Brittany's Project building to be culmination of a long journey

By CASEY COLLIER
Sandra Saucier of Brittany’s Project, says she and her husband, Bruce, bought the property containing BP’s partially erected activity center, back in 2008.
In 2009, Brittany, then their 21-year-old daughter, fell ill with a mysterious and dangerous medical condition which threatened her life.
After finally pinpointing and addressing the condition, which had befuddled the Sauciers for four years by then, they found Brittany to have become melancholy and listless.
It was then, according to Sandra, that they realized that a deficit had grown when they moved from Kentucky to Franklin, and throughout the subsequent years of Brittany’s medical difficulties. That deficit lay in the frequency and availability of pastime activities for Brittany.
The Sauciers started fundraising for a facility where special needs kids from the surrounding area could take part in socialized activities, and let off some steam—Brittany’s Project.
“If my daughter needs that, there are others that need that in their life, too,” said Saucier. “Everybody has to work. We have vocations, and some of them (special needs community) do, too. But, we also have activities in our lives and social lives, and that was what was not being offered them.”
She went on to say that several kids involved in the project have told her that one of the main reasons they love being involved is that they get to see their friends that way.
The new facility, once completed, will include kitchen and dining areas, with the bulk of the space going toward the recreation room.
It is meant to be a place where members of the project can come together and have fun.
According to Saucier, that is what Brittany was missing in her life, and that’s what Brittany’s Project intends to provide her, and others, with their activity center.
Up to now, Brittany’s Project has been meeting intermittently across the parish, in whatever accommodations for venues Saucier and the sponsors could cobble together.
It is hoped the activity center will change that.
Saucier says that project still needs around $80,000 to complete construction of the building.
The Sauciers have done much of the construction themselves but are in need of a state certified air conditioning and electrical contractor to work with them.
They say Landry’s Plumbing has offered their services free of charge, while the general contractor overseeing the project is Waguespack Homes.
In hopes of assisting with raising funds for the completion of the new building, Brittany’s Project will hold a fundraiser March 17, with details and venue to be announced.