Alumni, Rotary Club raising money to install AC in Mamou High’s gym

MAMOU — The residents of Mamou are looking to give the high school’s gymnasium a very cool gift.
The Mamou Rotary Club, Mamou High School, along with local residents and alumni have joined together to raise funds to purchase and install air conditioning units for the high school’s gym.
The Mamou High School gym is the only one in Evangeline Parish that lacks air conditioning.
“We don’t need the gym to be ice cold,” Mamou Rotary Club President Valli Soileau said. “We don’t need to be comfortable for say the Kardashians or anything like that. We just need to be able to utilize the facility.”
The gym, which is the largest facility (capacity-wise) in the town is currently utilized for the Demons boys and girls basketball teams, physical education classes, class ring ceremonies and even the eighth grade graduation.
The problem results in having any type of event in the late spring or summer months. Events such as the high school’s graduation or possibly even basketball camps or community charity events.
Without air conditioning, the gym becomes too hot to handle hosting said events.
“It is definitely the place we can convene as a student body,” Mamou Principal Liz Chatelain said. “We don’t have any other place to hold the student body. But we have all these events and they are towards the end of school year and that limits us. More importantly, it limits the community. In our climate it is nearly impossible.”
The idea for raising funds came from the group’s most experienced Rotarian, Elvin Reed.
“A year ago I asked our club what could we do as a positive project for the community,” Soileau said. “Mr. Reed said that the biggest concern was our gym had no air conditioning. If we had AC then it could roll over to even more events for our community.”
The project has started off with a few sizeable donations, including a recent $1,000 donation from famed Mamou High alumni Larry Hollier, and some small fund raising drives. The project has generated more than $3,000 towards the goal of raising the estimated $400,0000 needed to pipe in air conditioning to the gym.
That estimate is more than four years old and Chatelain is currently in the process of seeking out new estimates.
Everyone involved realizes that it will take considerable time, years in fact, to raise the money but that doesn’t sway their dedication to the project.
“If someone would have started this when I was in high school then we would be more than half way there,” said Soileau, a 2010 graduate of Mamou High. “When my kid hits the age of 10 he will have an air conditioned gym.”
Added Chatelain, “It is an opportunity for the community and alumni to come together with a common goal. You can never lose in that situation.”
For anyone interested in donating to the project, you can simply drop off a check to the Mamou High School Air Conditioning Fund at the high school or send it in the mail. The project also has a Go Fund Me account online at https://www.gofundme.com/j4hwqe7w.