Fraternity honors members for service

CHARENTON -- The Franklin Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi presented achievement awards to notables in the oil, health, insurance and bonding, and law fields at their second annual alumni gala at Cypress Bayou Casino.
The event was held as a nod to and on Franklin Senior High School weekend Oct 4. The 2-year old fraternity chapter honored Lee Jackson, CEO of Jackson Offshore Operations; Dr. Gary Wiltz, M.D., CEO of Teche Health, formerly Teche Action Clinic; Carl Foulcard Jr., CEO of Foulcard Insurance Agency and Bail Bonding; and Dwayne Murray of the Murray and Murray Law Firm.
Kappa Fraternity Member Omar W.D. Pecantte, president of Green Leaf Dispensary in Bayou Vista and Houma, served as this year’s gala chairman. He announced the organization had raised over $18,000 for scholarships and other projects.
Franklin Mayor Eugene Foulcard presented a key to the city to the first award-winner, Lee Jackson, and his wife, Marjorie Johnson Jackson.
“This is to show our appreciation for all that you and your wife have accomplished, and for your steadfast support to and collaborative effort of Franklin’s revitalization,” the mayor said. “You guys have done the Lord’s work quietly throughout Franklin, and you have done so in the way the Lord asks us to so in the Bible, as we contribute to the mankind.”
Jackson said that as he looks back on growing up in Franklin, his family didn’t have a whole lot, but they didn’t need anything.
“To much is given, much is required,” Jackson said. “If we can do just a small piece of something for someone, then at the end of the day, we have left it better than when we found it.”
Pecantte presented the second award to Wiltz, noting that he is one physician who is well known throughout St Mary Parish and surrounding parishes, saying his impact on the community is profound.
Wiltz joked that he first came to Franklin 55 years ago as captain of the John McDonough 35 High School football team. “That night, we were whipped by Franklin Senior High.”
But he said that night he met his wife, Franklin native Diane Mary Jones, and it was divine intervention afterward. He later returned as a physician with the National Service Corps.
“Like this fraternal organization, a commitment to service is something near and dear to me,” Wiltz said. “Service is what brought me here and kept me going, and service fits right into the mission of the what the Kappas do. The Bible says it is better to serve than be served.
“I want to congratulate all the other awardees who have committed their lives to service. I think it is the most humbling thing we can do for our people, particularly saving us for us, sometimes from us, but always for us,” Wiltz said
The third awardee was Carl Foulcard Jr., CEO of Foulcard Insurance Agency and Bail Bonding, known for his enormous generosity and giving spirit, Pecantte said.
Foulcard said in everything that he does, he tries to make his ancestors proud, while being fully aware of those who will come after him.
“I guess I began modeling my actions from my father, who would always say, ‘Lord if I can just help someone along the way,’ that’s how try to live my life,” Foulcard said. “Thank you to my brothers for giving me this award. I am very humbled, and I promise I will continue striving for excellence in achievement, and I won’t let you down.”
The Franklin Kappa chapter is under the direction of Franklin native Anthony Bell, who serves as Polemarch, He presented the fourth award to Attorney Dewayne Murray, who recently served as National Kappa Alpha Psi Polemarch.
Murray said his advice when it comes to leadership is to learn how to properly listen so that you can become a better leader.
“If each of us serves more than we serve ourselves, we will serve this world best.”
The Franklin Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., was chartered on Jan 20, 2024; however Kappa Alpha Psi began as a college fraternity on Jan 5, 1911, in Bloomington Indiana, on the University of Indiana's campus, Bell said.
Also, a Polemarch was a historical title for a senior military leader or commander in ancient Greece, particularly in Athens, where they held judicial authority over foreign residents and presided over the military. The term is now also used for the president or leader of a chapter in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and appears in fictional contexts, such as the military leader in Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game novel series, according to an A1 search.