Moving Forward

The first signs promoting good news about today and tomorrow are going up in St. Landry Parish as part of a campaign proclaiming that “We’re Moving Forward.”

The program was announced at a press conference August 27, when the web site SLPForward.com was unveiled. The site includes “good news” stories about the initial partners in the venture, the St. Landry Parish government, economic development agency, school board, tourist commission, chamber of commerce, sheriff’s department, and solid waste commission, and the South Louisiana Community College and Louisiana State University at Eunice.

The list of partners will grow, according to parish president Bill Fontenot. He said “Moving Forward” is “an idea that most people buy into and we don’t want to leave anybody out.”

The signs are part of the campaign to bring public awareness of the positive things going on in the parish, according to economic development director Bill Rodier.

“When you see “We’re Moving Forward, St. Landry Parish” in front of a building, you can go to SLPForward.com and see a story explaining the good thing that happened,” he said. “That could be a development project in Grand Coteau, that could be a school in Eunice,  that could be something happening on the LSU Eunice campus, there are many, many stories.”

In addition to the signs at “good news sites,” the first billboard of the campaign will go up on I-49 south of Opelousas.

“The people of St. Landry Parish not only know of why we are ‘Moving Forward,’ they are the reason,” Fontenot said. “Displaying the signs reminds us all, every day, of how much pride we should take in our accomplishments and how we should embrace them and boast about them to the world.”

“There are many ‘hidden gems’ in St. Landry Parish, and we’re going to tell their stories,” Rodier said.    In fact, he says, there are so many stories to tell that it “Moving Forward” signs will eventually be so prevalent that “even the pessimists will have to take notice that something good is going on here.”

Rodier, who began his job as development director in 2013, said, “I had an opportunity to come into St. Landry Parish with an open mind. It was very obvious that there is a lot of opportunity in St. Landry Parish for overall growth and development.”

He said the initial partners and others who have expressed interest in becoming partners in the campaign have come together “with a single purpose—to show that leaders across the parish are united in Moving Forward in St. Landry Parish. We are going to keep working together, keep Moving Forward, and tell the world about the good news in St. Landry,” he said.