Dinner with Evangeline - Fund Raiser - May 2, 2021
“ Dinner with Evangeline” was held on May 2nd in St Martinville. The garden club started our efforts to save Evangeline two years ago. The issue we were having with her are the fig vines someone planted underneath her years ago. They invaded her completely. We have worked alongside the City of St Martinville, Mr Jim Foret, Mr Stuart Gauthier, and Mr Frank Thibodeaux with Bob’s Tree. She has been cleaned up and mulched as of today and is showing new growth! Evangeline has also been blessed with holy water by Father Cocou Sounou. There is still work to be done but for now we watch and wait.
Mary Desormeaux: Our fund raiser Dinner with Evangeline was a success. With Corporate sponsors we covered all the expenses and profited $5000.00. A great help in our efforts for her to thrive!
Jim Foret: We finally had the Fig Ivy removed from her and hopefully she is on the road to recovery from years of nothing but hand wringing being done. Fig Ivy is truly a tree killer.
I say we because it took the SMGC putting up a small amount of cash to put a climber up in her so that an assessment could be completed and plan of action could be presented to the city council so that they could agree to spend money they did not have to start the project.
We have the finest of County Agents here, Stuart Gautier, he also was instrumental. The Arborist sent his best climber, Danny Bernard, the best anywhere, in my opinion, to assess Evangeline above eye level. The garden club ladies are the best support and were excellent at driving this action through.
The community continues to raise funds to continue healthcare for Evangeline.