Lagniappe Spring 2024

Spring 2024 Contents

3 Community Impact

4 Sustainer of the Year

6 WE Fellowship

7 League Faces

8 JLNO Diaper Bank

On the Cover: Kathy Eastman at Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans

LAGNIAPPE STAFF

Editor

Kate Uhle

Assistant Editor

Kylie June Tahana

Writers

Taymika Sharrieff, Kate Uhle

Photographers

Delana Lynn Photography, Torry Dean, Rachel Robinson, LeeAnn Moss

PUBLISHER STAFF

Art Director

Ali Sullivan

Production Manager

Rosa Balaguer

Production Designer

Meghan Rooney

Chief Executive Officer

Todd Matherne

From the President

On March 31, 2024 the Junior League of New Orleans officially turned 100 years old! For an entire century, our members have served our beloved greater New Orleans metropolitan area through community projects, programs, initiatives and events.

Our key recurring themes for this milestone year are Reintroduce. Reimage. Re-engage. In this issue, I invite you to re-engage with the Junior League of New Orleans. Whether you are a JLNO member, have attended a JLNO program or event, have volunteered alongside the League at a service project, passed by our Headquarters on Carondelet, or are reading about the Junior League for the first time in this publication, we are glad to know you!

We would also appreciate the opportunity to re-engage with you this spring. Join us on Thursday, April 11 at 6 p.m. at our Headquarters for a celebration of women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs at our WE Fellowship Pitch Event. Consider volunteering with us, donating products, and contributing financially to our JLNO Diaper Bank to help us reach our bold goal of reaching our 10 millionth product distribution milestone in our 10th year of operations. Support our commitment to advancing the wellbeing of women with a donation to JLNO on Give NOLA Day on May 7. Mark your calendar for the Centennial Gala on Friday, May 31 at The Orpheum Theater.

JLNO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President Ashley Cangelosi Llewellyn

President-Elect Tara Waldron

Secretary Kelly Rauser

Treasurer Trish Thibodeau

Assistant Treasurer Paige Farrell

Business Council Director Robin Carubba

Communications Council Director

Allison Shapiro Dandry

Community Council Director Rachel Robinson

Membership Council Director Hope Clay

Planning & Development Council Director

Blair Broussard

Ways & Means Council Director Sarah Howard

Nominating Committee Chair Dale Ellen O'Neil

Sustaining Advisor to the Board Kristen Koppel

If you or a woman in your life aged 23 or older who demonstrates an interest in and commitment to voluntarism and resides in the New Orleans area, we invite you to learn more about membership in the Junior League of New Orleans. We are currently recruiting New Members for the 2024-2025 League year. If you were once a member of JLNO and want to reconnect with us, email correspondingsecretary@ jlno.org and request reinstatement. If you were a member of a Junior League in another city, we welcome you as a transfer. We look forward to engaging, and in many cases re-engaging, with you during our Centennial year.

We continue to be women leading for a greater New Orleans, deeply committed to advancing the wellbeing of women.

In service , Ashley Cangelosi Llewellyn President , 2023-2024

Photo by: Delana Lynn Photography

May 31, 2024

Orpheum Theater

Patron Party 6-7 | Gala 7-11

GALA ENTERTAINMENT: BUCKTOWN ALLSTARS

Interested in becoming a member of the Junior League of New Orleans?

Find our New Membership Request Form at jlno.org/membership.

Join the over 1,725 JLNO members that collaborate to advance the wellbeing of women and families in the Greater New Orleans area . JLNO members gain valuable skills and experiences that enable you to reach your potential as a leader in our community. Any woman aged 23 or older who demonstrates an interest in and commitment to voluntarism , regardless of race, religion , or national or ethnic origin may join the 2024-2025 New Member class

Give at jlno.org/annual-giving

Sustainer of the Year Kathy Eastman

From the moment you meet Kathy Eastman, you can’t help but like her. Every bit a classy, composed lady, she greets you with a kind smile and a firm, but gentle handshake. The day we met at Trinity Episcopal Church, a place very dear to Kathy, we sat in a cozy sitting room close enough to hear the soft concert music coming from nearby. It was the perfect setting to speak with an equally as calming person.

