When Benjamin Hall, a Destrehan High School student, joined his grandfather on a day of fishing, he came back with an idea. The parish needed a new fishing pier near Bayou Gauche.
Hall told his Beta Club advisor, Courtney Berthelot, about his idea. Berthelot, who teaches U.S. history, has been advisor to the club for nine years.
“He said, ‘I wish St. Charles Parish had a nice fishing pier where people who don’t own a boat can fish off of a nice pier,’” Berthelot said. “He had visited one in Terrebonne Parish and saw how they did the whole reconstruction.”
Hall knew that any fishing pier design must consider flooding risk, which would be a challenge. He took the project to his fellow students in Beta Club, a service and leadership organization that requires 15 service hours every year and at least a 3.0 GPA. Hall is president of the club.
The team did extensive research, designed the fishing pier complete with flood walls and built a model of the project. The beautification project includes projected costs and details on the types of materials used.
“They did a phenomenal job doing the research,” Berthelot said. “They made pamphlets for their presentation. They had aerial views of the area where they wanted to do this. It was their vision, and they executed it.”
In January, Hall and fellow students, Ryan Comeaux, Liberty Thomas, Makiya Powell, and Zy’hri Raymond presented the project in the marketing and communication division at the Louisiana Beta Convention. They won first place.
Since then, the team worked to fine-tune their presentation for nationals. This was Destrehan’s first time competing at the national level for Beta.
The team’s project won eighth place at the National Beta Convention in Orlando, Fla. in late June. There were 40 other teams competing.
“They were competing against the best,” Berthelot said. “They were only competing against teams who had won at the state level.”
Berthelot said the team will present their project to the school administration team. The group also plans to present the project to Parish President Matthew Jewell.
“I’m most proud of the fact that my students took the initiative,” Berthelot said. “I provided the space, and I gave them feedback and stuff, but this was all them. They motivated themselves and they completed this project themselves. The hard work and dedication that they put into this competition – they had a vision, and they ran with it. And just the fact that it came from the students makes it’s even more valuable.”
