That was in August of 1960. Since then, thousands upon thousands of people — young and old — have spent nights and weekends at Holiday Lanes in Bossier City. This summer, the venerable, family-owned bowling alley will celebrate 61 years of providing fun for generations of families.

And now it is magnified by a coronavirus, the cause of a worldwide pandemic. A steady influx of patients arrives for treatment. Staff in the emergency department often feel overwhelmed. They are taxed physically and mentally. Assessing and treating patients takes more time because there is a process for nurses to protect themselves.

“We wanted to have a presence in Bossier City for a while, but the timing was never right,” said Debbie W. Smith, chief executive officer for Highland Clinic. “We needed to have a presence in that part of the community to better serve Bossier City, Benton, Haughton and Minden.

“My paintings don’t come from me – they come through me,” Couch, a Tibetan Buddhist, said. “The way I work is that I open myself up to the environment and the emotions I have. It’s just like breathing. You are breathing in the environment. That’s reflected in my interpretation of what that feeling is about.

“We don’t curl up in a ball and cry about the situation,” said the executive director of Prize Foundation, which oversees Prize Fest. “We make lemons into lemonade. We immediately started to do that. There was never a consideration – ever – that we would be skipping a year.