NEW ROADS — A Former Globetrotter and UPS driver in Pointe Coupee has spent more than two decades delivering packages and building programs to help people in the parish.

People in New Roads know James Joseph as Big Brown.

"His physical presence is as big as his heart," Shadice Free, a pharmacy technician, said. "Everyone knows him, and he knows everyone."

Joseph has delivered packages in Pointe Coupee Parish for more than two decades. A few years into his route, he recalled seeing an elderly woman outside while her children were on the floor inside.

"I noticed an elderly lady outside and her kids were in the floor. I said right then and there, I have to do something," James Joseph said.

He bought an AC unit for the family. He then reached out to a council agency in Pointe Coupee with an idea to collect fans to give to elderly people in the parish who needed one.

Becky Bergeron was all in. "We took our Meals on Wheels vehicle, purchased fans, then started distributing them to people," Joseph said.

Joseph called it the "Beat the Heat" program and launched it as an annual event after it proved successful. He later gave away heaters in the winter in Pointe Coupee, provided school supplies for children and added food drives.

Joseph says he is following the legacy of his mother and his uncle by reaching back to lift others.

Fun fact: He played for the Harlem Globetrotters for 2 years right after graduating from college.