A stormy universe

With her first meeting as president under her belt, Rotary President Nicole Wenger presided over the meeting on July 9 where the club heard from Yvonne Lavergne and Suzy Lemoine from the Evangeline Parish Library.
Lavergne, who moved to Mamou with her husband from California 16 years ago, is the new director of the library and had previously served over the financials of the library under then director Mary Foster-Galass. Lemoine is currently the outreach director for the library.
Both ladies discussed what is going on at the different branches of the library across the summer, and Lemoine announced this year’s Book Fest is slated for October 26. She said the library is making “a big push to introduce new vendors” for this year’s event.
Lemoine then discussed this year’s Summer Reading Program with its theme of “A Universe of Stories.”
“You can read to a child, so it begins at birth,” Lemoine said of the program. “You can sign up a newborn and read to that child just so the other kids in the family, if there are some, enjoy getting all the free stuff.”
The “free stuff” to which Lemoine was referring is the different prizes that can be earned for participating in the Summer Reading program. They all are based around the theme and include aliens, astronauts, space balls, and galaxy slime.
“We want to encourage kids to be read to as well as to read,” commented Lemoine.
Later in the program, Lemoine talked about the performer who will close out this year’s Summer Reading. “Geebo the Clown has been with us at least five times,” she said. “He lives in California but grew up in Chataignier. He married a girl in California, got into the banking industry, and hated it. He knew he was a kid at heart and missed his Louisiana people.”
“He created an opportunity to be a clown,” continued Lemoine. “Then he went to a lot of magician schools. He does magic, and he’s a balloonist. He also started his own mobile safari group. The guy is living the dream, and every year he comes back to Chataignier. He gives the best show of all because he has a message, and it’s always of building character. He has a remarkable personality and never forgot his roots.”
A week later, on this past Tuesday, Rotarian and Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine stated Dr. Geoffrey Stewart and his students from ULL will return to Ville Platte tomorrow, July 19, at 11:30 a.m. at the Civic Center for an update on Project Engage.
“Everyone is invited, and they will serve a light lunch,” the mayor said. “They have some great stuff to show us about Main Street, tourism, and a lot of the things we can incorporate in our city.”
Evangeline Parish Assistant Superintendent of Schools Michael Lombas, a guest of Rotarian and Superintendant of Schools Darwan Lazard, then reported the Evangeline Parish School District is beginning French Immersion in the third grade and two new teachers are coming to the parish.
“They’re coming with just their clothes, and we have to outfit them with an apartment,” Lombas said. “We are looking for furniture, dishes, flatware, or anything you would use to supply an apartment.”
“Our community has been incredibly generous,” he continued. “We kind of gained a reputation with CODAFIL and the state department for extending open arms to our French teachers. We take care of them very well. They come on a two-year contract through CODAFIL, and every one of our teachers had renewed for a third year.”
The Rotary Club also heard from Evangeline Parish 911/ Office of Emergency Preparedness Director Liz Hill about the recent tropical system, Hurricane Barry, which affected Evangeline Parish.
She said her office conducts four conference calls a day from the time such a storm is approaching until it has passed through the area. Two of the calls are with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the other two are with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.
“With this storm,” Hill said, “it was very unpredictable. It didn’t do anything the weather people said it was going to do at the times they said it was going to do them. We at the office had all gone home Sunday, and Monday morning early was when the torrential rain started. We would like to pin point it better, but, unfortunately, that’s not something we can do.”