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Noel Acadien Au Village opens for the holidays, shining a light on LARC

Posted at 9:12 PM, Nov 30, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-30 22:16:48-05

Friday was opening night for the Noel Acadien au Village.

During this annual event, 100 percent of the proceeds go to helping those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

It’s a cause that helps the LARC community and Friday, beneath the shining Christmas lights, the LARC community showed Acadiana why the village is so important to them.

“Well, right now we’re doing Christmas. We’re making snowmen and little reindeer…we’re going to have our Christmas party and I’m excited for that because that’s the first time I get to go to a Christmas party,” Shelly Herpin, a client at LARC says.

Those opportunities made possible by LARC’s vocational services and their personal care attendants.

“We go and get our groceries and she helps me pay my bills and everything. She helps me make my bed, she helps me clean my house, pretty much shes like my second mama,” Herpin explains.

All of that is because of the money from the Acadien village

“To do all the infrastructure things we need to do. We can have programs for the clients but you really can’t do the programs if the clients aren’t here so you need the vans to go. They created the Acadien village to employ LARC clients and generate money forLARC.  LARC couldn’t be what it is today without community support, “says Executive Director Glenn Weber.

Herpin says she likes to volunteer at the Acadien Village and for many, like Shelly Herpin, LARC is their only family

“Because my mommy and daddy passed away and I’m the only and my brother passed away and it helps me getting out more and more,” Herpin says.

More than anything, LARC shines a light on their abilities rather than their disabilities

“We think often here who’s really teaching who because if you walk amongst the clients, the greatest of purity of thought. They accept you for who and what you are,” Weber says.

Noel Acadien au Village is located at 200 Greenleaf Drive in Lafayette and will light up Acadiana from November 30 to December 23. Lights are scheduled to be on every night from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm, weather permitting.

KATC’s GMA crew was there Friday morning with a preview of over 500,000 bright and sparkling Christmas lights.

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