By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – When you consider the LaPlace Rotary Club has approximately 40 active members, it is hard to understand how they can accomplish so much.

The District 6840 Rotary Club is highlighting January as &#8220Rotary Awareness Month,” and to that end, making public the many events they are involved with to benefit the local community.

&#8220That’s the reason I joined the group,” President Beverly Harris said. &#8220The motto of the Rotary Club is ‘Service Above Self,’ and it is actually similar to the Bible teaching about loving others, and that’s why I like being in the club.”

Just in the final six months of 2006, the LaPlace Rotary Club continued many ongoing community projects.

They host a monthly bingo game for residents at Place DuBerg, as well as put on a Thanksgiving dinner. Then for the Christmas bingo event, they bring presents to the residents.

The club regularly participates in the St. John school system &#8220Welcome to the Real World” program that helps students prepare for life past graduation, and they judge many science and social study fairs, as well as regularly read in local elementary classrooms.

The Interact Club at East St. John High School is the younger version of the Rotary Club and has 35 students in its group. The LaPlace club provides monthly speakers and helped in a food drive during the holidays.

Each year the Rotary Club is a high profile participant of the Andouille Festival with its onion mum booth, which also gives the group a chance for community involvement, and last year they also held a &#8220Welcome Home Troops” picnic with food and music in New Orleans.

A shopping spree to the Gulf Coast was held late last year, and the club nominated an individual for the exchange program to Italy last year.

The club has an ongoing program to collect food for the St. John Ministry of Care, eyeglasses that get recycled for needy people, and cell phones that are recycled for a battered women’s home to use.

&#8220The idea for the Rotary Club is to do whatever we can to assist our local community,” Harris added. &#8220This is not a club to get a lot of glory and honor for yourself. People in the group are humble since they are trying to serve others. That is what I always have liked.”

The group also helps the Santa for St. John project by donating gifts, and wrapping them before being delivered to needy families.

An annual awards and installation banquet is held each June, and the Rotary Club honors a local employee, teacher and student in their quarterly awards.

Membership in the club is $140 a quarter, which covers a weekly meeting with lunch at Bull’s Corner Restaurant.

Anyone interested in joining the club should call Harris at 504-628-1138.