'A well-rounded kid': Northwood High student honored in Young Heroes group by LPB

LENA — Jody White confesses she's a Louisiana Public Broadcasting nerd, and it was while looking at LPB's social media that she learned about its Young Heroes program.

She immediately knew she had one roaming the halls of Northwood High School.

“It really sounded like I had written that program for her. She was the very first person I thought of," White said of rising senior Morgan Daigle, 17.

So White and teacher Kaitlyn Joffrion scrambled for three days to pull everything together needed to nominate Daigle. They did everything except tell Daigle.

"We both knew," Joffrion said about how she and White were convinced Daigle fit LPB's description of a Young Hero, a program that's been around since 1996.

Turns out, the educators were right.

Daigle recently was named one of seven Young Heroes by the public broadcaster. She was honored with the group April 28-29 in Baton Rouge. She's the only student from outside South Louisiana to be honored.

The inspiration for helping others

According to LPB, the program "celebrates exceptional young people who have excelled in academics, given significantly of themselves through public service, overcome personal adversity, exhibited extraordinary heroism or inspired others through their deeds and strength of character to become better students, persons and citizens."

Daigle always has volunteered her time to serve others, something she learned from her late mother, Melissa "Nikki" Daigle. From her, Daigle and her two siblings learned by watching as their mother volunteered at Northwood and elsewhere.

"My mom, she taught us from a very young age as we grew up just to help others in any way," she said.

One of her favorite memories is supplying popsicles to drivers who were logging on property behind their home on the Clifton Choctaw Reservation in the Lena area. Her mother had sent her out with her older brother and sister, and she said things like that were the norm as she grew up.

"We were brought up to help others in any way that you could, no matter what," she said. "To put others before yourself, and that’s just what I love to do."

Her mom was diagnosed with late-stage cancer in July 2022 and died on Jan. 4, 2023. She was 46.

"Facing adversity is something big," Daigle said. "Either you take it and let it break you, or you take it and you build from it."

She said she decided to grow from the experience. Anything else would have been a betrayal of what her mother had taught her, and she described it as letting her mother live through her.

"I feel like she’s right here with me everywhere I go," she said.

'Comes by it honestly'

White has been vice principal at Northwood for about three years. She met both Daigle and her mother within her first week. First she met Daigle and, when she met her mother, it clicked for her where the younger woman had gotten her personality and drive to help.

"She comes by it honestly," White said.

Sitting at her desk, White spoke about writing the letter for Daigle's Young Heroes submission. She writes a lot of recommendation letters and usually has to stop and think about how to put them together.

But not this time. She said she made herself stop after starting a second page.

She wasn't surprised Daigle was selected, saying she was thrilled because the program doesn't focus on just academics or community service when considering candidates to honor.

"This one really is about a well-rounded kid. A kid who is involved, who models change they want to see," White said. "Who handles their business academically, but is also just a model of a good person for someone to follow.

"And I think if we had students who did an eighth of what she puts into community, our school, then this entire area would be a much better place."

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Joffrion teaches English II and IV at the school, as well as being the speech-and-debate coach. She's the coordinator for Northwood's YVC program, which is sponsored by The Rapides Foundation, and has taught Daigle and her siblings for years now.

She realizes she has Daigle for one more year, though.

"Yep, and after that, I don’t know what I’m gonna do," she said. "I’ve taught her or her siblings every year I’ve been a teacher."

Last year, Joffrion and another teacher brainstormed ideas for a YVC project, one that ended up being cited in Daigle's Young Heroes biography. Joffrion said they put a lot of thought into their projects because they want to keep it local, but that can be more difficult since the school is in a rural area.

So they decided to supply chemo bags, items that cancer patients could find useful as they undergo treatment — blankets, beanies, crossword puzzles, personal care items and more. The bags were decorated with angel wings and Melissa Daigle's name.

To get the items for the bags, a flyer was posted on social media. An Amazon wish list was created so people could buy and have the items shipped directly to the school, Joffrion said.

The drive collected enough to pack at least 100 bags in 2023 and again this year for the Christus St. Frances Cabrini Cancer Center. They also were able to give more boxes of items that staff can use for patients as needed.

After the first year's success, the drive became an annual event. It takes about a month to gather everything for the drive, and Daigle said people acted after seeing their flyer, "just basically, poured in their love."

It helps that she has such a large family on her mother's side, too.

"I have so many cousins at this school. It’s crazy," she said, estimating she had six cousins to a grade at the school.

Daigle called her mother a "phenomenal" person and said she loves talking about her. Her mom helped out anywhere and spent years at Northwood coaching her and others in archery.

"She taught us everything about volunteering. It was not like her teaching it to us, it was just more in her nature," she said.

She also taught her children to just be themselves, Daigle said. Her older sister now is a paraprofessional at Northwood, and her brother is serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed in Japan.

"You know the saying, don’t fit in when you were born to stand out? She preached that to us," she said. "Be yourself. Be nice. Be kind to others. Do what you were born to do, basically. You don’t have to be everybody else. It’s OK to help others. That’s just how she was."

Serving at home and school

Daigle now lives with her father and sister on Clifton Choctaw land, which she calls "a small, little community. It's awesome."

She knew about her Native American heritage from the time she was young but hasn't always lived here. She was born in Thibodaux, and the family moved when she was a toddler after their home was flooded twice.

It was her sister who tricked her into learning she'd been named a Young Hero. She told Daigle she needed her to watch a LPB program so she could record her reaction to it.

Daigle didn't suspect anything. In fact, as the program went on longer, she became a bit impatient because her Raising Cane's chicken — which she loves — was getting cold.

But then, there was the announcement.

"It blew my mind," she said. "I was in awe. It was very shocking."

In announcing the Young Heroes, LPB issued biographies of the seven that shared why they were chosen. For Daigle, hers mentions the chemo bag drive and also how she volunteers in events like cleanups around her community, particularly the cemetery.

She's also a member of the Youth Volunteer Corps that was started this year in her community, and she leads the group at Northwood.

She said the cemetery cleanup was a job they believed needed to be done, so a group of 12 set out to do it. They cut down trees, raked leaves and cleaned tombstones. They provided refreshments for the elders who turned out to watch them.

She also works at the community center through a grant that lets her do office and outdoor jobs, as well as keeping up with the community and learning life skills. She talked about a Back to School event she and other organized two years ago, calling it "amazing."

Before attending the ceremony, Daigle said she was interested in learning about her fellow Heroes, their challenges and how they overcame them.

The group started Monday with a breakfast, receiving a certificate of commendation from East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome. Then it was off on a tour of the LBP station, where they were showered with gifts like an Apple MacBook Air.

The day continued with a LSU football tour, where they got to hear from coaches and players. Lunch at the Governor's Mansion was next, followed by a recognition on the House floor at the State Capitol and photos on the observation deck.

What's next after high school?

Daigle said she loves seeing others happy. She plans to continue that through her senior year. But after that? She hasn't decided.

"There’s so many options. That’s the problem," she said. "I want to do it all, help everybody. But I have not figured that out yet."

No doubt what she learned from her mother will guide her, though. Daigle said it was important to her that all her kids graduate because she never did.

Her class recently held its ring ceremony as they prepare to step into their last year of high school. Daigle already wears a lot of rings, so she decided to get a bracelet. It's adorned with her birthstone and her mother's.

Inscribed on the inside is a simple message: "Mom, I did it."

"She went through a lot in her lifetime," said Daigle. "She never stopped helping others, so that just gives me even more of a reason to do that, too."

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Northwood student Morgan Daigle among 7 Young Heroes honored by LPB