DeQuincy Rotary Club honors area seniors

By Jeffra Wise DeViney

Vance Perkins was the guest speaker at the Wednesday, May 11, noon luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of DeQuincy, held at the DeQuincy United Methodist Fellowship Hall.

The Club is celebrating its 3rd anniversary of renewing DeQuincy’s Rotary Charter, which had had a long history of 70 years previously in DeQuincy with its first charter.

Area senior citizens were honored for Older Americans Month. Perkins gave a wonderful talk on the early beginnings of our town and the surrounding area, which was oriented around the infancy of the railroad and lumber industries.

Perkins is promoting a new hardback book, compiled with archived photos from DeQuincy Railroad Museum, “The Pictorial History of DeQuincy,” which is available for sale for $30 at DeQuincy Railroad Museum, Nichols and DeQuincy News. This is a fundraiser for the museum.

Over 40 attendees enjoyed a free luncheon co-sponsored by Rotarian Amos Jones Jr., President of DeQuincy Community ACTS Foundation and DeQuincy News, which is celebrating its 99th year.

Special guests in attendance were Jackie Green and Rosaland Berry, Administrators with Calcasieu Council On Aging; Mayor Riley Smith; Major Jerry Bell; Recreation Board members, Randy Woodard, Jeanette Teeter and the late Peggy Robertson; Lillian Karr, DeQuincy Chamber Manager; Margaret Skinner-Brown, City Councilwoman; Darlene Hooker and Diana Deloach, Board members for DeQuincy Community ACTS Foundation; and a notable visit from Dorothy Egyabroad, former DeQuincy resident who made a special effort to visit from Lake Charles. Egyabroad was gifted a copy of the pictorial book by Jackie Greene, CCOA Administrator.

It was announced that it was Iris Brown’s birthday, and everyone sang her “Happy Birthday.”

Since the DeQuincy Senior Center was destroyed by Hurricane Laura and the local seniors have been displaced, DeQuincy Rotarians were honored to provide them with a special day.

Many persons are presently advocating to bring back the center and it is hopeful some important announcements about avenues of opportunities will be available in the near future and can be announced soon. Watch the DeQuincy News for more information!

Rotarians Douglas DeViney, Jeffra DeViney, James Smith, Cameron Smith, Reba Smith, Riley Smith. Josh Foster, Richard Teeter and Laura Lovell were on hand to help make this day a tremendous success.

The fellowship and the food were enjoyed by all. It was a wonderful day to honor our seniors and reflect on our history!

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