Past Lake Charles CCA President Brett Wicke Bordelon, who was recently awarded the Supriya Jindal Foundation for Louisiana’s Children First Lady Award, has also won the foundation’s 2011 grand prize.

Throughout the year, the foundation awarded deserving individuals who have made a positive impact in the lives of Louisiana’s youth. At the end of the year, a grand prize winner was drawn at random from the pool of winners throughout the year.

As the grand prize winner, Bordelon will receive a four-day cruise for two compliments of Carnival Cruise Lines.

“She does a wonderful job of encouraging children and their families to participate in the incredible outdoor recreation Louisiana has to offer,” Jindal said. “In addition to working with our state’s youth, Brett also spearheads various clean-up programs to preserve our marshes and bayous and also organizes one of the largest one-day fishing tournaments in Louisiana.

“It was a joy to discover that the grand prize would be going to someone as humble and deserving as Brett. Her exceptional leadership, as well as her desire to encourage children and the adults in their lives to spend more time together exploring Louisiana’s beauty truly make her deserving of this award.”

As an avid outdoorsman and dedicated volunteer of the CCA Louisiana, Bordelon enjoys sharing her love of Louisiana’s landscape with others, particularly the youth of Louisiana. She worked to form a partnership between CCA and local 4-H clubs in the Lake Charles area.

Bordelon recruited volunteers to dedicate their time to teach children how to identify various fish species and how to cast a line properly, while also educating them about fish tagging and research and about conserving our coastal marine resources. This model program has now been successfully expanded to other regions of the state.

Aside from her tremendous success with the 4H clubs, Bordelon has also overseen CCA Lake Charles’ annual Trout Shootout, a fishing tournament that attracts more than a hundred children every year.

Bordelon works as Coordinator of Leadership Development for the Education and Leadership Development Department for LHC Group, and served as president of the Lake Charles chapter of the CCA in 2010 and 2011.

CCA Louisiana Executive Director David Cresson said Bordelon has helped grow the conservation organization over the past two years and has had a significant impact on local children.

“Brett leads our Lake Charles chapter, one the largest and most active chapters in the country,” Cresson said. “She deserves all the recognition she gets – and her cruise vacation is definitely well earned.”