. How did we go from “nothingness” to this? Understand there are miracles all around us and we are part of a larger world in which we are an active participant. These are profound words and good advice for all of us.
In closing, Mark left us with a few words from an ancient Egyptian inscription, “The greatest power in the universe is love”, an excellent thought to take with us into the Christmas season.
Thanks to Mark for an enlightening presentation. We all look forward to the next edition of “Meet my Cousin”!
Mandy and Shay Holloway-The Non-Profit Organization, Refuge 127
November 6, 2012
By: Amy Connor-Flores
Our guests on November 6th were Mandy and Shay Holloway, owners of Mandylens Photography and founders of the non-profit organization, Refuge 127.
Shay, the son of Skipper and Sandy Holloway, graduated from Thibodaux Christian Academy in 1996. He attended NSU and received an undergraduate degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Industrial Design in 2002.
Mandy is the daughter of Tom and Ann Buisson. She graduated from E.D. White in 1999 and received her undergraduate degree in Art from NSU in 2004. The two have received acknowledgements for their work including the Bobby Jindal
Community Support Award in 2011 and have been named the Best Photographers in Lafourche Parish in 2011 and 2012. Mandy and Shay have three children and two foster children. Mandy is an active community volunteer and Shay leads Dave Ramsey classes which assist families and finances.
They also volunteer photography services for children who are up for adoption in our area as well as those who have been diagnosed with cancer.
Mandy and Shay spoke to us about their organization, Refuge 127, on which they both serve as Board Members and Shay serves as Treasurer.
Refuge 127 Ministries is a Christian-based organization located in Thibodaux that reaches out to local orphans and foster children of the Lafourche Parish Juvenile Justice Facility since 2009. It’s name is inspired by the bible verse James 1:27 regarding visiting and helping to care for orphans.
They provide skills training, bible studies, visitation resources and foster care for children that have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect, or the death of parents or guardians. “127 Kids” is a program under Refuge 127 that links church families with children in the Juvenile Justice Facility and encourages them with notes, letters and treats that are delivered on Monday nights.
Prayers are said for each child and gifts are sent on birthdays and holidays to show the children that there is a family that loves and cares about them. “Michael’s Home” is another portion of Refuge 127 that provides an alternative for individuals to transition from foster care to a safe home rather than having to return to the harmful environment that they came from. Their goal is to break the generational cycle of poverty and help these individuals to become successful while allowing God to heal them.
Refuge 127 is also making an impact in improving the quality of life for the impoverished people of Mbale, Uganda in Africa. The city has over 1600 orphans. The organization is currently helping to build the HOPE REFUGE SCHOOL, which will ultimately include 25 buildings for the housing of orphans, medical facilities, and classrooms.
A water well was recently completed which provides clean water to over 5000 people. The first four buildings on the grounds have been completed thanks to recent donations by Refuge 127, which inspired the naming of the school.
Various fund raisers are organized to help with the expenses of Refuge 127 Ministries including the annual Tour of Homes, a semi-annual Zumba event called Zumba Love, and Grace Dolls, which Mandy is currently patenting. These adorable plush dolls will include a children’s book written to educate about orphans.
For more information on the programs above visit www.refuge127.org or find them on Facebook.
Robert Travis Scott-President Of The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR)
October 30, 2012
By: Amy Connor-Flores
Robert Travis Scott is currently the president of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR). Before joining PAR, Scott worked for 14 years at The Times-Picayune.
It was here where he received awards for his political, business and investigative reporting. Scott also served as a business editor, columnist, and investigative journalist for a non for profit think tank based in Washington, D.C.
PAR (Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana) was founded in 1950 and is a private, nonprofit, non-partisan public policy research organization. It focuses on the most pressing problems of state and local governments in Louisiana. Through PAR’s research, the organization recommends ways of solving these problems.
Although PAR does not lobby, PAR’s research gets results. Many significant governmental reforms can be traced to PAR recommendations. Through its extensive research and public information programs, PAR contributes constructive ideas and solutions to the mainstream political thinking.
The primary purpose of PAR is to educate the media and public officials’ accurate and objective information on these problems and well as specific recommendations to solve these issues.
PAR differs from other organizations through the following:
- PAR is an independent, unbiased source of information on state and local government issues.
- PAR’s only business is research.
- PAR does not lobby or have a PAC, believing that the best way to improve government operations in Louisiana is through an informed citizenry. Louisiana government will never be any better than its citizens demand.
- PAR’s recommendations are not determined by its members or its board, but by the findings of its research studies. PAR’s research program is not designed to support a predetermined point of view but to find the truth.
- PAR can and does tackle issues others can’t or won’t.
- No other group does what PAR does the way PAR does it.
Louisiana has a significant number of far-reaching problems that require study. PAR has a full research agenda planned. Permeating the list are problems that have plagued the state for a long time: the tax structure, education and governmental ethics. Louisiana needs PAR today for the same reason it did 50 years ago.
PAR also prints out a guide to voting as well as information on the amendments being proposed for that specific election. They also provide an updated handbook known as “The PAR Guide to Louisiana Legislature”
To order additional guides contact PAR at (225) 926-8414 and for more information on PAR please visit their website at
PAR Guide to the 2012 Constitutional Amendments
1. Medicaid Trust Fund for the Elderly
2. Strict Scrutiny Review for Gun Laws
3. Earlier Notice of Public Retirement Bills
4. Homestead Exemption for Veterans’ Spouses
5. Forfeiture of Public Retirement Benefits
6. Property Tax Exemption Authority for New Iberia
7. Membership of Certain Boards and Commissions
8. Non-Manufacturing Tax Exemption Program
9. More Notice for Crime Prevention District Bills
Thibodaux Rotary Club – Helen Terrebonne
September 25, 2012
By: Amy Connor-Flores
Helen Terrebonne, with Crossroads Crisis Pregnancy Center spoke to rotary on Tuesday to give an overview of the Center’s mission in the community. Helen grew up volunteering for many different organizations and has been helping to empower women through Crossroads since she was hired as an executive assistant in 2010.
Crossroads is located in downtown Thibodaux and is an education and counseling resource for women who are vulnerable to choosing abortion due to unplanned pregnancy. The organization is 10 years old and is the first of its type in the Bayou Region.
Founded in 2003 by a hotline volunteer, Crossroads has served over 1800 clients in our area and welcomed approximately 800 babies into its family. More than 3000 Crisis Pregnancy Centers of this type exist nationwide.
