Hurricanes (the cold kind) are Kiwanis Club tradition

(Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series about the origin and work of service organizations in St. Mary Parish. We start with the East St. Mary Kiwanis Club, which submitted this story.)
In 1989, the Kiwanis Club was given the opportunity to operate the only hard alcohol booth for the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival by the Board of Directors.
We first were located on the corner of First Street and Greenwood until around 2005. In the beginning we made the beverage using Pat O’Brian’s powdered Hurricane mix, water and run to our modified recipe in 40 5-gallon jugs, equaling 200 gallons.
The legal drinking age was 18 until 1995, when it changed to 21.
In 1992, due to Hurricane Andrew, the festival was canceled. The city was friendly with Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish, who put on a small festival to assist the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival organization with some funding toward the next festival in 1993.
The Kiwanis Club Board of Directors decided to add the Hurricane Booth to Sheriff Lee’s festival, so we made some 100 gallons of Hurricanes, loaded them into a U-Haul and set up at the little fair.
Sales were a lot slower than at our local festival. However, we had some great promoters join us. One was Steven Seagal! He came and joined us in our booth in selling our beverage. We sold the small batch of Hurricanes over the weekend in 1992.
At first, we wore our regular Kiwanis shirts for several years. However, as the club membership grew and with sales growing, we started making special “Hurricane Shirts” to promote our club and attract new members.
Each year was a new design for the shirt, and it was modified in later years to add our new drinks, Margaritas and the Tropical Storm!
Sometime in the mid-1990s, we changed from making the Hurricane mix from the powder and storing it in 5-gallon jugs to using a pumping system from 55-gallon drums, as our motto was to be faster than the line of customers!
We kept discussing with the festival board to move from Greenwood Street, where the Street Fair was located and where children were mostly, to Lawrence Park, where the bands entertained adults. They finally agreed sometime around 2005.
When we moved from the first location to Lawarence Park, we incorporated using 250-gallong totes to replace the 55-gallon drums.
Sometime after 2010, we started selling Margaritas with the Hurricanes, and shortly thereafter we added a drink called the Tropical Storm!
The funds that the booth earned are used to aid the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival organization as well as being used for projects such as scholarships awarded to Key Club member at all our area high schools – Patterson, Berwick, Morgan City High and Central Catholic – as well as other projects the club supports.
They include the annual Kids Fishing Rodeo, assisting the Key clubs, the food bank, bingo at the area elderly health facilities, and many other organizations and projects that our club supports locally, regionally and with the national Kiwanis organization in national and international projects.
The club currently has 87 members, among them Secretary Debbie Stevens, who is also lieutenant governor of Division 17 of the Louisiana-Mississippi-West Tennessee District.
Annual fundraisers:
--Kiwanis Trivia Night each year in March. About 600 people attend.
--Porchfest in Lawrence Park in April, although the event was postponed in 2024 and 2025.
--Hurricane Drink Booth at the Shrimp & Petroleum Festival each Labor Day weekend.
--Wild Game Dinner in late September. About 1,200 tickets are sold.
Annual projects:
--Kids Fishing Rodeo in May at Lake End Park, totally free for the kids. About 300 usually participate.
--Sponsoring Terrific Kids and BUGS (Bring Up Grades) at all local elementary schools.
--Sponsoring four local Key Clubs at Morgan City High, Central Catholic, Berwick High and Morgan City High.
--Scholarships for Key Club members at the four local high schools.
--School “closets” at elementary and junior high schools with uniforms, belts, shoes, underwear, socks, etc., for days when a teacher feels a student may need something.
--Recognizing all teachers at Amelia, Morgan City, Berwick and Patterson schools during Teacher Appreciation Week by sending a food tray to each school.
--Rotating bingo games at Patterson and Morgan City nursing homes and Maison Jardin, usually on the third Thursday of each month.
--A birthday cake for each of the nursing homes and Maison Jardin for their monthly resident birthday parties.
--For the last two years, the mobile snowball stand is sent to each nursing home and Maison Jardin. We hope to continue this event.
--Annual donations to all 17 schools from the success of the annual Trivia Night.