Rotary Club Meeting – 2-20-24
Rotarian Peter Strawitz invited Martha Aubert and James Douget from the Louisiana Orphan Train Museum to present the program at the Rotary meeting on Tuesday. The Louisiana Orphan Train Museum will be celebrating 15 years in October. This museum is 100% volunteer run, and there are approximately 2000 visitors per year. They do a lot of community outreach as well.
In the mid-1800s, there was a huge influx of people to New York, and due to shortages, there were thousands of street children, possibly as many as 30,000. Sister Irene Fitzgibbons founded the New York Foundling Hospital. She got the Catholic Church involved, and they were able to send children, as many as 350,000, all over the country. Most of them taken in as indentured servants, but they became a part of the families and part of the local communities. The Church sent people to check on the welfare of the children. Many people in this area can trace their roots back to the Or
Rotary Club Meeting – 2-20-24
Rotarian Peter Strawitz invited Martha Aubert and James Douget from the Louisiana Orphan Train Museum to present the program at the Rotary meeting on Tuesday. The .
The speaker at the Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday, presented by Rotarian Peter Strawitz, was Richard Fontenot, with the Louisiana Farm Bureau. Agriculture is a key industry in the state of Louisi.
The speaker at the Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday, presented by Rotarian Peter Strawitz, was Richard Fontenot, with the Louisiana Farm Bureau. Agriculture is a key industry in the state of Louisiana. The industry is very dynamic. In 2022, the state experienced a drought until August, and then there was about 60 days in a row when it rained. That year resulted in the most expensive harvest that Louisiana has ever experienced. The production was still strong, but some of the quality of the crop was lost.
Rice and Crawfish generate about $73 million in value per year in Evangeline Parish. Crawfish used to be shipped from Gulfport to Texas. Now shipments go from Birmingham to Los Angeles and San Francisco. This year, however, was a disappointing crawfish year. The producers was getting the production, but not getting the return. This was the first year that buyers shut down purchasing. There were many contributing factors, including supply chain issues, workers and inflation.