The Ville Platte Rotary Club today (Tuesday) heard from Vicky Dupre, with the Louisiana Dept. of Insurance’s S.H.I.P. program. SHIP stands for Louisiana Senior Health Insurance Information Program. The program offers free Medicare counseling. There are 816,000 Medicare recipients in Louisiana. Right now, it is Medicare Open Enrollment through the end of the December. Her agency offers free counseling for Medicare. Her counselors have no connection with any insurance company or product. She encourages seniors to call her office toll free at 1-800-259-5300 for information and advice. She was the special guest of Rotary Club member Lisa Deshotel.

    In other club news, Club President Wayne Vidrine announced that the Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser was given a tour of Chicot State Park by State Rep. Bernard LeBas and shown how the park needs additional financial assistance.

   Also, it was announced that that the rotary club will sponsor a Halloween social next Tuesday night Oct. 24 at 6;00pm at Dr. Aswell’s Camping Lodge near Chicot Park. Due to the social taking place, there will be no noon meeting next week.