Ville Platte Rotary Club welcomes recent guests

November 10, Meeting
On Tuesday, November 10, the Ville Platte Rotary Club welcomed David Kobetz with Hospice of Acadiana. He gave a brief background, noting he started working for Hospice of Acadiana in January 2015. He stated that out of 19 area hospices in the Acadiana area, Hospice of Acadiana is the only non-profit hospice. Kobetz said various free programs are offered. He said there are 14 nurses certified in palliative care on staff. He also said that two licensed grief counselors are on staff and there is a youth bereavement service called Camp Braveheart, which is a two-day camp. Kobetz stated that Hospice of Acadiana is more of a ministry than a business, noting the spiritual side of end of life care is very important to the patients, as well as their families. In closing, Kobetz shared that Hospice of Acadiana serves the nine-parish Acadiana area covering a 50-mile radius surrounding Lafayette. He also added that patients must be referred by a doctor.
November 17, Meeting
Rotarian Benny Fontenot addressed his fellow club members during the November 17, meeting of the Ville Platte Rotary Club. He noted that he has been a Rotarian since August 2013. He is married with two children and two grandchildren. He was born and raised in Ville Platte and graduated from Ville Platte High School. He started working with Century Telephone in 1980 and has been there through the name changes to Centurytel and now CenturyLink. Currently, he has been serving as the area supervisor covering a large area of South Louisiana for the past 13 years. He said the company currently has 12 employees in the Ville Platte office and that it donates to local festivals and events in the area each year. He noted that when he started, party lines were still present in Ville Platte. He shared that CenturyLink supplies a phone line to KVPI for covering ball games, festivals and other events of interest. Fontenot noted that CenturyLink is currently is working on helping people in rural areas receive high speed internet service. He added that CenturyLink will be spending $10 million dollars a year for the next five years on the upgrades and that the service should be up and running by the first quarter of next year. He added that CenturyLink has lost a lot of land line business to cell phone use. However, the internet customers are keeping them in business. He closed by saying that the company has been very good to him over the years.