Ed Wahden just helped the Rotary Club of St. Charles celebrate its 45th year anniversary. The anniversary was extra special for Wahden because of one crucial reason – he was there when it all started.
Wahden is the only charter member still associated with the club. He grew up in New Orleans and later moved to St. Charles Parish in 1976. As a former president and member of the Kiwanis Club of West Jefferson, Wahden said he started to look around St. Charles Parish for a way to get more involved in the community.
“When I came here I was looking for something like Kiwanis and I was approached by someone who was starting the Rotary here,” he said. “I’m was always interested in doing community activities, and I liked the concept of Rotary so I joined. We were organized in 1977 and chartered in 1978.”
Wahden said the first Rotary group included a local veterinarian, the school superintendent, an attorney, realtor, the owner of the River Parish Guide, and other businessmen in the community.
“Rotary has a history of community service,” Wahden said. “We were businessmen who wanted to do good things for the community and the meetings were rotated from business to business. Rotary grew immensely through the years, all while doing good things for the community – that’s the beaty of it.”
One integral part of St. Charles Parish culture that Rotary has provided, Wahden said, is the Alligator Festival. The first Alligator Festival was in 1980 on the driving rage at Willowdale. Wahden said it was organized as a way to fund Rotary giving.
“We made $1,000 that first year and we were so excited,” he said laughing. “So we said we’d try to expand it the next year.”
The next year’s festival experienced weather so bad that Rotary barely broke even, Wahden said, but the club persisted.
After quickly outgrowing Willowdale, the Alligator Festival was moved to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Hahnville. It was then moved again to two locations on Highway 90 in Boutte – the first was where Coronado Park is today.
“After that we moved next door to an open field where someone was raising cattle,” Wahden said. “That was eventually sold to Walmart.”
Since 2000, the Alligator Festival has been located at the West Bank Bridge Park.
“The parish and recreation department was very, very helpful to us in that move,” Wahden said.
The festival is a unique way to fund scholarships for Destrehan High and Hahnville High Schools.
“When people come to the festival and participate in the festival they’re contributing to the community,” Wahden said. “This year we will have closed in on donating a million dollars for school scholarships … that I think is something to note.”
Rotary assists the community in other ways as well, Wahden said. Included but not limited to that involvement is assisting with the local high schools’ Interact Clubs and Junior ROTC and sponsoring Wetland Watchers and the parish’s annual Christmas tree lighting.
And while Wahden’s love for Rotary runs deep – he even served as the Rotary Club president from 1981-1982 – he didn’t soley focus on the club as a way to impact the St. Charles Parish community. Wahden was also integral in bringing soccer to the parish recreation department, and he is still active on the soccer board.
“When my son was about 7 years old he wasn’t active in any sport at the time of the year that we wanted to play soccer,” Wahden said. “My friend Ken Cooper said, ‘Let’s get our kids involved in a soccer program. So went to parish rec program and at the time they said that funding and coaching wasn’t available.”
Despite their persistence, the parish said it couldn’t be done. Wahden said he then approached Bob Rice, the then-superintendent of SCPPS and a fellow Rotarian, and asked if he and Cooper could possibly utilize school facilities to run a soccer program.
Rice agreed, and the Lakewood site was where Wahden launched the program. His organization eventually joined with the recreation program.
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