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A community celebration

Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce holds its annual awards banquet at Ville Platte Civic Center

By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor

Ties usually go to the runner in baseball, but at the Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce Award Banquet Thursday, ties went to award winners in Business of the Year, Business Person of the Year, and Woman of the Year.
The award for Business of the Year went to Flat Town Farm Supply and Uptown Cake Company. Other nominees were B&S Neighborhood Market, Cayenne Heating & Cooling, Citizens Bank, The Flower Patch, Gobble Gulley, Thomas Construction Co., and Ville Platte Gazette.
The award for Business Person of the Year went to Carl Fontenot of Citizens Bank and Victor Slaven of Kolder, Champagne, Slaven and Co. Other nominees were Alana McClaskey, owner of the Flower Patch, and Ronald Doucet of Ronald’s Janitorial Service.
Woman of the Year went to both nominees Nina Daire David and Stacey Freeman-Jorden. “I know these two so well, and I know what they do,” said Executive Director of the Chamber Camille Fontenot. “And after we had the judging done, the judges had to say ‘we have two young ladies who both give so much to Ville Platte, to everyone they see, and everyone they work with.’ They are both an honor to have in our city, in our parish, and there is no way that they could split the vote, so we have a tie.”
“I am still in shock over the nomination and being selected as Co-Woman of the Year has me simply elated,” said Freeman-Jorden. “I feel so blessed and am honored to have been thought so highly of.”
“I am humbled by the honor of being named Co-Woman of the Year,” David said. “I must say that I feel we deserve a quality of life in Ville Platte that is rich in heritage, pride, and opportunity. It is our responsibility to take the initiative to identify a need, gather momentum, and find solutions to make Ville Platte a successful community for our families. We all possess the talents and desires but need to just take that first step. We need to shop locally and promote our town. We have so much to be thankful for. I just want people to see that they to can always choose to help and promote their town.”
Man of the Year went to Leonard Glynn Fontenot. “I’ve known Leonard Glynn for a long time,” Camille Fontenot said. “I’ve had the privilege of working with him and his wife Mary in the last few years with our tourism, and I know all he does for everything that goes on in the town and the parish.”
“I’ve always believed service is extremely important especially since I believe in God and Jesus Christ,” said Fontenot. He thanked the Rotary Club, his family for their outpouring of support, and his wife who has “made everything I ‘ve ever done possible.” He continued, “I told everybody when you live to be 80-years-old, you get a lot of chances to be Man of the Year. So I finally got it.”
Other nominees for Man of the Year were Reverand Matthew Alfred, Jr., Patrick Derouselle, and Donald Ray Thomas.
Todd Fontenot of the LSU Ag Center presented the award of Agricultural Person of the Year to brothers Kyle and Kane Fontenot.
Tourism was the theme of the night from both guest speakers Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and columnist Jim Bradshaw.
Nungesser ended his talk sharing stories from a group of Canadian travel agents he met at one of his first stops as lieutenant governor. “They talked about the way we treat people,” he said. He shared stories of Canadians being invited to back yard crawfish boils, about Zydeco dancing in Lafayette, learning recipes of bread pudding, and a local going 45-minutes out of his way showing Canadians the way to Poverty Point.
“We treat people so differently,” said Nungesser about why tourism is again so high in the state. “We treat them like they’re family. So with all of the great assets we have in Louisiana in promoting tourism, all the great places and food and music and culture and history, our greatest asset is you. It’s the people and the way we make people feel like they’re at home.”
Bradshaw used a hand drawn map that portrayed Lafayette as the center of the known world and the heart of French Louisiana. The map also portrayed areas like Ville Platte, St. Martinville, Opelousas, and Washington as the soul.
“This is the place where the culture lives, and this is the place where you the Chamber of Commerce can have great opportunity,” he said while pointing to his map. “People want to come see the soul,” he said. “They want to come experience the soul. They want to come eat the food in the soul.”

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