A scheduling conflict at the Family Life Center caused the meeting of the Ville Platte Rotary Club Tuesday to be moved to the place that was the focal point of the club’s previous meeting.
Rotarians were treated to a picnic style lunch inside the classroom of the J.D. “Prof” LaFleur Nature Center located at the Louisiana State Arboretum. According to Rotary President Wayne Vidrine, “Prof” LaFleur was president of Rotary in 1935 and “was very instrumental in the creation of the park and especially the Arboretum.”
With Chicot State Park serving as the backdrop, Vidrine updated the club on improvements to the group cabins following the visit of the lieutenant governor. He said, “It was either repair the cabins that were already flooded twice or remove these cabins and build a multi-use dormitory style building on top of the hill that will never flood again.”
Vidrine reported that the consensus of Rotary’s board and of the community is to “make a request of building a dormitory style building that will house at least 60 people on top of the hill.”
The proposed improvements of the group cabins would better attract Rotary’s Camp RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) to Chicot State Park. RYLA was also the subject of the meeting’s guest speaker Mary Margaret Gil, who graduated from Sacred Heart in 2016 and is a sophomore at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette where she is majoring in accounting.
Gil explained how RYLA allowed her to separate herself from her twin sister Sophie, who was supposed to go to camp with her. “One thing I really enjoyed about RYLA is that it allowed me to break away from my comfort zone,” she stated. “I am a twin, and I was always the quieter one who always stayed in Sophie’s shadow.”
“Literally the day that we drove up to camp,” she continued, “Sophie got sick. I was left by myself and had no time to prepare myself for anything. It was the first time to introduce myself as Mary Margaret not Mary Margaret and Sophie, and I learned really quickly it was time to grow up and be Mary Margaret and not Mary Margaret and Sophie.”
She also talked about how RYLA allowed her to discover her leadership abilities. “I was involved in leadership in high school, but I was never president of any organizations,” Gil said. “RYLA really encouraged me throughout the week to step up going into college to really try to make a name for myself.”
Besides joining a sorority, some of the leadership positions that Gil now holds at UL-L are Student Government Association and University Program Council. She said, “That’s something I would have never done if I didn’t realize that from RYLA.”
Also speaking at the Rotary meeting was Interact Club coordinator at Sacred Heart Kimberly Lejeune. “We have a couple projects scheduled for the Spring that we would like to work with Rotary,” she said. “One is our Project of the Year. There’s a pavilion inside Chicot State Park that needs some fixing up. We would like to fix it and beautify it.”
According to Rotarian Larry Lachney, the pavilion was originally built by the Rotary Club.
Lejeune also reported on the upcoming Sacred Heart Foundation Dance, Buffet, and Auction set for Saturday night from 6:30 to 11:00 p.m. at the Ville Platte Civic Center. “We sold over 200 tickets this year, and we’re very excited about it,” she said. “The theme is Krewe de Trojans, and guests are coming in their favorite Mardi Gras attire whether it be New Orleans ball or Mamou Cajun style.”
Items up for the live and silent auctions can be viewed by going to www.shsvp.com and going to Foundation under the Supporters tab.
June 20, 2026
