Luling/Boutte Lions Club protecting those that protect, serve
This year, the Luling/Boutte Lions Club purchased a new bulletproof vest for St. Charles Parish Deputy April Altemus. Now, the organization wants to help other deputies who need bulletproof protection.
Altemus is a wife and a mother, and always wears her bulletproof vest.
“She has spent 14 years in law enforcement,” John Landry, a member of the club, said. “She served 10 years in Kenner and four years in St. Charles Parish.”
The Luling/Boutte Lions Club raises money through bingo games at the St. Charles Room Bingo Hall in Boutte and donates money to residents for various needy causes.
Besides helping to pay for bulletproof vests, the club also pays for eye surgeries and sends eyeglasses overseas to countries packed with impoverished people.
Through their community service projects and fundraising efforts for the Louisiana Lions Eye Foundation, much-needed optical surgeries and expensive artificial eyes are purchased for the people who are desperate for them but can’t afford to pay for the procedures or the prosthetics on their own.
“We sponsor a camp for handicapped children, it’s one week long and it’s free, but besides that we give away food baskets,” Billy Boudreaux, president of the organization, said. “We also take recycled eye glasses, refurbish them and send them overseas to Third World Countries for people who need them.”
The group also sponsors the Louisiana Crippled Chidren’s Camp, which is designed for special needs children.
“We work with anyone who has a need, but lately we’ve been helping people with eye problems and we’re doing our best to make a difference,” Boudreaux said.
The Lions Club would like to continue to purchase one bulletproof vest per year for parish officers. The vests cost around $800 each.
For more information call 985-785-1121.
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