Rotary Club acknowledges KVPI for receiving awards

At Tuesday’s Ville Platte Rotary Club meeting, Mark Layne from KVPI acknowledged that his radio station won “radio station of the year for the seventh year in a row” as well as the award for outstanding morning show the Non-Blonde Cafe.
“When I became manager 13-years ago, I didn’t do anything different that was before,” he said. “The only thing I’m doing now is that I’m letting the state know what we’ve been doing here in Ville Platte all these years since 1953. So the whole state knows what this little bitty station in Ville Platte’s doing for their community.”
“Radio has changed so much over the years,” said news director Stephanie Ware, who accepted the award on behalf of her morning show. “Now you can listen to us anytime, anywhere on the Internet and our free app. People call from all over the country into our show, and it’s so rewarding to know that there’s not just all of our friends here listening, but there’s also other people in the country paying attention to KVPI. We work very hard on our social media to keep it going and keep promoting it, and I think it’s brought a very positive aspect to our area which sometimes we need that here.”
Lisa Crane, who joins Ware on Wednesday mornings for “Women on Wednesdays,” also spoke at this week’s rotary meeting. “I’ve never seen community support before like this,” she said. “Like for instance Tournoi. How much have they promoted that?”
Ware coughed and answered under her breath, “A lot.”
At the April 11, 2017 Rotary Club meeting, Laura Balthazar, who is the former chief deputy at the St. Landry Parish Sheriff Office, addressed the Ville Platte Rotary Club at its meeting last week on behalf of the St. Landry/Evangeline Sexual Assault Center. “In a nut shell,” said rotary president Peter Strawitz, “they handle obviously rape cases, molestations. And she’s kinda like the intervenor. She does the interventions.”
The Club also heard from Yvonne Johnson from Pine Prairie High School on behalf of the students attending the FBLA National Conference. According to Strawitz, “these kids are trying to raise funds for their trip to California to the nationals.”
A similar fundraising opportunity is available to support the eight students from Sacred Heart who are also attending the national conference in Anaheim, Ca. According to rotarian Nick LeBas, the students are selling jambalaya dinner tickets for $8.00 to be picked up May 7 at the Queen of All Saints Family Life Center, and tickets can be purchased at Evangeline Drug Store.