Monica Fontenette grew up watching her mother do for others, teaching her the love of blessing those in need.

Those life lessons stuck with the New Iberia native. Knowing that if her mother, Thelma Boyance Wesley, could help a stranger or a family member, Fontenette could do the same. It wasn’t until a few years ago that she got her chance.

Fontenette started her own group, Blessing New Iberia, back in 2016 after a flood on the west end of town in New Iberia and the people there needed help. After a phone call from a friend, Fontenette was encouraged to give her efforts. And she did just that.

“We were just a small group of people wanting to help people in need in our community,” Fontenette said. “Before you knew it, it started to grow and get bigger.

Fontenette’s group quickly became an organization after so much buy-in from the community.

The group, led by Fontenette, and her current 20-something group members, spear-head community efforts to bring joy and blessing to those who can use it at the time.

“Our goal is to help as we see fit,” she said. “If there is a need in the community right now and people who are familiar with me … if they need assistance, I am always there to help.”

Recently Blessing New Iberia and Perro Blessings Outreach Ministry came together for a senior bingo at Schooldays Apartments. Fontenette was able to help gather donations for prizes for the bingo games for the Perro Blessings Outreach Ministry.

“We were able to drum up prizes,” Fontenette said. “And they had enough prizes to play bingo with the elderly for the next couple of months.”

She credits her husband, Robert and her two sons, Noah and Kobe, for being with her since day one. They have been her strength through all of this. Without them, she said, there is no way she could have pulled off some of the things Blessing New Iberia has done for the community.

Fontenette goes out her way to help others, because she is blessed by God and His efforts. It’s one of the driving factors for herself.

“God blesses me everyday,” Fontenette said. “And I just look at it as blessing others and helping them.”

Fontenette hasn’t walked every mile in someone’s shoes, but she has seen how hard it can be for some and where she and Blessing New Iberia are needed. And she is just giving them that nudge to make it through.

“I give them that nudge to get to be where they need to be,” Fontenette said

Growing up, Fontenette saw personally the struggles of her family and the things they needed or couldn’t get. For her, she realizes if she can help others, it will only help to get her blessings down the road.

One childhood memory still sticks out to Fontenette and reminders each and everyday why she does what she does.

Fontenette remembers as a child a stranger was walking down the street in her neighborhood near her home. Her family was together outside when this man approached her mom and asked her if he could eat because he was hungry.

“My mom hadn’t cooked that day… we may have had leftovers,” Fontenette recalls. “She went in and fixed the man, I think, a chicken sandwich and gave him a drink.”

Fontenette’s neighbors were confused at the generosity of the Fontenette matriarch.

“She said she didn’t need to know who he was,”Fontenette recalls of her late mother. ‘He told me that he was hungry and I was going to find something to give him.’ And that was the type of person she was.”

The love was passed on from mom to daughter – and is still felt to this day.

“If someone asks for help, you see what you can do to help that person,” Fontenette said.

If you are looking to join Fontenette’s Blessing New Iberia group, you can find them on Facebook (www.facebook.com/groups/blesssingni).

When asked which Bible verse is her favorite right now in her life, Fontenette said, Psalm 46:1 – God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.