ERICA ADAMS, 34 AMY HENRY CENTOLA, 30 Founders and Co-owners, Two Sprouts PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER
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Sweetly hand-drawn streetcars, pelicans, shotgun houses and Rex floats (among other New Orleans images ranging from iconic to arcane) populate the borders of Two Sprouts stationery. “We do a lot for New Orleans people who live away,” says Amy Henry Centola, who co-founded Two Sprouts with Erica Adams in October 2005. “We did (a birthday card with) a little king cake with a candle in it for a family in Texas. All of our stuff is subtle.” “Sometimes we get overly conceptual,” Adams adds. The concept behind Two Sprouts — New Orleans-centric note cards printed and sourced locally — resonates with customers. The business has expanded to include a children’s apparel line and custom invitations. Two Sprouts’ products can be found in 20 stores throughout the city, and the women have plans to expand. “We keep everything local,” Adams says. “We’re excited about all the donations we’ve been able to make.” Centola and Adams, both New Orleans natives, recently donated $7,500 generated from the sales of a special T-shirt to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. Proceeds from another card benefitted Friends of City Park. “I remember feeding ducks at the park with my parents, and now I bring my daughters,” Centola says. “We want to give back to the city that did so much for us.” — Wilkinson
MULLADY VOELKER ALFORD, 29 Founder, Gifted Nurses Home Care PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER
PROFILES BY KEVIN
ALLMAN, JAMIE CARROLL, WILL COVIELLO, KANDACE POWER GRAVES, LAUREN LABORDE, MARTHA PITTS, MORGAN RIBERA, MISSY WILKINSON AND ALEX WOODWARD
NEAL BODENHEIMER, 33 MATTHEW KOHNKE, 34 Co-owners, Cure PHOTO BY GARY LOVERDE
As any doctor knows, the difference between a cure and a poison is the dose. Matthew Kohnke and Neal Bodenheimer, co-owners of Cure, originally planned to name the craft cocktail lounge Apothecary, a nod to the original palliative purpose of cocktails and their intent to revitalize a faded city corridor. “It was a tough neighborhood,” Bodenheimer says. “We endured two break-ins (during the renovation process) where tools were stolen. We wondered if it was teetering on the verge of improvement or returning to its old form.” The decision to renovate a dilapidated 1903 fire station was born of equal parts practicality (“It was a shoestring budget,” Bodenheimer says) and passion. Friends since their pre-school days at the Jewish Community Center, the duo wanted to be part of the rebuilding efforts and made the risky decision to open a sleek, upscale bar in a neighborhood that, at the time, had “nothing at night other than Friar Tuck’s,” Bodenheimer says.
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > NOVEMBER 02 > 2010
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hether it’s in the arts or business, technology or community development, young adults are making the Crescent City a better place to live and work. Every year (with the exception of an interruption following Hurricane Katrina in 2005), Gambit solicits nominations from the public, then honors 40 people under the age of 40 for their accomplishments — and the contributions they have made to New Orleans. Welcome to our 13th annual 40 Under 40.
New Orleans native Mullady Voelker Alford has found a way to combine her two passions — business and helping people — with a company she believes is on the cutting edge of health care. After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Alford worked for a local investment firm before Hurricane Katrina prompted her to change her focus from helping businesses improve their bottom lines to helping children traumatized by the storm. She earned a master’s degree in social work from Tulane and counseled kids who had experienced deaths of loved ones, violence or other losses. “I loved that, but I found I really missed the business side of working,” she says. Alford joined Gifted Nurses, which provides supplementary nurse staffing for hospitals, but she missed helping people. Four months ago, Alford combined the best of both worlds by founding a Gifted Nurses home-care division, which provides in-home care for the elderly and families juggling the responsibilities of full-time jobs and caring for children and aging parents. “People have more options in private care,” Alford says. “They get to dictate the options they want. We know the elderly population is growing and … people want to stay in their homes as long as possible. We want to help them do that.” — Graves
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