By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor
The Ville Platte Boys and Girls’ Club has partnered with the Evangeline Parish District Attorney’s Office through the Families in Need of Services Program. Over the last two years, FINS has sponsored 15 children to attend the Boys and Girls’ Club, Inc., and has sponsored mentoring projects.
According to a release from Assistant District Attorney Julhelene E. Jackson, “The FINS Program is designed to assist families with children who are risk for court involvement due to certain factors such as truancy, repeated violations of school rules, runaway, and ungovernable.”
One of these mentoring projects at the Boys and Girls’ Club, Inc., is called the Flat Town Culinary Academy. “This project is a partnership between the 13th Judicial District Court FINS Program and the Ville Platte Boys and Girls’ Club, Inc.,” the release said. “FINS participants are registered with the Club’s Summer Program. For approximately five or six weeks out of the eight-week summer program the participants in the beginner’s class learned introductory culinary techniques, and participants in the advanced class learned culinary techniques.”
The program culminates with the Boys and Girls’ Club, Inc., Closing Ceremony and Banquet that is slated for Friday, August 4, at the Boys and Girls’ Club, Inc., location at the old Heritage Manor Nursing Home on Thompson Street. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for a silent auction, and the first course will be served at 6:30 p.m. There will also be live music and a cash bar, and tickets can be purchased for $20.00.