Allan Appel Photo
Lt. Helliger with Mardi Gras-masked James Graham and Mellody Massaquoi.
Mardi Gras came early for these Lincoln-Bassett kids as they learned the “gumbo way of life.”
Their teachers were New Haven Police Lt. Patricia Helliger and Yale Police Department (YPD) Sgt. Von Narcisse, who has deep roots and, he said, about 400 relatives, in Pointe a‑la Hache in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.
Sgt. Von Narcisse.
Helliger has founded a year-old program called Building Horizons Through Cultural Divesity (BHTCD). Through it she takes 25 Lincoln-Basset fourth and fifth-graders from Adrianne Petrucci’s class on a virtual tour of the world through bringing into their classrooms police officers whose backgrounds span the globe.
Before joining the force, Helliger had a career as a flight attendant. That wanderlust as well as the importance of travel inform her program.
She said she wants the kids in a tough crime neighborhood like Lincoln-Bassett to get to know their officers. She also wants them to get to know the larger world.
So far she’s brought in officers from India, Chile, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Belarus, and South Korea. (Click here for a story on how police department’s South Korean officers showed the kids a little tae-kwon-do. And here for a story about a visit to the kids by Mumbai-born Officer Maneet Bhagtana.)
Delano Relaford (center with mask) said chicken, rice, potatoes, and Jamaican hot pepper should be in gumbo. Ronnie Washington, to his left, cautioned to add “love.”
On Thursday morning, the virtual trip was to Louisiana courtesy of Sgt. Von Narcisse, the first Yale police officer to present at an event.
Helliger said she decided to stay within the United States for this program both because it’s Black History Month and Mardi Gras is approaching.
None of the kids in the room at the YPD headquarters said they could make a distinction between uniforms or car logos between city and Yale cops. The police are the police.
The “Gumbo Way Of :ife”
Louisiana artifacts incude masks, a N.O. Saints’ bumper sticker, a “king” cake with baby Jesus doll inside, and a bag of crawfish and shrimp boil.
Using masks, foods, and carnival artifacts, Sgt. Narcisse took the kids on a cultural tour of Louisiana that ranged from the origin of the word gumbo — “kigombo: is an African word for okra — to why they say “bienvenue” (Louisiana purchased from whom?), to why the state bird is the Eastern Brown Pelican.
(Answer to that one: It’s so generous and self sacrificing, it will pluck at its own breast to feed its young.)
The high point was Narcisse’s excursus on for his favorite food, the classic gumbo, as a metaphor for life: You must start with a roux, a flour and water mixture; that is, a foundation. Be patient, work hard, put in things you value, he suggested.
Teonni Jenkins examines a decorated coconut likely used in the Zulu Parade at Mardi Gras.
Its genius, Narcisse said to the attentive kids, is that in gumbos anything works. Disparate elements harmonize.
Then he solicited ingredient suggestions from each child in the room. After the usual shrimp, sausage, and carrots were offered, Teonni Jenkins suggested “bananas.”
Ronnie Washington got the accolades of his teachers for saying not to forget to add “a touch of love.”
Sgt. Narcisse then enlarged on the metaphor: “You kids contribute to this big gumbo pot [of life] we’re all in. You’re part of it. You’re of value. Never limit yourself. Always add to the gumbo.”
Helliger said her next program is Feb. 29 when actor Charlie Grady, on the occasion of Black History Month, will take kids on a tour of African-Americans in film.
Anyone interested in helping to fund these programs, which currently Helliger and other officers subsidize from their own pockets, can reachy her at police headquarters.
