Council on Aging looks back, looks ahead

FRANKLIN — Beverly Domengeaux has spent much of 2025 searching for employees, but stands ready for a new fiscal year as her agency looks forward to serving St Mary Parish in 2026.
The 91-year-old director began working at the helm 25 years ago. She leads a board of directors and a staff that operate three senior centers (wellness activity sites) in Franklin, Patterson and Morgan City, in addition to providing homemaker services, home delivered meals and occasional field trips serving senior citizens 65 years of age and older.
“It’s been a hard year, mainly due to the inability to hire qualified workers. But we are now closer to being staffed, and are looking forward to our 54th year of service,” she said.
The Council on Aging celebrated its service year Monday night with a dinner meeting at the Forest Restaurant in Franklin.
The agency operated in 2025 with $864,680 in revenues and $850, 988 in expenditures.
Half of its budget came from the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs, $207,481; the Cajun Area Agency on Agency, $201,480; and the Louisiana Department of the Treasury, $143,913.
St. Mary Parish’s five municipalities contributed $47,655.
Additionally, grants come from the Felterman Foundation, the H.B. Young Foundation and the United Way.
Under Domengeaux’s leadership, her team raised another $125,500 in donations.
Another source of revenue for the agency is its Treasures Under the Oaks thrift store in Franklin, where monthly meals are sold.
The Council on Aging delivered over 56,000 meals and 8,000 meals from its senior center sites.
The agency also performed 2,546 homemaker service assistance appointments, and transported 4,168 seniors to doctor appointments.
Domengeaux encouraged parish and local leaders to brainstorm about how to address the fact that a lot of people are living longer.
Rita Ware, Council on Aging board chairman, said everyone can help, whether it is as a volunteer, a participant in a particular program, giving a donation, or advocating for seniors through social media, civic groups, anywhere.
Patterson Councilman Ray Dewey Sr., who serves as the Council on Aging vice chairman, said the agency takes care of the whole of St. Mary Parish, not just one area.
Domengeaux encouraged the crowd to keep in touch with their neighbors and friends who are alone, at least once a week.
“When I go out and meet with our clients, some of them tell me that they’re lonely and afraid. So I’m going to challenge each one of you to stay in touch with the seniors you know.”
She said that not too long ago, she received a call asking her to do a wellness check on a neighbor.
“I walked in and he had a gun in his hand. I asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ And he told me, ‘Nobody cares, so I’m going to do away with myself.’
I said, ‘Well I care. That’s why I’m here. Now give me the gun.’ He gave me the gun and we talked.
“When I got back to the office, I called his son in Chicago, and I told him, ‘I know you’re busy, but your daddy needs you.’ Well, he came down the next week, and his daddy went back to Chicago with him. A week later I received a card from them that said ‘God Bless You.’”