DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / August 26, 2000

LUTCHER – St. Vincent de Paul in Lutcher is much more than a second handclothing store across the tracks. The store is a haven for those in need ofassistance.

Operated by 40 or so active and inactive volunteers, the store provides assistance in the form of cheap goods and a food bank and even helps pay utilities bills.

The store in Lutcher is just one point of light in a larger organization dedicated to assisting the needy. The society of St. Vincent de Paul wasfounded in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam in Paris. It spread quickly acrosscountries, finding a foothold in St. Louis in 1845 where it expanded acrossthe United States. The organization now serves over 112 countries acrossthe globe. The St. Vincent de Paul store in Lutcher is one of hundreds ofthousands of helping hands assisting those in need.

The organization began over 20 years ago in St. James Parish. Alvin Guidryand a few others returned from a retreat in Opelousas with the desire to find a way of helping the needy, and the pastor at St. Joseph advised him tostart a branch of St. Vincent in St. James Parish, said current presidentPete Roussel.

Now St. Vincent de Paul in St. James Parish has continued on with Guidry’sdream with the help of its active volunteers who work in the store and those who help by donating money to its cause.

“It’s the support of the volunteers that keep us going,” said Roussel. “Wecouldn’t be where we need to be without them.” Outside of the regular volunteers many people give them tips and leads on who is looking to donate and where the society can find more goods to give to the needy. Recently a tip resulted in the Meridian Hotel in New Orleansdonating 15 sets of mattresses and box springs. A Holiday Inn donated boxesof linens and tablecloths. All these people combine together to keep St.Vincent de Paul in operation and keep those it helps from being overwhelmed by their problems.

The St. Vincent De Paul society is run by president Pete Roussel, vicepresident Annabelle Joseph, treasurer Barbara Caldarera and secretary Charlene Bourgeois. Neither they nor the rest of the 40 volunteers are paidfor their time or efforts.

Walking into the St. Vincent de Paul store, the building looks on the edge ofchaos. Jam-packed with clothes, books, toys, knick-knacks, furniture andwide variety of other items, the volunteers scramble to keep thing organized as new clothes and items continue to be brought in and be sold.

“We have all sorts of things from furniture to crutches to wheelchairs, even a hamster cage with the hamster still in it,” said volunteer Ralph Copponex.

“Once we even got an optometrist’s chair complete with all the equipment.

“A lot of times we get things that we don’t even know what it is,” he added with a smile.

All the items are priced very inexpensively. Children’s clothes are 25 apiece. Adult clothes are between $1 and $1.50. Even at that price they oftenhave half price sales, said Copponex. One could even get a prom or a weddinggown for $5 if so desired.

With what they can’t use, the society in turn donates to other charity organizations. Some clothes are need a little work, but the store doesn’thave time to repair them. The volunteers deliver them directly to needyfamilies.

Outside of regular volunteers, the store often hosts people in need of community service hours, said Copponex. Whether it’s kids in need tovolunteer work before their confirmation or people ordered to perform community service by courts, the store welcomes them all.

The store is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.,and each day has a different crew working. The Wednesday crew said theysee something new every day they work. One day they had a Germangentleman from Berlin come in the store. He bought a quite a few caps andexplained that he was working to be known in the Guiness Book of World Records for the man with the most caps. “He said he had over 10,000already,” said Copponex.

Doris Breaux has been working there for over 15 years, she said. TheWednesday crew all get along, joke and have a good time, she said, but “we’re here to do charity work and trying to help needy people.” She hopes that indoing so, they will in turn help themselves.

The St. Vincent de Paul store also runs a food bank, handing out boxes ofgoods twice a month to needy families. Leonard Bivona runs the bank,receiving the good, organizing them and repacking them for the families.

“The food goes to needy families on the east bank of St. James Parish,” saidBivona. St. James Catholic Church has it own food bank serving the westbank, he added. The store does help out the other bank in times ofemergency but focuses on the east bank.

Families deemed living under state’s designated poverty level receive food from the store. For one person $873 a month earned, with an average of$300 more per family member, is the state’s poverty level. Families on foodstamps and some senior citizens often receive the goods.

Bivona packs beer, milk and banana boxes twice a month for the families. Thesmall beer boxes hold about 20 lbs. of food. The bigger banana boxes cancontain around 70-80 lbs. of food, Bivona said. The size of the box dependson the amount of people in the family. It takes about three hours to fill allthe boxes.

Most of the food comes from a food bank in Baton Rouge, but much of it comes from the St. James Parish community. Different school and churchfood drives donate food. Blue Runner of Gonzales has donated an average of3,400 lbs. of red beans in the last two years. Colonial Sugars donates sugarevery month. Last year the Boy Scouts donated 3,793 lbs. of food, saidBivona.

As well as assistance by food, the store also gives monetary assistance to those in need. Families below the poverty level can request help paying theirutility bills. A committee meets once a week to review requests and tries topay $100-$150 on each of the bills. Twice a year a family can receiveassistance from the St. Vincent de Paul organization in St. James Parish,said Bivona.

For over 20 years St. Vincent de Paul in St. James Parish as been a point offocus in helping the needy. The store has served as a base for peoplewanting to donate food, clothes and money for charity. In turn the store hasrepaired, stocked and delivered those goods out to the families that need these goods to survive.

No one person or group can be credited for the good St. Vincent de Paul hasdone for the parish. It has continued to operate through the help of thosedonating goods and money, as well as those hundreds of volunteers who have see the need to keep the store running for over 20 years.

If you would like to donate food, money or time please contact the St.

Vincent de Paul store in Lutcher at 869-4700.

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