CADE – CCA-Louisiana’s Sugar Chapter staked yet another claim as the top chapter in the Sportsman’s Paradise on Aug. 15.

Following several strong years of fundraising, the local chapter took it to another level that Thursday night at the Cade Community Center. Sugar Chapter president Sandy Derise praised the chapter’s generous members who attended the 18th annual Sugar Chapter Banquet.

Derise, a Jeanerette native who lives in Youngsville, said, “I can tell you we had a super night. We raised more than $170,000 … probably our biggest year in about four, five years.”

Last year’s event raised an estimated $150,000, which was among the top chapters in Louisiana. The Sugar Chapter exceeded that this year.

Derise estimated the crowd at about 750 people, including more young boys and girls attending the event than in recent memory. He tried to explain the largest attendance figures in several years.

“Everybody was kind of excited about the party, I think. It was really a good turnout. There was just a lot of excitement and enthusiasm to give to a good cause,” he said.

One of the many enthusiastic outdoorsmen in the building was Sugar Chapter banquet committee member Chris Carlisle, who stood by the large ice chest in the foyer where banquet-goers deposited membership tickets after filling out the cards at a nearby table.

“This event is fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. Our chapter is one of the best in the state,” said Carlisle, a New York State native who moved to New Iberia and has been with the local chapter since 2020.

Kirk Sieber, a local outdoorsman recently inducted as a CCA-Louisiana Hall of Famer, banquet committee chairman Tyson Rivet, Ryan Delcambre and David Clement were among the committee members selling various “bottomless cups.” Their station was the last before entering the spacious center.

The silent and live auctions were unqualified successes, according to Derise, a 50-year-old sales manager for Stabil Drill Specialties who was banquet chairman in 2022 and 2023. He praised long-time auctioneer Chuck Darling of Mansfield, Texas. Darling, who has been the auction voice the past four years for CCA-Louisiana, calls about 300 live auctions each year for CCA events in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

“He’s good. He did a super job. There were lots of new hunting trips. Everything went for a good bit,” Derise said.

The highest bids on the night were at $8,500, twice and both for a trip to Italy.

“We sold two of them at that price,” Derise said, happily.

Bon Creole, which has catered all but one or two Sugar Chapter Banquets since the first one 18 years ago, began preparing for the recent banquet early that day at the restaurant on St. Peter Street in New Iberia. By the end of the day they had cooked enough for 800 people.

“The food was good, really good,” Derise said.

Bon Creole general manager Chris Louviere of Lafayette, a graduate of Catholic High School-New Iberia and University of Louisiana-Lafayette, started helping his grandfather, Bon Creole founder and owner Randy Montegut, with the business after earning an industrial tech degree from ULL.

“We’ve been cooking all day at the restaurant. We stayed on the beans,” Louviere said about the eight cases (96 pounds) of green beans.

Restaurant staffers fried 250 pounds of catfish fillets and cooked the meat to go with the four 50-cup pots of rice at the site. Louviere said 40 pounds of pork, 30 boxes of sausage and 70 pounds of chicken went into the jambalaya.

About the amount of rice (four 50-cup pots), he said, proudly giving due credit, “He (Randy Montegut) figured that out a long time ago.”

Louviere also said 20 restaurant staffers, cooks and servers combined, worked the event. One of the cooks was Debbie Duplantis, who has worked 34 years at Bon Creole.

Eric Peters, who manned the large jambalaya bins filled with simmering sauce and meats on the burners, and fryers Gavin Ramsey and Jacob Breaux were among the cooks.

Rolls and chocolate chip brownies also were served with the meal at two long tables in a hall beginning at 7 p.m.

Boy Scouts and a Cub Scout from Troop 133 and Pack 463, respectively, made up the Color Guard that opened the main part of the Sugar Chapter Banquet. The Boy Scouts were Hollis Daigle, Ian Barras, Roman Bourque, Conner Copell and John Barras while the Cub Scout was Holden Daigle.

Two Catholic High School Fishing Team members, Hollis Daigle and Seth Switzer, were among the helpers.

Derise already was looking ahead to the 19th annual Sugar Chapter Banquet.

“We look forward to having a good offseason. We’ll do it again next August for sure,” Derise said.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.