Louisiana First Lady Donna Edwards was the guest speaker at today's (Tuesday) meeting of the Ville Platte Rotary Club. Rotarian Susan Saunders who was in charge of the program introduced her to club members. She and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards recently celebrated their 30th anniversary. They are the parents of three children. After visiting the rotary club, she was due to meet with students at Ville Platte Elementary and Ville Platte High School. The First Lady praised the local rotary club for their accomplishments including a long time scholarship for students to attend LSU Eunice. She also acknowledged the club for their work in establishing Chicot Park in 1939. She said the governor's priorities are raising teacher pay, bring more money to public education and increase the minimum wage for Louisiana workers. She said she was pleased to hear that the BESE board approved a $1000 a year pay increase in pay for teachers and $500 a year raise for support workers. She is actively involved in a number of causes: ending child hood hunger; reuniting foster children with their families or have them adopted into a loving home and to end human sex trafficking. She shared the good news that the number of children being adopted from foster homes increased from 735 in 2016 to 912 last year. Edwards said human sex trafficking is a major problem in the state and she is proud that the state received a 1.2 million dollar federal grant to help combat the problem and rescue girls under the age of 18. Among the special guests at the meeting were State Representative Bernard LeBas and Clerk of Court Randy Deshotel. Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine presented the First Lady with a special basket of Ville Platte seasonings and products.