Patriot Athletic Club donates money for new weight room equipment at North Vermilion

LEROY — North Vermilion High received a generous boost in its weight room thanks in large part to the school’s booster club.
The Patriot Athletic Club (PAC) recently presented the school with a check for $9,500. The funds helped toward the purchase of brand-new equipment for the weight room.
“It’s big,” North Vermilion Athletic Director Jack LeBlanc said. “We have three athletic P.E. classes that use it every day. We use it after school. Pretty much every athlete at this school is using it at least once a day.
“It’s big to get some new equipment in there and revamp the weight room.”
North Vermilion head football coach Richard Prejean agreed.
“We have about 120 kids go through here each day between the boys and girls,” said Prejean, who is also the school’s softball coach.
The layout of the new equipment helps better utilize the room with those numbers.
“There is more we can do with this equipment because it is more versatile,” Prejean said. “There is more open space. We used to spend a lot of time rotating between racks and now we will not have to do that.
“Being able to save time and space is tremendous.”
Prejean, who has been with the school more than 15 years, said it has been at least 12 since the weight room has seen new equipment.
“We have talked about doing some things in here in the last two or three years,” Prejean said. “The expense was always too much and we never had the right fundraiser.”
That changed prior to the start of this school year, when the PAC began a raffle ticket sale as a fundraiser.
“A few of us got together and threw out some ideas,” LeBlanc said. “We came up with the raffle idea about two weeks before school.”
PAC President Darin Desormeaux said a plan to involve the student-athletes played a vital role in the fundraiser’s success.
“In the past we have tried to get parents and others outside of the school involved,” Desormeaux said. “This year we focused on getting all of the high school athletes involved. We put together this super raffle.”
The student-athletes sold the tickets for $10 apiece. During the first four months of school, the PAC held drawings, resulting in around $9,000 in prize money being given away. That left plenty to give to the student-athletes themselves.
“We were able to give more than $9,000 to the athletic department,” Desormeaux said happily. “Every high school student athlete is going to benefit from this. This is all about them.
“The bottom line is that it’s the student-athletes’ money.”
LeBlanc thanked Desormeaux, Vice President Kevin Meyers and the rest of PAC, as well North Vermilion Principal Tommy Byler, for helping make all of this possible.
“PAC is definitely a big help to our athletes,” LeBlanc said.
Prejean said he simply could not be more pleased with the entire situation.
“We as coaches are so grateful to the effort of those in the Booster Club,” Prejean said. “They worked hard on (fundraising). It came out really well.
“I was just tickled pink when they asked us if we wanted to do something with the weight room.”
Desormeaux said he expects the raffle fundraiser to be back for next year in the hopes of further improving North Vermilion athletics.
“This was great for our first year of holding the raffle,” Desormeaux said. “We were still able to do everything else the PAC does. We provide money for uniforms for boys and girls each year. We give scholarship to a graduating male and female each year. It’s all been pretty amazing.
“We want to do the raffle again next year and we are looking forward to the same or more success.”