RSS Feed

Abbeville High School now has a DECA club.
And it means business.
More specifically, the club helps to prepare, “Emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.” DECA is a nearly 80-year-old student organization, with members all over the world.
Danielle Alleman, who teaches principles of business at Abbeville High, has helped guide a dozen students through the first year that the school has had the club. Alleman, who initially set out to organize another business-focused club, introduced DECA to AHS at the beginning of this school year.
Alleman, along with two club members, Trinity Campbell and Bailey Thibodeaux, spoke to the Kiwanis Club of Abbeville about how DECA has progressed and where it hopes to go in the future.
“I applied for a grant to start an AHS store that will be run by students,” Alleman said. “In the grant process, it said you need to start a DECA club. I started looking into DECA, and it’s huge.
“It really is awesome.”
Twelve students began the foundation for Abbeville High’s DECA club, which officially got going into the school year.
“I think we’ve had a great year,” Alleman said of getting a later start.
Students have attended conferences, including a conference in New Orleans for sports marketing. Students visited the Smoothie King Center, home of the New Orleans Pelicans basketball team. They had the opportunity to hear various corporate leaders speak about their respective jobs. The students ended the night by attending a Pelicans game.
“It was super fun,” Campbell said. “We went to the Pelicans game. I’ve never been to a professional basketball game. I got to ask professionals questions. We learned about so many things that I didn’t know they had jobs for. We go to see so many things behind the scenes.”
At the State Conference, students successfully competed in events related to national standards in four career focuses. Campbell and Thibodeaux were among the students who performed well at the conferences.
“It was such a fun experience,” Thibodeaux said.
Alleman told members of the Kiwanis Club that plans are for students to attend national conferences in the future. The Kiwanis Club made a donation to help go toward some future expenses.
“There are conferences all over,” Alleman said. “I want to give the kids an experience. I want to get them out of their comfort zone.”
While a great experience now, DECA can have an impact on the future of students involved.
“It does provide a career direction,” Alleman said. “I feel like some kids think so many things are out of reach, but they’re not. If you set your mind on something, you just have to want it and work hard.”
Alleman expects the club to expand in the coming school year.
“We’ve had a lot of students show interest,” she said.
Students will be the focus of a new venture at the school, a school store.
“I will be getting that together this summer,” Alleman said. “Students are going to run the store. I will be teaching them how to do everything, but they are going to do the work. We are going to make T-shirts. We’re going to sell water bottles and lanyards. They’re going to make the stuff, and they’re going to sell it.”

On Friday, May 19, 2023, during a 7:00 p.m. evening ceremony, Victoria Claire Munchrath and Ashton Sherman Joseph Ditch were united in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony at St. John Cathedral Catholic Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. Reverend Andrew Schumacher, presided at the nuptial mass.
The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dwight Anthony Munchrath of Lafayette, LA. She is the grandaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Munchrath of Lafayette, LA.
The groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Roland James Ditch of Abbeville, LA. He is the grandson of Mrs. Ruby Sherman of Abbeville, LA.
The Bride was escorted by her father.
The Bride’s Maid of Honor was her cousin Jessica Claire Gerami. Attending as her Bridesmaids were Barbie Sebastian, Riley Munchrath her sister in law, Katherine Reaney, Kelly Strickland, Lunden Hotard, Sydney Stover, Morgan Arceneaux, Lindsey Faulk and Lainey Fontenot.
Flower girl was Sutton Gardiner.
The groom was attended by Jacob Duhon as his best man and serving as attendants were Conner Munchrath brother of the Bride, Carter Munchrath brother of the Bride, Jaritt Ditch brother of the groom, Collin Ditch brother of the groom, Jardian Sellers, Shane Stout, Trevor Callahan, Tyler Listi cousin of the Bride and Corey Meaux. Nathan Pool, Brock Dronet cousin of the Bride and Cooper Gerami cousin of the Bride served as ushers.
Ring bearer was Tate Strickland.
Music for the ceremony was provided by St. John Cathedral’s strings, trumpet, timpanist and Cantor.
Following the ceremony, a reception was held at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Alumni Center.
The rehearsal dinner was hosted by the parents of the groom at Cafe’ Vermilionville.
The new couple will enjoy a honeymoon trip to Paris, France and many provinces in Italy.

Bailey Dupuis, is the recipient of the Vermilion Farm Bureau Federation Scholarship in the amount of $1000.
Farm Bureau is the state’s largest general farm organization representing farmers, ranchers and rural residents. Because we are a membership based organization, a very large number of our members are not farmers and ranchers, therefore; we have chosen to provide a scholarship to a graduating senior that is interested in a field of study outside of agriculture.
It is with great pleasure to announce Bailey Dupuis, the daughter of David and Anita Dupuis the winner. The competition was intense, and we would like to commend Bailey for her academic achievement, leadership, community service, essay and determination.
Dupuis is a 4.0 graduate of Vermilion Catholic and plans to attend the University of Louisiana at Lafayette majoring Biology with a focus in Medical and Allied Health Science. Her goal is to work as a Physician’s Assistant.
We are very proud to award this scholarship to a most deserving 2023 Vermilion Parish graduate, Bailey Dupuis.

BATON ROUGE—The House Appropriations Committee voted 16-5 Monday to kill a bill that would have increased the salary for legislators.
House Bill 149 had proposed increasing their pay to $39,000 a year from $16,800. The committee rejected the bill after much discussion about service, privilege and ability.
Many legislators voiced their concern for supporting a raise in their own salaries when many residents of Louisiana deserve pay raises even more. Some members also worried about how it would look to vote to increase lawmaker pay after the same committee removed direct state funding for up to $3,000 in pay raises for K-12 teachers from the governor’s proposed budget.
After several members of the committee voiced their disapproval, Marino said that many lawmakers were refusing to pass the bill because they are running for reelection and worry that it will harm them.
Rep. Joseph Marino, a Gretna Independent, is not running for another term, and he contended that increasing the lawmaker pay would enable more people to run for office.
“It is simply a question of assuring that citizens from all walks of life are able to serve, not just rich and retired, but the younger professional or businessman or woman, plant worker, less well-off citizen,” Marino said.
Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, countered that.
“I am neither rich, nor am I retired, nor did I grow up privileged,” Villio said. “What I consider this to be is service. I don’t consider it a job.”
Reps. Daryl Deshotel, R- Marksville; Mary DuBuisson, R- Slidell; Aimee Freeman, D- New Orleans; John Illg Jr., R- River Ridge, and Rodney Lyons, D- Marrero, voted for the pay raise.
The House and Governmental Affairs Committee had voted 8-4 earlier to support Marino’s bill.
Also on Monday, the Appropriations Committee also advanced a bill that would enable some teachers to earn hourly wages for extra duties.
HB 205, authored by Rep. Marcus Bryant, D-New Iberia, would allow teachers to be paid for any duties outside of their job descriptions. Additionally, teachers would be paid an hourly rate based on their salary for after-school activities except for coaching positions.
The bill also changes the date, to June 30, when teacher salary schedules would become available for the following school year.
Coaches are not included in this change because they are already paid outside of their normal duties. An amendment also removed teachers at special schools from the supplement pay plan.
Marcus Thomas, the director of government relations for the Louisiana Association of Educators, said that 43 districts already provide supplemental pay for teachers participating in extra duties. He said this bill would provide fairness and consistency.