Air Force honors St. Rose sisters
A pair of St. Rose sisters have turned an occasional charitable turn into a habit of helping others – and they’ve been recognized by the U.S. Air Force for those efforts.
Albert Cammon Middle School students Stephanie and Kristen L’Herisse recently were honored by the Air Force for their efforts in helping to provide care packages, bags of toothbrushes, toothpaste and other hygiene items, and handing them out to the homeless. They continued the practice, doing so on holidays like Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
The sisters are involved in a number of school and community activities that require them to fulfill an allotted number of service hours. But once the sisters had met their mark, they kept on going.
“We kind of got hooked on it,” Stephanie said. “We wanted to keep doing it. Helping people makes us feel really good so we don’t want to stop anytime soon.”
Kristen said the Air Force honor was unexpected, but welcome.
”I was shocked,” she said. “It was a nice feeling. I like doing community service and helping people out.”
The two make regular trips to volunteer at the food bank at St. Charles United Methodist Church in Destrehan to help feed the hungry, going every Sunday and on one Wednesday a month — they say they’d make it four Wednesdays, but it would clash with school (the first Wednesday of each month coincides with their off time).
The girls’ mother, Devona L’Herisse, cares for five children, all girls, at the family’s St. Rose residence. “It makes me feel good to see them do this,” she said. “I’m very proud of them. Especially that I’m not forcing them to do it. They’re in Beta, after school tutoring, band … they don’t even come home every day until five and they put in the effort to help others. They do a lot of community work and that’s a very good thing.”
Stephanie, an 8th grader, and Kristen, a 6th grader, likely learned at least some of those habits from their mother, who does quite a bit of community work of her own. She is part of Dr. K Movement Incorporated, a non-profit entity that provides help to families and children in need that includes tutoring and periodic field trips.
“We took a bus ride to Angola as part of a mini “scared straight” trip,” Devona said. “We took another one for girls to St. Gabriel. We had a camping trip at an Indian Reservation and we’ll take trips to see the Pelicans, who have provided us tickets. Sometimes it’s 40 or 50, so we take 40 or 50 kids.”
A lifelong St. Rose resident, Devona said her house sometimes serves “as an open community center” of sorts. “We’ll have a house full of kids,” she said. “Looking around (in her neighborhood), we’ve got one house with three girls, this one with two girls, seven children in that house, and here I have my five girls.
“We do it just to keep something positive going. Kids can stray really easily.”
Next year, Stephanie will be off to high school, which Devona noted will be a change in the family’s normal routine. Kristen, meanwhile, is teaching herself to speak Korean and wants to one day take a trip to Korea.
The mother hopes to see her busy girls continue doing good work in their community.
“I hope they keep it up on their own going forward,” she said. “You do for others, and not for yourself, it makes them feel better about what they’re doing.”
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