After leaving New Orleans for 15 years, Kathy returned and became a teacher at Trinity Episcopal School. Having a love of helping and a passion for people, Kathy became very involved in the Trinity community. She began participating in an outreach program called Stephen Ministry which matches you to a person who’s having a hard time in life, with anything from handling illness or losing a loved one or struggling with parenting. Someone that “just needs a listening ear, non-judgmental, and you're not there to solve the problem. It was phenomenal because a lot of times you would end up getting so much from the relationship. I was [paired] with a woman for two and a half years and it was so enriching to both of us.” Her involvement at Trinity started the ball rolling towards her

inevitable involvement with the Junior League of New Orleans. A blind date at the time (with her now husband, John) became a relationship which introduced Kathy to amazing women in the New Orleans community. “It was really through John and the people he knew, particularly Fran Villere, who was just a real powerhouse in the League. She was President, and she was just a wonderful lady. She came up to John one day and she said, ‘We need to get Kathy in the League.’ Some friends that I didn't know until I moved back here were the ones that sponsored me, and I've never looked back.”

Kathy officially joined the League in 1984, and found a secondary outlet to channel her passion for children’s education. She spoke specifically about when she chaired a League project called SAENO, a nod to Nancy Reagan’s “just say no to drugs” campaign. It brought League women into classrooms and onto panels to speak about substance abuse education, and gave the opportunity to host workshops for people to learn how to better educate kids in our community about tough topics.

Another JLNO project called Kids on the Block - “not the music!,” Kathy

was quick to clarify - brought education to schools, free of charge, through the use of puppets and teaching children about the similarities between all of us. Many of the puppets looked different and had different backstories, some with disabilities, but explained how we all live in the same community and how we can find the common threads which weave us all together.

In later years, while serving as the League’s Administrative Vice President, the current JLNO President would invite their executive team to a lunch with the current Sustainers, past Sustainers of the Year, and past Presidents. “We all got up to make a little report on what we were doing and I remember thinking when I left that day, ‘This is really neat. I'd love to come back to this.’” A few years later, Kathy was able to get her wish while serving as President, and coming back to one of the many moments which shaped her League experience.

“It's been such an amazing gift to my life to meet so many wonderful people. You always know that you want to give back to the community in which you live. And I love this crazy, indescribable place that we call New Orleans.”

When discussing the opportunities which these women and League have given Kathy, she explained how “the League not only gave me the training and exposure, but it also gave me the confidence to pull me into things that I never thought you could do. It's one thing to stand in front of a classroom of children. It's quite another to be on a board with all these women who are so accomplished, but there you are! It opened my world, it opened my eyes, and it opened my heart.”

Like most women in the League, these experiences are what helped shape Kathy as a person, which helps shape why the League is so important to our community. She discussed how pulling women together from all over the city, with different gifts and focuses, can show us how we can make a change in the world. Kathy explained that if we draw from each other’s strengths, and support each other, we can work together to find new and different facets of the community which we can make a difference.

“I think those of us that have moved on to [League] Sustainer-hood can tell who had training at the League and who didn't. I think the Junior League is such a wonderful place to nurture, to build, to inspire individual women who collectively, or as part of another group, can go on to work with others, to respect others.

You've got to give everybody an opportunity to say what they want to say. You need to hear different points of view. The world doesn't walk in step. Right now, I wish the League could have more influence on policy holders in this country about how you comport yourself, and how you respect others that have a different opinion than you.”

While speaking with such passion and conviction, it was an easy time to tie Kathy’s thoughts into how she feels being a part of the Junior League of New Orleans as it approaches its centennial anniversary. After a thoughtful pause, Kathy said, “It takes my breath away. It is inspiring. I think about those women that started this organization here in New Orleans, with a dream, and said, ‘Come on, ladies, we can do this!’

