Acadian Contractors donate cut pipe to help students learn how to weld

Christmas came early for Vermilion Parish welding instructor Mark Simon, who teaches at Abbeville High School. His gift was a basket full of free scrap cut pipe from Acadian Contractors.
The gift does not sound too romantic or fun to the average Joe, but to a person who teaches welding, the gift was perfect.
Before the Christmas Holidays, workers of Acadiana Contractors, Jonas Mitchell and Roland Brailey, delivered the cut pipe. The two men unloaded the basket of cut pipe with a movable crane and placed it in the outside of the welding shop at AHS.
Simon watched in joy.
“This is a very good thing,” said Simon. “It looks like around 60 feet of donated pipe. It’s going to save the school board a lot of money.”
In the past, the Vermilion Parish School District had to purchase cut pipe for its welding program.
School Superintendent Jerome Puyau and Lonnie Richard of the school board met with Acadian Contractors President Glynn Hebert last year. The school officials pitched their ideas to Hebert. Hebert said Acadian Contractors was willing to help produce welders.
The donated cut pipe will be used by high school students throughout the
parish who are in the dual enrollment welding program. The students who take the class,will also get class credit from South Louisiana Community College (SLCC).
Once the students have welded and cut on the pipe, the pipe will be loaded back into the basket and picked up by Acadian Contractors.
At a recent school board meeting, Puyau informed the school board members about the partnership established with Acadian Contractors.
School Board attorney Woody Woodruff told the school board members, “Acadian Contractors is very enthusiastic about a partnership with us (school district). “Like everyone in the industry, they want trained workers.”
School Board member Anthony Fontana added, “This is a great idea. The industry is hungry for trained workers.”