Center of Hope poker run, FF&F mini-event set

Kristal Hebert, director of Center of Hope, and client Billy Duhon Jr. appeared before the St. Mary Parish Council Wednesday.
Duhon works in the center’s paper recycling department, and Hebert said there is also janitorial services and a thrift store in Franklin.
“It’s very important to know that people like Billy can get out and work,” Hebert said. “It’s a place for them to work in St. Mary Parish. Billy earns a paycheck every two weeks.”
Duhon added, “We pick up recyclables on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at Hanagriff’s (Machine Shop), Vital Fitness and (Rep.) Sam Jones’ office.”
Hebert said the objective is to get clients into the community as part of a “supported employment” initiative. “We came up with an inexpensive way to put trash cans out,” she said. “They go out every afternoon and pick up plastics to recycle. It’s really important to us.”
The janitorial crew serves five locations; recycling bins are located in Baldwin, Franklin, Patterson, Bayou Vista and Morgan City; there is a horticulture program where clients crack and/or peel pecans, and a program where recycled Mardi Gras beads are sorted, bundled and resold each year.
Hebert said there is a YouTube channel for the center that she produced as a graduate school student project on her favorite non-profit organization. The title is Arc of St. Mary/Center of Hope.
The center’s website is www.saintmarycenterofhope.com
“We do have fun days, it’s not all work and no play,” she noted. “We have crawfish boils, we do dances on Fridays to celebrate the work week.”
She said all individuals “love to come to work. I invite ya’ll to come at any time because saying it is different than seeing it, you just feel it, from all of them, how happy they are to be there.”
There will be a poker run fundraiser on June 16 in the Stephensville area, which pays the mortgage on the center’s building, $25 per hand, as well as plate lunches, music and a raffle to kick off the season.
It will start at Doiron’s Landing and make stops at the Spunky Monkey, Sac-a-Lait Sue’s, an optional stop at Lake View Inn, then to the Mosquito Bar and end at Gros Marina.
Also Wednesday, Ed “Tiger” Verdin said there will be a mini Fit, Fun and Fabulous event in Morgan City on June 2 at the AARP building, free to the public.
There will be free health screens and live music. St. Mary Parish Council on Aging will be selling foods.
On Oct. 4, the main FF&F will be held in Franklin, Verdin said.
In other business:
—Ordinances were introduced amending the dates and sale and discharge of fireworks, and reducing the speed limit on Hemlock Street.
—Ordinances were adopted renewing the parish library system tax and the criminal justice system tax; establishing the speed limit on Foxglove Drive, Patterson; authorizing the parish president to enter a lease agreement with the City of Patterson on the Jessie B. Hayes Memorial Boat Landing; and a rezoning map amendment.
—Resolutions in memory of Captain Michael Luke Marino Jr. and centenarian Dorothy Mae Dennis Guienze Butler.
—Resolutions were passed to execute engineering services for infrastructure work in several areas across the parish, including Charenton, Baldwin, Irish Bend Road, Garden City, Four Corkers, Ashton, Patterson, Bayou Vista and Amelia as part of the parish’s road improvement project.