Staff Report
The Eunice Mardi Gras Association has scheduled its fifth annual trail ride to benefit the Eunice Community Health Center.
Pat Frey, of the Le Vieux Mardi Gras de Cajuns de Eunice, said at the Aug. 30 Eunice Kiwanis Club meeting, “All the money that is made on the trail ride goes to the clinic.”
Frey said he came up with the idea for a benefit trail ride after a ride at Chataignier was canceled and the need for a new trail ride arose.
“I said we needed to find something locally to donate money to. It was my choice to pick the Community Health Center because I felt ... it is the working people’s clinic,” he said.
The trail ride, which follows the same route as the Mardi Gras Run, is planned Sept. 22 starting at the Northwest Community Center Pavilion, 501 Samuel Drive, Eunice.
Registration is from 7 to 9 a.m. The $15 fee includes lunch. Refreshments will be sold.
The 13-mile ride also include an auction of donated items during the lunch stop.
Frey said golf carts, all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes are not allowed.
Donations of items are requested for the auction.
Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot said the center is helping with prisoner medical costs.
Frey also said he never thought he would need the services offered at the center, but has been helped with medicine.
Alisha Cormier, pharmacy technician at the center, said Mary Duncan, a nurse practitioner, recently began volunteering at the center.
For more information about the trail ride, call Amanda Bordelon at 337-580-3365.
The center’s phone number is 337-457-1205. The center is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thurday.