Catfish Festival Supports New Library

WASHINGTON, LA, March 18, 2005 At this weekends annual Town of Washington Catfish Festival, sponsored by the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living (TFL), the Town of Washington, Louisiana’s third oldest settlement, will dedicate the building that will contain the towns first ever public library, The Washington Municipal Public Library.
The dedication ceremony will be held Saturday, March 19th at 9:00 am at the site of the new library, 518 N. Main St.

During the dedication ceremony, The Town of Washingtons Mayor, Joseph A. Pitre and members of the librarys board will unveil a plaque honoring the father of a local physician making the property available for the library. The ceremony will also highlight the presentation of a $7,000 check from the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living as a part of the Campaigns statewide efforts to replace event sponsorship funds from tobacco companies targeting youth. All proceeds from the catfish festival go to the Municipal Public Library Renovation Fund.
Mayor Joseph A. Pitre says, The library will be a key component for the upward mobility of Washingtons citizens and it will especially allow children to expand their intellectual capabilities and education.
Moriba Karamoko, TFLs regional coordinator for the Washington area says, Our goal is to help the children of Washington educate themselves about the dangers of tobacco and secondhand smoke. The new library is a symbol of that goal; after all, its much smarter and healthier to get hooked on books. The new library will be a smoke-free building.

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living provides statewide coordination of existing tobacco control initiatives, funds innovative community programming for tobacco control, and develops statewide media campaigns to help reduce the excessive burden of tobacco use on the states resources and improve Louisianas overall health and quality of life.