Ville Platte Rotary Club celebrates another successful year

By: HEATHER
BOGARD
Lifestyles Editor

The Ville Platte Rotary Club held its annual installation banquet Tuesday evening, June 16, at Nick’s on Main. The members enjoyed a delicious meal and fellowship at the event, during which the new slate of officers for the 2015-2016 club year were sworn into office.
Before the new club leaders took their oaths of office, outgoing president David Mayeux gave his final remarks on his year as president. He stated that the club had a very busy year and accomplished a lot of goals. He added that the club membership has a lot to look forward to moving forward. Mayeux said that his mission since his first day as president was to make strives in raising the public’s awareness of the Ville Platte Rotary Club and its community involvement. He noted that many of the club’s programs have been in place for several years and focus on the youth of the community, such as Camp Ryla, the Sacred Heart Interact Club and the Choices program. He said the Sacred Heart Interact Club’s sponsor, Kimberly Lejeune, has played a very active role in getting the students involved in the community projects done in conjunction with the Rotary Club. Another feather in the cap for both the Ville Platte Rotary Club and the Sacred Heart Interact Club is that student Torian Veillon was selected as Interacter of the Year out of a group of several hundred students throughout Rotary District 6200. Mayeux proclaimed that, once again, the Choices program targeting eighth grade students throughout the parish to encourage them to stay in school and get involved in their communities was a huge success thanks to chairman Mark Suellentrop and the club members who trained and volunteered their time to go out to the schools to speak to the students. He added that the club’s fund raisers for scholarships to LSUE and Louisiana Technical College C.B. Coreil Campus were once again successful.
In closing, Mayeux reiterated his commitment to raising awareness of the Ville Platte Rotary Club going forward and noted that the club is moving with the times and recently formed a social media page on Facebook. He also thanked the members for their confidence in selecting a fairly new member as their president, saying, “It has been a fantastic year and I appreciate the opportunity to serve as president.”
Former Rotary District 6200 District Governor Linwood Broussard also briefly addressed the group shortly before installing the new officers. He noted that the Ville Platte club “has served the community so well since 1928 and is a good steward of the Rotary reputation.” He thanked the club for once again allowing him to be a part of the installation of the new club officers. He read a message from the new Rotary International President K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran, expressing the motto for the coming club year “Be a gift to the world.” In his letter, Ravindran encouraged all Rotarians throughout the world to be committed to be a better gift to the world.
Broussard then called up the new slate of officers and board members to install them into their posts. The new slate of officers for the 2015-2016 Ville Platte Rotary Club are Mitch Fontenot, president; Peter Strawitz, president-elect; Wayne Vidrine, vice president; Vic Slaven, treasurer; Janice Helmer, secretary; Dr. Jerry Veillon, sergeant at arms; David Mayeux, past president; and Annette Johnson, Larry Lachney, Dr. Hosea “Joey” Soileau, Bill Brunet and Mark Suellentrop, board members.
New president Mitch Fontenot then gave a few remarks thanking the club for the honor of serving as president. He thanked Mayeux, stating that for such a young man, he handled himself well. Fontenot said that Mayeux was not off the hook as he will be leaning on him for help. One of his main goals as president is to continue raise awareness of the club’s presence in the community and attract new members, especially younger members who are the future leaders of the community. Fontenot said the club needs to find ways to attract young members with projects they care about and are passionate enough about to devote time serving the community. He encouraged members to help identify areas of need throughout the community so that projects targeting those issues may be discussed.
As his first act as president, Fontenot closed the banquet by announcing the member selected as Rotarian of the Year. This year, the honor was presented to member Mark Suellentrop, former president and current board member, who spearheads the club’s Choices program to great success. Suellentrop thanked his fellow members for the great honor and encouraged them to stay motivated to be proactive members involved in the community.