St. Martinville – The New Comers Social and Civic Club, Inc. will celebrate its 50th anniversary on April 11. A group of fifteen women decided to start the non-profit organization in 1960.

The group’s main objective is assisting the needy people of St. Martinville by organizing, promoting and carrying out various charitable activities.

The club has been and still is active in the community through donations given to college students, terminally ill patients and those with homes destroyed by fire.

The club also donates money to the Rotary Club, local churches and carnival parades.

Dorothy Ledet, the club’s only charter member, was instrumental in gathering a group of ladies together to form the organization.

When it was started, the New Comers had 15 members who were the late Roberta Lee, Ledet, Lorraine Pradier, the late Louversa Aubry, Phelma Lee Slaughter, Elvina Brown, the late Theresa Lee, the late Leola Porter, the late Pecola Alexander, the late Elizabeth Pradier, the late Francis Gilbert, the late Ruth Pradier, the late Leona Simon, the late Maude Batiste and the late Lillie Mae Batiste.

Club floats

In the beginning, the New Comers sponsored one major event each year, an annual ball which was held each year during the Christmas and New Year’s Holiday.

Two years after it was started, in 1962, the club sponsored a Mardi Gras Parade.

Back then, floats were constructed from flat bed trucks borrowed from people in the community. Area carpenters volunteered their services for a small token and made floats in driveways and garages.

Float decorations were the responsibility of New Comers club members, their husbands and children and others in the community.

Some floats were constructed and decorated at Evangeline Area Vocational Technical School with the help and cooperation of the late Elijah Reed and Leon Hunt, Winnfield Ledet and many others.

Today, floats are constructed and contracted through float builders in the area.

Club “firsts”

Theresa Polite Thierry was the club’s first Mardi Gras queen for its annual parade. She was a 1962 graduate of Adam Carlson High School. She retired from the Lousiana Technical College Evangeline campus after 30 years of service.

The first New Comer queen was Harralena Simon of St. Martinville, and King Gabriel was Martin Batiste, with Albert Ledet III as his page.

Today, there are seven members in the club-- Janice Anthony, Marie Etienne, Danielle Fontenette, Franca Francis, Dorothy Ledet, Shirley Skipper and Clara Tyler.

(Members have seen the parade grow bigger and bigger every year, and wish to thank everyone who has helped in any way--financially, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the past fifty years.

We realize that without the fine people of St. Martinville and the surrounding areas that this parade would not be possible.)