Letter from the President

P r e s i d e n t LETTER FROM THE

Sarah Giglio

Dear League Members,

I cannot believe we are already nearing the end of 2021. The past two years have been nothing short of chaotic and a little crazy, but hopefully we all see a sense of normalcy coming back—slowly but surely. When the pandemic started, I was worried about how the League would adjust. I shouldn’t have been—our members continue to amaze not only me and our Board, but also the community at large by showing up, getting creative, and continuing to meet critical needs in the Shreveport-Bossier City area.

As I write this, we are wrapping up October, which is notoriously the busiest month of the year for the League. We have so many things going on in October each year, and every year our members show up and get the job done. So, what specifically have we done in October? Well, first of all, let’s recap with the Red River Revel. As many of you know, the Revel couldn’t happen last year because of COVID-19, but this year it came back. And while we don’t have final numbers in yet, I know that there were several days with extremely high attendance. The weather was perfect with the exception of about half of one day, and the music, food, and artist line-ups were top-notch.

We put on Artist for a Day (AFAD), where our AFAD committee taught kids at the Revel about art and helped them complete crafts. Thanks to this committee’s hard work, we reached hundreds of kids!. Thank you so much to that committee! Also at the Revel, dozens of you worked shifts at the Pepsi booths. This is so appreciated. For those who do not know, the League receives a percentage of Pepsi sales at the Revel, and the way that we earn this is by staffing the Pepsi booths. Every year I enjoy not only slinging Pepsis myself, but also seeing the connections made among League members who work shifts together. We don’t have the final numbers from Pepsi sales yet, but I think it will be one of our best years in recent history.

Finally, a huge part of October is the Pumpkin Patch at Provenance. I cannot say a big enough thank you to Maria Woodley and her Pumpkin Patch committee for the success of the patch this year. We have sold more pumpkins than ever before, which ultimately results in greater community impact. Thank you to everyone who has worked a shift, especially those pumpkin unloading and cleanup shifts—those are particularly physically taxing, and we appreciate all of your help. Also, thank you to the various community groups that came out to assist us, including, but not limited to local high school key clubs and the LSUS basketball team.

We also had a successful month of September. Although we had hoped to bring back our full in-person Super Safety Saturday event, this area was experiencing a COVID-19 spike in August, and so based on the advice of several local medical professionals that we consulted with, we decided that it was just too soon to go back to a large in-person event (especially with a touch-a-truck element which seemed like a haven for germs). In August we shifted our focus to another virtual Super Safety September, and it was successful. We provided informational videos to the public about health, safety, dental hygiene, and all other topics that they would have learned about at the in-person event. Thank you to our Super Safety Saturday committee for rolling with those COVID-19 punches and making the event a success even in a pandemic.

Another exciting thing that happened in October is the announcement of our fall slate. In case you missed the GMM, Ginny Lamb has been slated for President-ElectElect, and Alex Person has been slated for Executive Vice President Elect. I could not be more proud and excited to announce these women as our slate. They are not only amazing women, friends, wives, and mothers, but they have the leadership skills and love of the League to continue to take our organization far. Congratulations, Ginny and Alex!

Our December GMM will be our traditional holiday party, which Kendra Scott at the Shoppes at Bellemead has offered to host for us again. They are working on getting a discount that they can offer us, and we will have a couple of drawings as well. Additionally, the LOFT a few doors down will be offering a discount the night of our party for League members, so once you get some jewelry, go grab an outfit to match! We will have more details on the party coming soon, but please mark it on your calendars for December 14 at 6:00 p.m. and plan to attend. It’s a fun and easy way to get a meeting credit and do some shopping.

Thank you all for your dedication to our League and to the community at large. Thank you for answering when we ask you to pick up shifts, share our posts on social media, and attend meetings. Shreveport-Bossier wouldn’t be what it is without our League, and I am so grateful to be among such a strong group of women.