The West Feliciana Parish Retired Teachers Association demonstrated their love, encouragement and support to the faculty and staff of Bains Elementary School on April 17 by hosting a luncheon in their honor, a news release said.

Each year, the group selects a different school in the parish to recognize and serve during Teachers' Appreciation Week, and Bains Elementary was chosen as the 2018 recipient.

Although National Teachers' Appreciation Week is celebrated the second week in May and National Teachers' Appreciation Day is celebrated on May 8 this year, West Feliciana chose to celebrate and honor it teachers the entire week of April 16-20 to accommodate Spring Testing.

The teachers association, a community support group, served them lunch that was prepared by and purchased from Audubon Food Market. As a special touch to the occasion, some of the retirees prepared homemade baked goods for the occasion, the release said.

Principal Jodi Lemoine praised the retirees for their thoughtfulness, generosity and sweet spirit.

President Debera Seals said, "School employees are a unique group of people in our parish and, they should be recognized more often than one week or one day out of the year. After all, they are the ones who educate, feed and attend to the needs of our children on a daily basis. The (teachers association) commend them and salute them for a job, well done."