Schexnider talks missions; Vocational Award presented

There was much to be done at Tuesday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Crowley.
First, the club presented a Vocational Award to a man well-known to many in Crowley who have had a delivery through UPS – Reginald “Reggie” Laviolette.
“I just want to start by saying ‘Thank you all’,” said Laviolette.
Nominated by Rotarian Kenny Privat, Laviolette has been with UPS since he was in college at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette).
Upon graduating from USL with a degree in mass communication. Laviolette joined UPS full-time and has become very recognizable in the Crowley community, or at least has become so by his nickname “Reggie.”
“Everybody knows him as ‘Reggie’,” said Privat. “I don’t know anyone who knew his last name.”
In his explanation of Laviolette, Privat complimented the award recipient on his professionalism and courtesy, among other great attributes.
“He has a way of coming in and delivering your package,” said Privat. “He visits with you. He smiles and you can tell he’s happy with his job.”
Laviolette is a graduate of Opelousas Catholic. He is the son of Mary Laviolette.
He and his wife, Karen, have three children.
Laviolette also invited his aunt, Rose G. Williams, David and Evelyn Zehner and his supervisors, Todd Leonards and Jeff Rider.
The club also finished up its collection for the Rotary zone project, “Rotary Has Heart.” The project saw the collection of food and other products to be returned to the community. The Crowley club’s collection is going to the Crowley Christian Care Center.
Finally, the club meeting’s program was presented by Rotarian Kirk Schexnider. Filling in for his original speaker, Schexnider opted to fill his time with a talk about how Rotary had made him more active in volunteering in his church.
Schexnider explained that his family didn’t join the Assembly of God Church in Crowley until his grandmother was in her 40s, but when she joined, she jumped right in, learning to read just so she could read her Bible.
The family would attend service in the church that was once located in South Crowley.
Schexnider and his immediately family returned to Crowley in his teen years and began going to church at the Acadiana Cathedral of Assembly of God.
He explained that the Assembly of God Church’s mission has always been to “reach the world,” something Rev. Loyd Singley has pushed locally through the missions field.
Schexnider can remember at a young age thanking Jesus for not calling him into the mission field work, but as time would pass, that would change.
It started with Miracle Mission Sunday, a one-day cash donation day each October that started eight years ago to help fund missions work. Then, five years ago, Northside Assembly of God became heavily involved in helping Malawi through annual donations of rice, beans and milk.
The final piece of the puzzle came in 2010 when Schexnider joined Rotary. Always one to volunteer, Schexnider recognized the good that the club was doing through its group effort. It finally all clicked.
“When you do more, you want to do more,” he said. “I credit Rotary a lot for it.”
In 2013, Schexnider saw the despair some of the children’s home buildings were in and felt a call to action. He set out to help the home over five weeks.
In 2014 he returned, this time for seven weeks. He is set to head back to Malawi this summer for 10 weeks and has a new project in mind: a standalone kitchen. The current kitchen sits in a wooden church and, with cooking on an open flame. That has presented problems in the past and is a definite fire hazard.
So far the church has been fortunate, but preaching with smoke from the cooking is less than ideal as well. So, this year, Schexnider wants to use left over bricks and metal to build a kitchen for the children’s home.