LAGNIAPPELAGNIAPPE Monthly Employee News April 2018 Gardening Without the Pain By: Steve Ham, Loon Safety Services What’s Happening This It’s springme which means Take advantage of electric gardening tools which many of us will be in the yard take the effort and strain out of edging and trim‐ Month and garden to spruce up aer a ming. long winter of inacvity. The Use garden stools or benches for planng and April 1 downside of gardening, besides weeding, as they reduce the need for squang Easter the extreme southern heat, is down. April Fool’s Day the risk of straining or injuring Use cushioned kneelers with handles to help mini‐ your back. Consider gardening mize pressure on your knees and make it easier to April 17 as any sport — your first me stand up. Tax Day out for the season shouldn’t Invest in larger or curved‐handled tools if you exceed a few hours. Liing and have arthris in your hands. April 21 digging can put stress on your Long‐reach claws can be very handy in the yard Be a HeartStarter 2018 back and other muscles, and and garden. They can be very useful in the garden the morning aer a day filled for removing fallen branches and twigs and relo‐ with planng will acvate mus‐ cang small rocks and debris without bending 8:00AM—12:30PM Blackham Coliseum cles you likely haven’t used all winter. Keep these basic over. 2330 Johnston St. Lafayee rules in mind to ensure you stay safe throughout spring When kneeling, try kneeling with one knee on the gardening season: ground and the other up, and switch knees as FREE bystander CPR training needed to alleviate back pressure. event. Register today! Warm up your muscles with a quick jog‐in‐place 337‐291‐4824 Take frequent breaks and stay hydrated. and some muscle‐loosening stretches. Listen to your body! It will let you know if you are Use good posture. Keep your back in a straight, overworking it. Significantly increasing pain indi‐ April 22 comfortable, neutral posion, and avoid slouching, cates that you need to modify your acvity or Earth Day twisng and excessive leaning or reaching. movement. When liing, use your legs, or even beer, avoid April 25 heavy liing by using a wheel barrow or garden Gardening reconnects us to the cycles of nature and Administrave cart. Squat and bend your knees so you are using the wonders of the outdoors. When we spend me in more powerful thigh muscles rather than back mus‐ the garden, we learn to slow down and forget our Professionals’ Day cles. daily worries. Enjoy your gardening this season with Vary your tasks to avoid repeve moon injuries as lile strain as possible. and back strain. donaons to aid Officer Smith. We all know he walks the parking lot and watches all of our Outstanding Officers that no amount of aid can replace items that vehicles. He is the best we have ever had! have more than monetary value, so please Thank You.” GREAT job, John! Keep it up! I wanted to share another example keep Johnny in your thoughts and prayers Another shout‐out to Officer Gregory Coy, of how some of our officers have a during this challenging me. If you would like Lafayee. Officer Coy displayed the type of drive that you don’t always hear about to donate to Officer Johnny’s campaign, customer service we strive for at Loon. anymore. Officer Johnny Smith, Lile Rock, please contact the Lile Rock office. works part‐me, weekend nights. Recently, Officer Coy escorted a guest through campus his house and its contents became a total loss Shout‐out to Officer John Zummo, Beaumont. while engaging in friendly conversaon. “I to a fire. Officer Smith never called off. He was Our client made sure to reach out to Loon to wanted to let you know that your employees present and on duty at his assigned mes. let us know what an amazing job Officer are extremely great at what they do. They Amazingly, he was in uniform and performed Zummo is doing. “I personally wanted to let have exemplified the fact that we can provide his dues each night without fail. The Lile you know how good of a job John is doing. He a safe and inviƟng atmosphere.” Keep up the Rock office has started a small campaign for is doing great. He makes sure he is being seen, outstanding customer service, Gregory! LA: Baton Rouge • Covington • Gonzales • Houma • LaPlace • Lafayee • Lake Charles • New Orleans TX: Beaumont • Houston • Fort Worth AR: Lile Rock MS: Jackson Visit us online @ www.loonstaffing.com Growing Stronger