Bid on the Basin

Hand-built the old-fashioned way from old-growth sinker cypress, a classic Cajun pirogue is being auctioned over the internet to raise funds for the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, watchdog for Louisiana’s great natural treasure.
The auction started Sunday, Jan. 25, and will run until 2 p.m. Sunday, March 1.
This traditional 14-foot pirogue was designed and built Faren Serrette of Cecilia especially for the Basinkeeper fund-raiser.
Serrette is donating the boat, so 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale go to the operations of Basinkeeper, is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the ecosystems within the Atchafalaya Basin.
Basinkeeper Basinkeeper Executive Director Dean Wilson is part of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an advocacy organization consisting of over 200 grassroots programs dedicated to preserving and protecting natural waterways from polluters.
The Serrette pirogue was unveiled Sunday at a fund-raiser at Artmosphere in Lafayette, with an impressive lineup of musicians like Drew Landry, Sweet Cecilia and Yvette Landry chipping in to draw a crowd. Area artists also helped with items for a silent auction.
Serrette, a fourth-generation traditional Louisiana boat-builder, is a master boat-builder at Vermilionville and received a fellowship award from Louisiana State Division of the Arts.
The cypress used in this boat came from a tree originally cut with axes over 150 years ago but lost when it sank to the bottom of the swamp. It was retrieved in 2007 by nature photographer and author Greg Guirard, who milled the log on a bandsaw mill at Lake Dauterive.
Email bids to basinkeeper@gmail.com.
The latest bids will be listed on the Basinkeeper’s Facebook page.
Good luck!