Pitre wins PrideStaff’s award

PrideStaff, a national, franchised staffing organization, has named Lake Charles Senior Staffing Consultant Rachelle Pitre a winner of the DNA Award. The award recognizes the team members who best exemplify what it means to be part of the PrideStaff system, by consistently embodying the organization’s mission and core values.

Part of the PrideStaff Lake Charles team from the day they opened their doors in 2018, Pitre quickly became an integral part of the office’s early success. In 2020, she proved to be an invaluable asset, helping the Pride-Staff office survive despite the challenges created by two catastrophic hurricanes and a global pandemic that brought the gears of Lake Charles’ economy to a grinding halt.

PrideStaff Co-CEO Tammi Heaton said Pitre lived the organization’s core values last year by training new hires on culture and operations, generating multiple new accounts, nurturing existing client relationships, ensuring all employees were paid on time, and helping her office hit new sales records for several consecutive weeks.”

“Perhaps most impressively, Rachelle accomplished all of this during a global pandemic and after two catastrophic hurricanes. She worked from home — without internet for three months — while caring for relatives in the aftermath of both storms,” Heaton said.

Guillory to serve on NASN task force

Danielle Guillory, associate professor of nursing at McNeese State University, has been selected to serve a two-year term on a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force for the National Association of School Nurses.

Guillory’s appointment comes after approaching the NASN president about growing a diverse membership in the organization.

“I attended the national conference in 2019 and afterwards contacted our president about what I could do with the national officers to increase the visibility of minority groups in our organization,” Guillory said.

The goal of the task force is to implement governance at the national level that will inspire action at the state level and will ultimately enhance the diversity and success of the NASN.

Before joining the faculty in McNeese’s College of Nursing and Health Professions, Guillory had a 13-year career as a school nurse with the Calcasieu Parish School Board.

BECi recognizes local teachers

DERIDDER — Beauregard Electric Cooperative Inc.’s new mini-grant program is one of many programs BECi offers to encourage and facilitate the continued education of local students.

Six $500 grants were given to educators who teach at a school within BECi’s service area or whose students live in homes served by BECi. Winning applications were chosen based on creativity, feasibility of the project and the need and benefit of the students.

Winners of the $500 mini-grants are: Melissa Simmons, sixth-grade teacher at Glenmora High School; Meagan Burnett, third-grade teacher at Oberlin Elementary School; Kristen Ardoin, special education teacher at Gillis Elementary School; Dawn Tesam, music teacher at Pickering Elementary School; Tessa Martin, fifth-grade math teacher at South Beauregard Upper Elementary; and Patricia Trejo, high school English teacher at Sulphur High School.

Cameron LNG gets safety award

Cameron LNG received the Perfect Record Award from the National Safety Council in recognition of the more than 89 million hours worked without a lost-time incident during construction and transition to operations.

This is a world-class achievement by industry standards.

The National Safety Council is America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate. As a mission-based organization, it works to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing efforts on the workplace, roadway and impairment.

Hackberry Rural Health Clinic open

SULPHUR —West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital has reopened the Hackberry Rural Health Clinic in Hackberry.

The Hackberry Rural Health Clinic has been operating out of a temporary facility as a result of damages sustained to the main building during Hurricanes Laura and Delta.

The clinic is located at 1020 Main St. in Hackberry. The office is open: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; 8 a.m.-noon on Wednesdays; and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. on Fridays. To schedule an appointment or for more information, call 762-3762.

Local Century 21 offices recognized

MADISON, N.J. — In recognition of their outstanding sales production and commitment to quality service, Century 21 Real Estate recently honored two local Century 21 offices with the 2020 Century 21 President’s Award. The annual award is bestowed upon those independent Century 21 offices that earn the Centurion Award and the Quality Service Pinnacle award in the same calendar year.

The local Century 21 offices recognized are Bessette Realty Inc., 3025 Lake St., and Bono Realty, 4410 Nelson Road.

The Centurion Award is presented to Century 21 offices that achieve or surpass sales production of $2,520,000 or 445 closed transaction sides within a calendar year.

The Century 21 Quality Service Pinnacle Award is presented to those independent offices that receive satisfaction surveys for at least 50 percent of their consumers surveyed from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, with a survey score of 95 percent or better for two consecutive years.

Northrop Grumman receives DRI award

Northrop Grumman recently received the Disaster Recovery Institute International’s Award for Excellence in the category of Response and Recovery of the Year.

Northrop Grumman’s enterprise business resiliency and Lake Charles crisis management teams were recognized for their preparation and response to back-to-back hurricanes, optimizing employee safety and minimizing business disruption.

Northrop Grumman’s Aircraft Maintenance and Fabrication Center in Lake Charles was directly impacted by Hurricane Laura in late August 2020 and Hurricane Delta in early October 2020. Both hurricanes caused widespread power outages and flooding, which created extensive debris fields.

DRI’s Response and Recovery of the Year award recognizes that “the ability to recover from a disaster — whether it was a hardware/software failure, a product recall, a natural disaster, or some other catastrophic event — is the foundation on which business continuity is built. This award recognizes those who have successfully bounced back from a major incident using their plans, skills, and creativity.”