Rotarians and local students team up to plant azaleas at Chicot State Park

By: HEATHER BOGARD
Associate Editor

On Tuesday, January 23, members of the Ville Platte Rotary Club met at the Louisiana State Arboretum following the planting of 150 azaleas along the main entrance road of Chicot State Park. The group, along with several students from Reimagine Academy and their teacher Erica Fontenot, enjoyed pizza and king cake in the Arboretum Visitor Center during the group’s weekly meeting. Katie Ardoin and Hunter Lero with Chicot State Park gave a brief update on the park, with Ardoin stating Lero played a large role in mapping out the layout of the plants and making sure the drainage would work properly for the plants to grow. She also noted they are trying to keep up with everything by making necessary repairs, cleanup and a lot of maintenance as needed.
Lero stated the site was surveyed and a plan was then made to plant the 150 azalea, including GG Gerbing, George Tabor and pink formosa varieties, which will all grow to between five to eight feet tall.. He commended the park staff for getting the holes dug prior to the planting, which sped things along. With everyone’s assistance, the planting of 150 azaleas and spreading of 200 bags of mulch was completed in two to three hours. As a result, the plants will fill in the empty spaces once grown, which he said would take one to two years to see growth occur.
Rotarian Wayne Vidrine complemented the students, noting, “The kids worked like grown adults.” He added this project began a year ago when Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser visited the Rotary Club at the Arboretum and was asked to help the park personnel make positive changes to the park. Vidrine said the park was created by JD “Prof: Lafleur who also created the arboretum. Lafleur was a former Rotary President around 75 years ago, and Vidrine shared the club has a strong dedication to Chicot State Park. He said, “It looks really great. Y’all have done a fantastic job in the last year or so when y’all got help. The park looks great.”
Rotarian Brent Coreil said he didn’t know what to expect and thanked the park staff for being “so well prepared plotting it out as you did with how many to go in each spot. We didn’t have to dig holes, just put the plants in and fill them up and get the mulch.” He said the group worked hard and did a fantastic job to be proud of. He told the students, “In a few years you can come back and see all these 150 azaleas you guys planted and be proud of what you did in beautifying our community.” Coreil added, “You don’t realize yet just how important Chicot Park is to the entire state of Louisiana. What you did added so much to the beauty of the park. Come back in about five years. You are gonna be proud of what you contributed to our community.”