The Friends of Black Bayou, along with countless community volunteers hosted their annual Fall Celebration Saturday.
According to its website, the Black Bayou is a 5,300-acre refuge providing a habitat for waterfowl, endangered wildlife, neo-tropical migrants and resident wildlife. It is located within the city limits of Monroe.
FoBB began hosting the Fall Celebration in 1997. The event started off as a fundraiser according to Ann Smith, the vice president of FoBB.
“We do it for the community; it’s our gift to them. Our idea originally with this was to bring the community out to see the refuge because 21 years ago it was a brand-new refuge and nobody knew about it,” Smith said.
Rutshainy Holder, a sophomore business administration major, attended the event with Circle K International as a form of community service and said she was amazed by the beauty of the refuge.
“The museums are pretty cool. They have snakes, gators and a lot more things, but not a lot of people at ULM know about this place,” Holder said.
Smith, like Holder, agrees that many university students and community members aren’t aware of the existence of the refuge or have never visited it.
“I just heard one lady say ‘I’ve never been here,’ and she lives here,” Smith said.
Saturday’s event saw a big turnout at the refuge. The majority of the attendees were families with small children while the volunteers were, for the most part, university students and professors.
Other than the various activities held by the FoBB, a 5K Trail Run was also held the morning of the event. The proceeds of the event will go towards educational outreach projects at Black Bayou.