Kaplan Chamber forks overs La. Cajun Food Fest to city’s Kaplan Police Association

After hosting the highly successful La. Cajun Food Fest for nine years, the Kaplan Chamber of Commerce board of directors voted to hand it over to the Kaplan Police Association.
“This is a huge opportunity for the Food Fest to expand to the next level,” said Mike Kloesel, chamber president. “We will work closely with the association to ensure the festival remains a successful part of our community.”
As the festival continues to grow, Kloesel said the amount of volunteers needed to pull off a festival of this caliber are getting harder and harder to come by.
“We feel these guys will bring some fresh new ideas to the table,” said the chamber president. “There is no doubt they will be able to acquire new sponsorships by enlisting more out of town businesses to help defray the enormous cost of hosting this great festival.”
In the past, all of the burden of putting on this festival fell into the hands of local businesses and individuals. However, when there is a decrease in sales, this makes it harder for them to shoulder the expenses alone.
Even though the festival has been hugely successful, Kloesel also noted several chamber members were dissatisfied with event promotional payouts.
“Even though the payouts were voted on and approved by the chamber board,” said Kloesel, “the reaction from local businesses and community was not a positive one.”
“With us handing over the Food Fest to the Police Association, it does three things. First it is going to allow us to focus on one event for our fund raiser. Second, it separates the chamber from adversity caused by events that unfolded in previous years. And third, and most important, it is going to allow the chamber to focus on promoting Kaplan businesses as well as the community as a whole.
“As a chamber, we are moving forward, facing our membership concerns with the vision of promoting Kaplan businesses and helping in the community in which we live.”
The chamber did elect to keep the profitable “Boogie on the Boulevard” 5K event as their main annual fund raiser.
Next week, the Herald will explain the purpose and functions of Kaplan’s Police Association and how they will benefit from the proceeds of the festival.