REBECCA CARRASCO

PHOTOS: MOTIVA’S kitchen cooking team at the Convent facility confer in the adminstrative building’s kitchen to plan their next monthy front-office fund-raiser. The project dedicates funds raised from the sale of its lunches to area public service organizations as part of their commitment to local agencies. (Staff Photo by Rebecca Carrasco) CONVENT – Larry Roussel, communications liaison for Motiva Enterprises in Convent, has a hearty appetite for helping out others, and he has found a way to take small bites out of a problem. Roussel heads up an in-house fund-raising effort which puts on a luncheon every month to raise money for charitable and research organizations such as the American Cancer Asociation, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the March of Dimes, and the Salvation Army, to name a few. On April 24, he and his board of directors, who affectionately refer to each other as “Larry’s Elves,” held their front-office fund-raiser, FRFR for short. “Anna Hingle, who works in the information computer systems department,” Roussel said, “is the founder of the front-office fund-raiser. It started on October 22, 1999, and since that time we have raised easily over $3,000.” According to Roussel, the “board of directors” includes Hingle and 10 other ladies: Christina Cedotal, Lesly Bougeois, Joscelyn Darby, Germain Domino, Marty Forsyth, Lisa Hymel, Paula Hymel, Halley Martin, Debbie Millet, Theresa Teringue. “The reason why they are called that is because every month when we do this fund-raiser, we can count on them to be there and help serve n without their support this would be hard to do,” Roussel said. The members of the board volunteer their time and energies toward making this event a success each month. “Anybody who supports this is considered a member,” Roussel explained. “If anyone wants to eat lunch with us, they can sign up on the list. You do not have to pay just then, you only guarantee yourself a spot.” He added, “We are cooking for 60 to 75 people already, so we don’t want this to get too big. We always anticipate an extra 10 to 15 people signing up. Right now it is self-contained and though it is a little job it is something we can manage.” Roussel said though they could handle larger numbers, the event is about the right size now. “If we had 200 people,” he suggested, “the lines would be a mile long and then pretty soon you would start having problems. The way it is now, we are not slowing down any production. The company is not losing any time; people are getting their meals and going back to work right away.” Keith Carmon, the chief cook for the event, according to Roussel, made Tuesday’s meal, buying the groceries with his own money and preparing the meal on his own time. “That is all his donated time. He put the pork on the smoker and smoked it for 5 hours, took it out, put it in the refrigerator, and the next morning brought it here.” Carmon’s grocery bill is given to Domino, who is the treasurer for the front office fund-raiser and Carmon is reimbursed. “But like everybody else,” Roussel said, “he puts up his $5 to pay for his meal.” After all the money has been collected, “Domino counts how much it is and when we hit a $100 she will give it to me and I put it in the envelope. Anything over that is kept for next month’s recipient.” This month’s recipient is the Don Dubuc’s Bullfighter’s Cup which gives college scholarship money for those who meet three criteria: financial need, grade scores, and achievements. The Grand Isle High School Local Scholarship Program 2000 n 2001 gives applications to selected students to fill out. “The board reviews the applications and makes a final decision on who gets the scholarship,” explained Roussel. Next month, the recipient will be the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. “The way we are doing this,” Roussel said, “it is working out just great.”