H. Norman Saurage III

Service Award Winners

KeN BROWN

lake Charles, la

The H. Norman Saurage III Service Award was created in 2015 by Dream Teachers to honor the late CEO of Community Coffee Company for his unwavering commitment to education and his tireless efforts to recognize educators. Every winner of the award has demonstrated extraordinary achievement in either a single, major event or has had significant impact on their community over time.

Ken Brown is a teacher in Lake Charles, Louisiana. After losing multiple students to suicide in 2014, Ken co-founded the Peer Initiative – Leaders of Tomorrow program. This peer support program has been extremely successful at saving teen lives. In 2016 it was one of 80 programs nationwide out of 800 applicants to receive a $50,000 State Farm Youth Advisory Board Award. Ken’s work with suicide prevention evolved to his serving as Public Policy Chair and on the Board of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Board for Suicide Prevention. In 2020 Ken received national recognition as AFSP’s National Advocate of the Year.  In 2021 Ken was one of nine Louisianians to receive the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation’s Angel award.  Ken currently serves as President and CEO of the Peer Initiative non-profit, where he travels state-wide delivering suicide awareness training and works to spread the Peer Initiative suicide prevention program to high schools across the state. 

               “There is a stigma associated with suicide.  And especially with teen suicide.  It is uncomfortable to talk about.  It’s easy to talk about literacy, saving the environment, child hunger, bullying…everyone will readily support those issues.  But people avoid talking about suicide.  And a problem that is not talked about can’t be solved.  That’s why this nomination for the H. Norman Saurage III Service Award is so important.  It elevates this issue to a statewide platform and ensures that light will be shined on it.  And people will talk about it.  This Award could literally save lives by helping teachers and students have a conversation about teen suicide.  Showing students that it’s okay to ask for help.  And perhaps most importantly, showing teachers and schools how to give that help.”

The H. Norman Saurage III Service Award was created in 2015 by Dream Teachers to honor the late CEO of Community Coffee Company for his unwavering commitment to education and his tireless efforts to recognize educators. Every winner of the award has demonstrated extraordinary achievement in either a single, major event or has had significant impact on their community over time. Kelly is an exceptional example of the latter.

“Throughout my professional career, volunteering has been and is my favorite service-oriented activity outside of the classroom. I was introduced to volunteering through a friend and former co-worker, Chris Dardar, in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, who asked me to help with a booth for Festival International de Louisiane. This past year was my seventeenth year to do so. That festival was a catalyst for my enthusiasm and passion for volunteering today. In 2012, former Governor Bobby Jindal cut CODOFIL’s budget by $100,000. I, along with other supporters, helped to raise $90,000 to offset that budget cut through a grassroots effort and benefit concert/food sale, Lâche Pas, in which I helped to make a plethora of fried shrimp poboys. A shooting tragedy at our local theater back in 2015, claiming the life of a local business woman/acquaintance, Jillian Johnson, further drove me to do more than just help with a booth. Her motto was “Do Good Work”. It propelled me to step up and do more than just show up. I have been the volunteer coordinator for Festivals Acadiens et Creoles since 2015. In 2019, our local Rotary club donated to French Immersion and for the first time, I realized I had not been active in the district in which I reside. I helped to create and joined the Rotary Satellite Club of Vermilion After Hours Club, helping others to give back to our parish and world during hours which suit our work schedules. In the 2021-2022 year, I served as treasurer. Related to school and outside of school hours, I have been a judge and served as co-chair for my school’s 4-H Club at two different schools, Eaton Park Elementary and recently, LeBlanc Elementary, where our students placed third in the district in 2019  for Outstanding 4-H Club, their first time ever. I am currently co- chairperson of membership with Louisiana Parents for French Immersion, a group which promotes and lobbies to improve French Immersion for the state of Louisiana. I have also had the pleasure and opportunity to promote French Immersion with my students walking in the Omelette Festival Parade in Abbeville, Louisiana. Previously, the organization has bused students in from Lafayette Parish to perform in French.  In everything I do and have done, my goal has been to get French Immersion started and thriving in our school district. Since this achievement, I use every opportunity and platform that I have to promote our school culture and French Immersion. Our students have been invited to perform at festivals and for local service-oriented groups. The Abbeville Woman’s Club and Abbeville Rotary Clubs have come to our school to participate in activities with our immersion students. Within the last few years, our school took on successfully launching two initiatives: French Immersion and Leader in Me. Our Leader in Me Culture and Leadership Day invited dignitaries and community members from around the state and nearby towns to come to our school and be immersed in our school culture; to witness and be a part of not only students taking leadership roles but also students outside of immersion being a part of the French culture through art and music.”

Kristin A. Robair

Broadmoor High School,

East Baton Rouge Parish Schools

Kristin Robair was named by Dream Teachers as the 2019 H. Norman Saurage III Service Award winner on July 19th at the 13th Annual Cecil J. Picard Educator Excellence Awards in Baton Rouge. Pictured with Ms. Robair are three finalists; Kelly Paquin, Prairie Primary School, Ascension Parish; Casey McMann, Belle Chasse High School, Plaquemines Parish; and Mark Ebarb, Dutchtown High School, Ascension Parish. Three Saurage family members, Donna Saurage, Matt Saurage, and Hank Saurage presented the award created in honor of the late CEO of Community Coffee Company.

Ms. Robair teaches English, History, and Mass Communications at Broadmoor High School. She is the 2019-2020 East Baton Rouge Parish Middle School Teacher of the Year, and was Broadmoor Middle School’s Teacher of the Year in 2018.

Kristin’s “community” extends into five parishes where she is engaged in projects aligned wth education, nutrition, fitness, and political awareness. She volunteers and/or spearheads projects in East Baton Rouge, Orleans, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington parishes. Her volunteerism is as diverse as it is prolific. To broadly summarize, she is engaged in charitable walks and 5K runs that benefit different causes; she participates in clean-up and beautification projects in all 5 parishes; she is engaged in fund raising for school athletics and feeding the homeless; she assists with the American Heart Association Luncheon; creates awareness of domestic violence through the Purple Box Project; hosts ACT Prep Workshops and mentors students for testing; she is engaged in Read Across America; and she assists with Voter Registration drives in multiple parishes. Ms. Robair selected City Year as her charitable cause.

Dream Teachers Calls for Nominations!

About The award

In honor of the late Norman Saurage, longtime Chairman of the Board for Community Coffee, Dream Teachers will recognize a Louisiana teacher for outstanding service to the community. Both the Saurage family and the Community Coffee Company have been  active advocates for public education in Louisiana for more than 40 years.

The H. Norman Saurage III Service Award will go to a Louisiana public school teacher who has demonstrated not only outstanding instructional skills, but has made an exceptional personal contribution outside of the classroom to student enrichment, professional leadership, or community service.  The award can recognize the achievement of a single outstanding event, or continuous dedicated service over a period of time.

Activities may include:

• After-school tutoring

• Coordinating charity events or fundraising events

• Represents the school at community events

• Organizes and or leads school clubs

• Performs professional development programs

• Demonstrates leadership in professional organizations

• Serves on non-profit board

• Volunteers with charitable or non-profit organizations

• Volunteers during the summer

• Does home visits or other out-of-school initiatives

• Initiated new programs or special events

• Serving as an inspiration to others
  
  

The Award

The award recipient will be recognized at the 18th Annual Cecil J. Picard Educator Excellence Awards on July 27, 2024.  The recipient will receive a cash award, and a portion of the cash prize will be dedicated to helping support their continued extracurricular activity.