Retaining its community roots

As the Ville Platte Rotary Club led off its final meeting of February, the club members voted to approve the new board members for next year.
They are as follows: Richard LeJeune, President; Nicole Wingert, President-Elect; Maggie Ortego, Vice-President; Vic Slaven, Treasurer; Susan Saunders, Secretary; Jerry Veillon, Sergeant-at-Arms; Wayne Vidrine, Past President; and Annette Johnson, Larry Lachney, Peter Strawitz, and Joey Soileau as board members.
The club also heard from the CEO and President of Community Foundation of Acadiana Raymond Hebert, who was the guest of Rotarian Anita Fontenot. Hebert called his organization exciting and said, “It can have a long-term impact on your community and the non-profits that you support.”
According to Hebert, Community Foundation of Acadiana operates in the eight parishes of Acadiana and “is in the business of growing and enhancing philanthropy.” He added, “Our core purpose is to build legacies and improve communities by connecting generous people to the causes they care about.”
The organizations achieves its purpose by doing three things. As Hebert stated, “We provide services, we provide and engage in civic leadership activities, and, primarily, we are a steward of dollars.”
Hebert then informed the Rotary Club about an upcoming event on May 10. He called it “our first South Louisiana Giving Day, where non-profits, churches, and schools that want to participate can sign up and register” He continued, “That’s easy enough, but the real magic happens when donors will commit a match or a challenge.”
The president of Community Foundation of Acadiana, and St. Martinville native, also informed the Rotary Club about an opportunity of a parish affiliate here at home.
“In 2007, we had a group of young professionals from New Iberia that came to us and wanted to create something like a community foundation for Iberia Parish exclusively,” said Hebert. “They gave us $100.00, and, from that $100.00, we now have roughly $10 million that donors have contributed into funds that they direct. They had a huge success in Iberia Parish essentially growing philanthropy in Iberia Parish for Iberia Parish.”
Because of those successes, according to Hebert, several other parish affiliates have been created including the Evangeline Parish Foundation that was established last year. Hebert said, “The purpose of it is for local folks who are working diligently to grow and enhance philanthropy throughout Evangeline Parish to benefit Evangeline Parish.”
A week later, Gilbert “Winky” Aucoin and his wife “Chicken” were guests of the Rotary Club. Aucoin, who is the president of Prairie Heritage, Inc., took the time to update the Rotarians on the upcoming Folk Roots Festival that is set for April 20 -27 at Chicot State Park.
“Folk Roots was at Chicot State Park for 10 years and put on a cultural immersion event,” he stated. “For some reason, it went to Lafayette, and, for some reason, it didn’t work out. But, I know the reason. It’s because you weren’t there. Evangeline Parish was not there, and Ville Platte was not there. They weren’t at Chicot Park in a cocoon surrounded by beautiful people cooking frogs and squirrels. So, they’re back.”
He continued, “We’re promoting the culture, promoting tourism, making sure they buy locally, and promoting Chicot State Park. That is the hook for 2018.”
Aucoin then went over a highlight of the week’s activities that start off with a French opening. “Fr. Jason Vidrine will pray with us,” he said. “Our Immersion kids will come and pray and sing with us. I understand they’re going to do the Mardi Gras song.”
Bands will be performing each night during the festival. Performing on the first night is Christine Bolfa. As Aucoin said, “The immersion event is named after Dewey Bolfa, so his daughter will be there with her group.”
Aucoin shared that another band in the lineup is the Grammy Award winning group Lost Bayou Ramblers. He said, “The lead guy Louis Michot is married to Ashlee, Shawn Manuel’s daughter.”
Aside from musical performances, there will also be instructional workshops from people such as Jimmy Breaux with Beausoleil, Sam Broussard with Steve Riley, and Preston Frank who is the father of Keith Frank.
Earlier in the meeting, the Rotary Club heard from Evangeline Parish Police Jury Secretary-Treasurer Donald Bergeron about the retention pond project. He was the guest of Rotarian Bob Manuel and called the project “a regional concept for flood mitigation.”
Bergeron stated, “The proposed project is the creation of a water retention pond located somewhere northwest of Ville Platte. It would retain water flowing from the northern portion of Bayou Joe Marcel, which flows into Bayou Des Cannes, which flows down the St. Landry Parish border into Acadia Parish and eventually flows into the Mermentau River.”
“The goal is to allow water levels in Bayou Joe Marcel to be maintained at optimal levels during a 100 year storm event thus preventing flooding in the area,” he continued.
Bergeron then gave benefits of the retention pond project that will help the region. “One of the things that Acadia Parish is fighting is very little elevation change,” he stated. “It’s flat. People say the Mermentau needs to be dredged, but, when it’s flat like that, you really have to be careful. If you dig it, they may be pulling the Gulf into Crowley.”
Rotarian Brent Coreil added another benefit to the retention pond as he quipped, “stock it with fish.”