East St. Mary Kiwanis celebrate 35th anniversary

The Kiwanis Club of East St. Mary in Morgan City will celebrate its 35th anniversary Saturday.
The organization was chartered on May 22, 1986 and with it was the membership of the lone remaining original member, Tim Matte.
Matte said he was asked to join by Tommy Lyons, who now is in Houma, and Robert McLaughlin, who now is in Baton Rouge.
“Frankly, everybody was kind of similar aged and similar set at that particular time,” Matte said. “Now, we’ve got a little better spread of age groups and so forth, but we’re already, in a lot of cases, already friends.”
When the club began, it had 26 members. Lyons was the club’s first president, and the late Preston McIntyre was its first secretary.
At the time, the meetings were breakfast events at the Holiday Inn in Morgan City.
In addition to Matte, the club has several other 30-plus year members. Steven Minvielle is just behind Matte with 34 years of service. Other 30-plus year members are Bill Johnson, Cal Carrier, Harold Smith Jr., Thane Aucoin and Bernardine Morgan.
Today, the club has 68 members.
“It’s kind of grown in spurts,” Matte said. “There’s been some times where it’s grown really rapidly. There’s been some times where it’s stayed fairly stagnant, but it’s as large as it’s ever been today and as active as it’s ever been.”
The club does a lot of work in the community, too. Its main project is the annual Kiwanis Kids Fishing Rodeo. The most recent rodeo was held Saturday at Lake End Park with a record 325 participants.
Big fundraisers for the group are its Hurricane Booth at the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival and its Trivia Night.
With funds raised through these events, the organization gives annual scholarships to high school students.
A smaller scale project that the club continually participates in is its food drives during elections.
“That was probably the first thing we really actually started doing,” Minvielle said.
Another long-time project the organization has participated in since 1988 is bingo at the Patterson Healthcare Center. However, the club has been unable to hold the event the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The organization also holds the annual Porchfest in Morgan City through which money is raised for improvements at Lawrence Park.
It also contributes to numerous other organizations and helps with multiple other projects.
Secretary and 24-year member Debbie Stevens said she gets gratification as a member from seeing the benefits of the group’s work.
“The reward I receive of belonging to Kiwanis is the joy I receive in my heart when I see the excitement and happiness we bring to children, as well as the elderly, by doing things for them as often as we can,” she said. “All the hard work of organizing fundraisers or projects and then working those events become worth it.”
Stevens said it takes teamwork and everyone involved to put on successful projects and fundraisers.
“We have great members that can be counted on to get the jobs done,” she said.
The club is led by a president, president-elect, treasurer, secretary and five board members. It meets every Friday at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City at noon.
Minvielle said last year’s president, Reina Fernandez, has taken over the leadership again as president Casie Callais stepped down because she and her family are moving out of state soon. Minvielle will become president later this year.
Minvielle said while it does take work to keep the organization going, there is enjoyment in doing so.
“We have a good time together,” he said. “We make a lot of friendships. There’s business stuff that’s created because of it as well. It’s just a good organization.”
Anyone interested in joining the chapter should contact Stevens at 985-397-2963 or 985-384-6344.