2023 festival royalty will soon bid farewell

The 88th Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival king and queen will soon give way to successors as the 89th festival approaches.
This year's festival is scheduled for Aug. 29-Sept. 2 in Morgan City.
The reigning king and queen are Joseph E. "Jody" Carinhas and Gweneth Dohmann.
Jody Carinhas, a lifelong resident of St. Mary Parish, began a career in the family shrimping and processing business during the summers as a teenager. After graduating from Central Catholic High School in 1978, he started a full-time position at the Patterson Shrimp Co., beginning in mechanics, later as a vessel engineer and marine operations manager in the business.
Carinhas transitioned into the petroleum industry, beginning a 40-year career in sales in late 1983 as a sales representative for Morgan City Rentals, serving the offshore commercial diving and construction segment of the industry.
In 1997, he moved into the drilling and exploration area of the industry, accepting a position at Oil & Gas Rental Services as inside sales and eventually moving into outside sales in 1999. In 2004, he accepted a position with Stabil Drill Specialties in Lafayette to become an outside sales representative covering the Gulf of Mexico region along with the Mid-Continent and Rocky Mountain regions as the business expanded.
The year 2006 saw a return to Morgan City Rentals as vice president of sales, where he remains under new ownership of the company and the name of Bishop Lifting Rentals.
Community involvement included coaching youth sports, Pop Warner Football, Dixie Youth Baseball, and girls softball. He served on the Morgan City Recreation girls softball board as a member and chairman. He was a board member of the St. Mary Golf and Country Club, as well as a member and chairman of the annual Lafayette Oilman’s Invitational Golf Tournament.
He is married to the former Kimbla Bossley and has two children, Kayla Carinhas Folse and Kristin Carinhas Hickman along with four grandchildren, five stepchildren and 10 step grandchildren.
Carinhas becomes the third generation of his family to serve as festival king. He follows his father, Joseph Carinhas Sr., who was king of the 1973 festival, and his grandfather John Santos Carinhas, who was king of the 1946 festival.
Gweneth Dohmann, 19, is the daughter of Joey and Sharon Dohmann of Berwick. Dohmann is a 2022 graduate of Central Catholic High School.
She is currently attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she is pursuing a degree in business finance.
At UL Lafayette, she is involved in Kappa Delta sorority and is a member of Cajun Catholics religious organization.
In her free time she enjoys baking, horseback riding, exercising and traveling.