By Geoff Belcher

General Manager, Sea Coast Echo

The Hancock County Tourism Bureau and Alice Moseley Folk Art Museum have teamed up with Mississippi Heroes to host a memorial celebration for Lt. Michael Boutte and Cayce Seal this Saturday, April 23 at Commagere Park in Bay St. Louis.

The Mississippi Heroes Celebration, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., will feature an antique car show; live music by Joni Compretta & Baytown Groove, Monsters at Large, the Glory Rhodes Band and the St. Rose Gospel Choir; a Pastalaya/Jambalaya Cookoff sponsored by Champion Dodge; and a superhero 5K race. It will also include exhibitors, vendors and a kids’ area. Race registration begins at 8 a.m.

“It’s always been my goal and my dream and my wish that maybe one day we could re-institute Bridge Fest,” Alice Moseley Museum Executive Director Lonnie Falgout said. “That was the greatest show in Bay St. Louis. With the BP-funded renovations going on at the Depot District and all the work getting done, this would be the ideal setting, so we’ve put together something special at Commagere Park.

“With the unfortunate deaths of some people across the Coast and the COVID-19 pandemic, we came up with the caregivers celebration. It’s going to be honoring first-responders, like Michael Boutte and Cayce Seal, who tragically lost their lives, but it’s also going to honor caregivers and first-responders who are out there every day helping us all. They’re the heroes. Police, fire-rescue, ambulance workers, lineman like Cayce, doctors and nurses and everybody else who puts themselves out there for us every day.”

Falgout said he and Hancock Tourism Bureau Myrna Green got together with the Mississippi Heroes foundation and the Mississippi Tourism Bureau in Jackson to make the festival happen.

“We’re going to do this first festival and it’s going to be an all day thing,” Falgout said. “We’re kicking it off with a 5K race, and the runners are going to be dressed as superheroes. Hopefully we won’t have to, but each year, if we lose a first-responder, we’ll add their name to it.

“This is going to be a big event.”

Falgout said Champion Dodge and Hollywood Casino have also stepped up to help sponsor the event.

For more information, contact Katherine Sutton at Mississippi Heroes@gmail.com; The Alice Moseley museum at alicemoseley@gmial.com; or Lonnie Falgout at ljsrinms@yahoo.com. For car show information, contact Terry at aspenac9771@aol.com.