And it's grown, and it's beautifully grown, in a way where we're reaching out to more sectors of this wonderful city we love. We've grown a lot and to look back and see where it's gone, where it's come from, the fact that the thrift shop started in the French Quarter! That was formative of a difference we made. I [still] remember being

a provisional and having thrift shop shifts.”

As Kathy recounts memories of her time in the League and even the changes it has made over the years, you can tell Kathy is immensely proud of the work and progress the League has made. Smiling and softly clapping her hands, Kathy ends with a confident, “Good job, ladies. Good job.”

Being named Sustainer of the Year during the centennial of the Junior League of New Orleans, Kathy remains confident that “nobody gets [here] were it not for the people that are around them.” Thoughtfully thinking of how she has served and her hopes to continue serving, Kathy says she is “grateful and will do anything to keep [the League] a vital organization for the next hundred years. I care about it and I care about the women that I've gotten to know so well. And I care about the efforts that you all are putting forth.”

Being reminded of the present as the music streaming in from the chapel began to fade, Kathy wrapped up our time together with a simple, yet impactful, thought regarding her journey with the Junior League: “I'm grateful for it. I loved it. Even when there were some tears shed and a little angst when things happen that you have to deal with. But I'm so grateful for it.”

As we made, what Kathy referred to as, “a gracious exit,” it was easy to feel confident in the work Junior League is doing for our community. Built on the shoulders and minds of incredible women since 1924, Mrs. Kathy Eastman is another example of how the Junior League of New Orleans will easily continue to thrive for the next hundred years.

April 11th, 6pm

JLNO Headquarters

4319 Carondelet Street

New Orleans, LA 70115

jlno.org/wefellowship

Congratulations to our 5 finalists! Join us as these female owners pitch their business to win the title of WE Fellow, a $ 5,000 cash grant from Fidelity Bank P.O.W.E.R., business coaching from Trepwise, marketing opportunities, and so much more.

League Faces

( L - R ) Erica Washington , Lynn Spearman , and Melissa Nunn enjoy sips and shopping at the annual JLNO Holly Jolly Market where over 30 local vendors sell art , home décor, sweet treats and more Photo by Delana Lynn Photography

In support of Educare New Orleans, League members made Christmas wishes come true by checking lists, wrapping presents, and playing Santa while delivering gifts during a toy drive to benefit children in our community Photo submitted by Torry Dean

To honor the legacy of Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., ( L - R ) Kaya Koban , Rachel Robinson , Claire Stansbury, and Kamber LeBlanc and other Junior League members participated in the National Day of Service by volunteering at the JLNO Diaper Bank to sort and pack 62,045 diapers for distribution to our network of community partners Photo submitted by Rachel Robinson

What better way to celebrate International Women’s Day than with strong, thoughtful Leauge women and guests joined together for the JLNO Women’s Leadership Summit, filled with motivational sessions and dynamic workshops designed to promote personal and professional growth Photo by Delana Lynn Photography

Marchand Creative Kitchens hosted JLNO members and their guests who flexed their culinary skills while the Cupcake Fairies taught us how to make our very own personal king cake, just in time for Carnival season! Photo by LeeAnn Moss

Students from Ursuline Academy meet with Madeleine Landrieu , Dean of the Loyola University College of Law, and featured speaker at the JLNO Women’s Leadership Summit hosted on March 8. Photo by Delana Lynn Photography

The JLNO Diaper Bank is in need of diaper donations.

*

Drop-off disposable diapers of any size, including open packages, to JLNO Headquarters (4319 Carondelet St., New Orleans, LA 70118)

Monday through Friday, 8:30 am until 4:30pm.

*especially sizes 4 & 6

Help us reach 10 million in year 10!

To learn more about how you can get involved with the JLNO Diaper Bank through volunteering, product donations and financial contributions to help us reach our goal of distributing 10 million products in our 10th year, visit jlno.org/community/diaper-bank .