New Rotary Club members

By: CLAUDETTE OLIVIER
Lifestyles Editor

Jackie Fusilier Riche, Renee Tate and Richard LeJeune are the newest members of the Ville Platte Rotary Club.
The three new members gave an introduction of themselves at the March 7 club meeting.
Riche is a native of Ville Platte, and her parents and grandparents are also from Ville Platte. She attended Sacred Heart Elementary and high school and graduated in 1994.
While in school, Riche was active in 4-H, served as a cheerleader her junior and senior year and was co-editor of the yearbook her senior year.
She attended Louisiana State University in Eunice for a year, transferred to LSU in Baton Rouge and and later graduated with a degree in general studies with a minor in public relations and speech communications and psychology.
She married Cory Riche in 2002, and the couple lived in Lafayette for a year.
“That is where I fell in love with sales,” Riche said.
Riche worked in the retail business selling wedding dresses and prom dresses.
A year later, the couple moved to Bunkie, her husband’s home town, and they started their family.
“We were blessed with three beautiful boys,” Riche said.
The family has resided in Bunkie for the last 14 years. Riche was a stay at home mom for seven years, and she returned to the workforce when her sons started school.
Riche began working at PACES, a geriatric psych unit owned by Compass Health, as the office manager. After working there, she then went to work at Edgefield Recovery Center, a 30 day drug and alcohol rehab program in Cheneyville, where she worked as the administrative assistant and kitchen supervisor.
Following that job position, Riche moved finally into the industry in which she had hoped to land a job.
“I had always hoped to work in sales in the medical field, and I finally got my foot in the door and accepted a position, a marketing position, with Intrepid Home Health,” Riche said.
She continued, “With Intrepid Home Health, my territory included the Marksville and Eunice offices and their surrounding areas, but one of my favorite places to visit and call on was Savoy Medical Center.
“The people were so friendly and also my dad had worked there in the ER for about 10 years before he passed away. Savoy Medical Center has a special place in my heart, and when the marketing position opened up there, I jumped at the opportunity.”
Riche has been with the Mamou hospital since August 2015, and she is an employee of Christus St. Francis Health System, which manages SMC.
Riche’s areas of concentration at SMC are the cancer center, physical rehab and New Horizons. She also handles advertising and public relations for the hospital.
“Probably the most enjoyable part of my job is putting on community events and fundraising for the Cancer Center patients,” Riche said. “I also enjoy visiting with our local elderly community members and I play bingo with them.”
In her spare time, Riche said she enjoys cooking, reading and spending time with family and friends.
“I am excited to help serve my hometown community and watch it grow and prosper,” she said.
Tate addressed the crowd next. Tate was born and raised in Ville Platte, and she is a graduate of Sacred Heart Elementary and High School. She graduated from the University of South Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, with a degree in psychology. She is married with two children.
Tate worked seven years as the social services director at the former Maison De Sante Nursing Home in Ville Platte before taking a job as a case manager at the PACES psychiatric unit at the former Ville Platte Medical Center, where she was later promoted to program director.
A few years later, Tate took a job in Bunkie as director of operations for PACES.
“When that company shut down, which a little later opened up again and that is when Jackie (Riche) joined in with PACES, I was offered a job as a senior sales rep with a medical equipment company,” Tate said.
Tate spent 10 years in the medical equipment sales industry, and she is currently employed with Bailey Place Assisted Living in Bunkie, where she has worked for the last six months.
“I am still getting my feet wet, but I am really, really enjoying it,” Tate said.
At Bailey Place, Tate serves as the community relations manager, and she works to spread the word about the difference between nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
LeJeune addressed the club last. LeJeune moved to Ville Platte from Morgan City, where he worked at Hargrave Funeral home for 23 years and was a member of the Morgan City Rotary Club.
“The opportunity came and they kept calling me from Ardoin’s a couple of times, and now I’m from Ville Platte,” LeJeune said, laughing.
LeJeune attended college for a few years before going to work in the oil field. He later went back to college to mortuary college.
LeJeune said he enjoys running and going to the gym. He has two children.