situaons like these ... to happen. I'm not surprised, and at some l'M EMBARRASSED because the loong, point my lile children are going to inherit Together: Learning violent protests, and law breaking only con‐ the weight of being a minority and all that it From Pro Football firm, and in the minds of many, validate, the entails. stereotypes and thus the inferior treatment. l'M HOPEFUL because I know that while we Player l'M FRUSTRATED because pop culture, mu‐ sll have race issues in America, we enjoy a By: Glenda G. Loon, Ph.D. sic, and movies glorify these types of police‐ much different normal than those of our cizen altercaons... parents and grandparents. I see it in my per‐ Each year my Delta Kappa Gamma Educaon l'M FEARFUL because in the back of my sonal relaonships with teammates, friends, Sorority chooses a book to read and discuss mind I know that although I'm a law‐abiding and mentors. And, it's a beauful thing. that will help us, and our students, grow strong‐ cizen I could sll be looked upon as a l'M ENCOURAGED because ulmately the er together‐‐as a school, a community, and a "threat" to those who don't know me. So I problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a Sin naon. This year's selecon Under Our Skin: will connue to have to go the extra mile to problem. SIN is the reason we rebel against Geng Real about Race‐‐and Geng Free From earn the benefit of the doubt. authority. SIN is the reason we abuse our the Fears and Frustraons that Divide Us l'M CONFUSED because I don't know why authority. SIN is why we are racist and preju‐ (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2015) wrien it's so hard to obey a policeman. You will not diced and why we lie to cover for our own. by Benjamin Watson with Ken Petersen takes "a win!!! And I don't know why some policemen SIN is the reason we riot, loot, and burn. But challenging and honest look at race, bias and abuse their power. Power is a responsibility, l'M ENCOURAGED because God has provid‐ jusce in the world today ...and appeals to the not a weapon to brandish and lord over the ed a soluon for sin through his son, Jesus, power and possibility of faith (that to me Benja‐ populace . and with it, a transformed heart and mind. min and his family personify) as a step toward One that's capable of healing." looking past the outward The lead author, and seeing what's truly Benjamin Watson, is important in every hu‐ familiar to many of man being. The cure for us. A star football the Michael Brown, player and graduate Trayvon Marn, Tamir of the University of Rice, and Eric Garner Georgia (where I tragedies is not educa‐ received my Ph.D.), on or exposure. It's the in 2004, he was gospel. So finally, l'M draed by the New ENCOURAGED because England Patriots the gospel gives man‐ where he won a kind hope. Super Bowl Ring in l'M EMPOWERED. (In his rookie season the book, Benjamin adds and played from a final feeling and chap‐ 2004 to 2009. Most ter to his list.) In the of us know him aermath of Ferguson best, however, when he played for the New l'M SAD because another young life was lost and Charleston and Balmore and so many Orleans Saints from 2013 to 2015. In 2015, he from his family; the racial divide has wid‐ other incidents and tragedies, I feel EMPOW‐ was a 2015 Walter Payton Man of the Year fi‐ ened; a community is in shambles; accusa‐ ERED to act out my faith in ways that can nalist. He currently plays for the Balmore Ra‐ ons, insensivity, hurt, and hatred are boil‐ bridge the racial divide. ing over, and we may never know the truth vens, and he and his wife, Kirsten, have five And in the final chapter of the book, Benja‐ about what happened that day. children. min challenges all of us to bridge the racial l'M SYMPATHETIC because I wasn't there so divide by first, acknowledging our own sin, Benjamin's book was movated by the well‐ I don't know exactly what happened. Maybe repenng and experiencing God's grace in known shoong and killing in 2014 of an un‐ Darren Wilson acted within his rights and our own lives. "We won't change the world armed black teenager, Michael Brown, by Dar‐ duty as an officer of the law and killed Mi‐ around us unless God has changed the world ren Wilson a white police officer, in Ferguson, chael Brown in self‐defense like any of us within us...individually we may feel as if Missouri, and the decision by the Grand Jury would in the circumstance.