Chamber president thanks community

Kelly Pitre, Eunice Chamber of Commerce president, delivered this message at the Eunice Board of Aldermen’s meeting Tuesday.
Good evening. My name is Kelly Pitre. I am the 2015 Eunice Chamber of Commerce president. I am here this evening to share with you our success with the 30th Annual World Championship Crawfish Etouffee Cook-off.
We had two Grand Crawfish Sponsors who gave $1,500 or more: Progressive Tractor and Evangeline Downs. We had two Crawfish Event Sponsors who gave $1,000: The Frosty Spoon and LA Crawfish Growers Association. In addition, we had 17 other sponsors who supported the Crawfish Cook-off through monetary donations or in-kind donations. The bands and musicians were paid over $7,000, so sponsorship is extremely important to the Cook-off.
This year, our Cook-off had 34 cooking booths and 35 arts and crafts booths. It is estimated that over 500 pounds of crawfish were cooked, and over 2,000 beers and 3,000 Cokes and water were sold.
I would like to recognize Boy Scout Troop 425 for handling our trash collection; District Attorney Earl Taylor’s Eunice office for volunteering to man the Coke and beer booth; the Eunice News and KEUN for covering the event as well as actively participating; the Eunice City Court Probation office and its community service workers; Ms. Candace Reeves for doing a superb job marking out the booths and coordinating the city maintenance crew; the Eunice City Marshal’s office for once again showing us how to boil crawfish to perfection; and the Eunice City Police Dept for providing us with traffic direction and security, and for entering the cook-off as well.
Last, but certainly not least, on behalf of the Eunice Chamber of Commerce Board and all of its members, I would like to sincerely thank you, Mr. Mayor, and the Council for not just supporting the Council with word, but also with your actions. By having a booth at the cook-off, you have shown the people of Eunice, the people of South Louisiana and indeed the world what happens when everyone works together to make an event, as well as our whole community, successful. I am so proud to have been a part of that. Thank you for being a part of it too!