Accordion to be raffled off to help aid Liberty Theater

EUNICE — A one of a kind, custom-made accordion by Moisey Baudoin of Delcambre is up for grabs in a raffle to benefit the Liberty Theater.
“At one of the first Liberty Theater shows, they had a fellow demonstrate how to make an accordion,” Baudoin said. “When we left, I told my wife, ‘I can build that,’ so I went to see Marc Savoy so I could learn to build them.
“He told me I could learn from somebody else, a man from Kaplan, but I told him he was number one and I wanted to learn from him.”
Baudoin said the instrument is worth about $3,000, and the accordion is made of maple wood from Canada and inlaid with Mother of Pearl.
While the accordion is the first prize in the raffle, second prize is a one-year admission for two to the Rendez-Vous des Cajuns Radio Show at the Liberty Theater. Third is a $100 gift certificate to Ruby’s Restaurant and Courtyard. Tickets are $5 each and are available at the mayor’s office in City Hall.
The drawing for the raffle will be held Oct. 22 during the live radio show at the Experience Louisiana Festival at LSUE.
After their first meeting, Savoy sent Baudoin home with the pieces needed to make an accordion, and Baudoin was pleased with Savoy’s critique of his finished first accordion.
“Marc said, ‘Let me tell you something, there’s people who have been doing and building accordions for five years that can’t do what you do,” Baudoin said. “I said ‘That’s what I wanted to hear.’”
Baudoin has been making accordions since 1987, the year of the first Rendez-Vous des Cajuns Radio Show, and he and his wife Lou Ella have missed less than a handful of the shows since then. Baudoin said he has made more than 100 accordions, including some for Cajun musicians Jesse Lege and Cedric Benoit, and some of his accordions are located in Canada and London, England.
“I can build them, but I cannot play them,” he said.
Mayor Scott Fontenot said 1,000 tickets have been printed for the raffle, and he expects to sell out. The mayor said he would be buying at least 10 himself.