Ecton Lawrence "Ji" Billiot Jr.
July 7, 2008
Jaime Pineda
July 11, 2008
Some unsuspecting Houma residents were stunned at the pumps last Wednesday when IberiaBank representatives pulled up offering to pump and pay part of their gasoline total.
Bank associates from the Lafayette and Houma branch blitz from station to station giving away $10 gas cards to the people at the pumps. “It felt good and we enjoyed doing it,” said Houma IberiaBank Branch Manager Angela Guidry.
The bank calls its generous gestures “random acts of kindness.” It is part of an ongoing community program where random acts are performed throughout Terrebonne Parish on a monthly basis.
Guidry said some of the other acts ranged from picking up a lunch tab for a group of people to bagging groceries at a local supermarket.
Judi Gunn LeJeune, vice president of public relations for IberiaBank, said that given the high price of gas, bank officials believed that “free gas” was the perfect fit.
“People are so appreciative of the gesture that IberiaBank made,” she said. “They were very surprised and pleased.”
Houma resident Allison Theriot, who was among the first three gas recipients, said any little bit helps. She was filling up her GMC Yukon at the Shop Rite on St. Charles Street when an IberiaBank representative offered to pay $10 toward her gas purchase.
Along their route, the bank associates did meet a few skeptics who wanted to know what the catch was, LeJeune said.
“We just smiled at them, and told them that we were performing random acts of kindness. We are just taking the initiative to do something nice and perform a kind gesture for the community.”
At the end of the day, the bank spent between $500 to $800 on gas cards in the Houma area.
“Top executives felt we had the money to spare,” Guidry said. “This is our way of keeping in touch with the community.”
The bank is encouraging the Houma community to embrace the kindness concept and share it with others.
“We hope this is contagious and members of the community will use it as an opportunity to pay it forward and perform their own act of kindness in the community,” she said. In the meantime, Guidry said the bank is already planning its next random act.
Iberia Bank branch manager Angela Guidry (left) and senior vice president Kenneth F. Roig pump $10 of free gas to Houma resident Allison Theriot as part of the bank’s “random acts of kindness” program. * Photo by KEYON JEFF
