ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS EARN LOCAL MAN STATE AWARD

When his name was spoken before the crowd, Richard Trahan was so stunned he
couldn't move from his seat.

Somebody grabbed his arm, yelling "Get up! Get up!"

Trahan had been summoned to the front of a convention hall in Reno, Nev.,
where he was spending the week with his friends from the Houma Elks Lodge.

The 58-year-old Bourg resident had been voted Louisiana's top
drug-awareness chairman for his tireless work masking his face in pastel
paint, twisting balloons and journeying nearly every week to Terrebonne
Parish schools to teach youngsters the dangers of abuse.

Elks officials handed Trahan the honorary award in front of a packed crowd
of nearly 11,000 members at its annual convention last month.

Moments before, Louisiana's Elks groups had collectively received the
national award for creating some of the best anti-drug programs in the country.

The back-to-back honors, said Trahan, shook him.

"Here we are in Louisiana, in this itty-bitty hole-in-the-wall called
Houma, competing and winning against big places like Texas," he said. "I
couldn't even get out of my chair."

But he did, walking slowly down the aisle with his head held high,
representing his beloved hometown, the place where kids call him "Mr.
Richard" and sometimes "Papa the Clown."

Throughout most of his life, Trahan never would have labeled himself an
activist. He was a family man, a hard worker and kept himself busy
providing for the ones he loved.

Ten years ago, restless and suddenly living on disability income, he took a
tour through Houma, visiting police offices, schools and narcotics chiefs,
and everything suddenly looked different.

"I drove around and saw how rampant drugs were. I was shocked," he said. "I
thought I had to do something."

Trahan didn't mean to volunteer too much, too fast. He wanted to take
things slowly and give his wife Bobbie, time to adjust to his newfound passion.

But as soon as they got started, the couple found they couldn't let go.

"We just got into it head over heels. We volunteered more and more and
more, and then we couldn't stop," he said. "We were just trying to make a
difference in one child's life."

Over time, Trahan developed a motto: "Youth is temporary; but stupidity is
forever."

Kids seemed to understand.

Last year, the Trahans distributed 10,000 pieces of Elks literature on
resisting drugs in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. They worked in
elementary schools, with Trahan dressing as a clown and calling himself the
"balloon artist," giving kids coloring books and messages to just say no.

In high schools, the duo spoke about how drugs ruin the sharpest minds.

At meetings with Red Ribbon committees, juvenile judges, mothers, narcotics
workers and sheriff's deputies, Trahan educated himself on the intricate,
underground world of drugs, a dark place where innocent experiments can
quickly become lifelong addictions.

Trahan spends six months each year voluntarily promoting the Elks'
anti-drug program, which encourages youths to make healthy choices by
keeping them informed of the alternative's consequences.

Every other month, Trahan fills his days with another volunteer job
overseeing south Louisiana's seven-parish Elks district.

Despite an injured back - he's had 28 surgeries since a 1982 injury
involving a tugboat - and chronic pain, Trahan shows no signs of slowing.

The enormous task of saving kids, he says, is a constant inspiration.

"Some days I hurt so bad I can hardly get out of bed, but then I think
about those kids, and that gets me pumping," he said.