Sitting at long, cafeteria-style tables, nearly a hundred people gathered in the rural bayou community of Chauvin, Louisiana. Everyone had at least one thing in common: they all went to school here.
“Today, we are here to reconnect. One definition of reconnect is to join or to be joined with something else after being separated,” said Lorraine Beasley during Saturday’s event. “Many of us have been separated due to time, but we're always connected through our heart.”
Beasley organized the Chauvin school reunion with three other women, all former educators in public schools that served the area. One by one, four local schools shuttered over the past 20 years as hurricanes battered the region and the price of home insurance skyrocketed, driving many to move farther inland. Chauvin has lost nearly one in five people since 2000, according to U.S. Census Data.
The slow shrinking of the community has led to the closure and relocation of more than just schools, creating a feeling of loss for those who remain. Mary Aucoin was one of the co-organizers ofthe event. She worked at all levels of the school system, including as a teacher and principal at Upper Little Caillou Elementary School – the last Chauvin school left.
Aucoin said the event was a way to bring people together during a difficult time.
“We knew this part of the community was hurting very badly,” Aucoin said. “We needed to try to bring the community back together and try to make the community feel like you're not forgotten.”
People who attended at least one of the four schools were invited to swap stories and share memories over homemade Cajun food. One of the event’s speakers, Monsignor Frederic Brunet, formerly the pastor of a local Catholic church in Chauvin, said the residents had a way of drawing people in. When he first arrived, he didn’t think he’d stay long.
“I figured three years, six years. … I said, ‘I'll go there, I'll do that.’ I guess I eventually will move,” Brunet said. “Forty-two years I was here. Forty-two years! And I didn't want to leave when I left.”
Aucoin said the community has always been tight-knit; the same families passed down plots of land for generations.
“And everybody lived on that piece of property. You don't see that anymore. That's gone,” she said.
Not only are insurance rates high, but any new construction or rebuilds require houses to be elevated to avoid repetitive flooding, which is worsening as the Gulf of Mexico rises while Louisiana’s coast sinks and erodes.
But Saturday’s event also celebrated the area’s survival.
As their student body dwindled, the people of Chauvin had to fight Terrebonne Parish Schools to keep their last elementary school alive. They won. Though the other three schools will remain closed, Upper Little Caillou Elementary, which sustained heavy damage during Hurricane Ida in 2021, will be rebuilt with money from FEMA, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The school will look a little different, though. Aucoin said it will be half the size of the former building — and elevated.
“Some of these schools are gonna look like tree houses,” she said.
Beasley said the community has other bright spots on the horizon, including a new fishing pier and splash pad. Despite the challenges, she left the reunion with a reminder to all who attended.
“The roof may be blown away, the walls may be torn down, but the foundation will never be destroyed,” Beasley said. “Because the true foundation is the people of this area. And for that, we will always celebrate.”
