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Message from the Chapter President
ews,
Washington Region UNO Alumni Web Site
www.uno-dc.net
Updated: October 30, 2007
Mark Your Calendars and Hold These
Dates
In the items
that follow, you’ll find details for upcoming UNO alumni events:
Saturday,
December 1, 2007 – Silver & Blue Gala (at the Foundry
in New Orleans)
Saturday,
December 8, 2007 – Saturday Nite in N’Awlins Dinner
Sunday, January
27, 2008 – UNO Mardi Gras Brunch
Tuesday,
February 5, 2008 – Clarendon Mardi Gras Parade
Saturday, May
3, 2008 – UNO Alumni Reunion Soirée (on
campus in N.O.)
Saturday, May
31, 2008 – UNO Crawfish Boil
Saturday, June
7, 2008 – Takoma Park Jazz Fest
Annual UNO Alumni Gala and Reunion
The two big alumni events of the year
in New Orleans are the Annual Silver & Blue Gala and the Annual
Reunion Soirée. The Gala is scheduled for Saturday,
December 1, 2007 at the Foundry in New Orleans. The
Annual Alumni Reunion Soirée will be held on the UNO campus,
Saturday, May 3, 2008. For information about these
two UNO signature events, contact 800-488-2956.
Saturday
Nite in N’Awlins
A number of
years ago the UNO Alumni chapter hosted a series of popular
“Saturday Nite in N’Awlins” dinners. We’ve decided to do it
again. Mark your calendars and hold this date:
Saturday, December 8, 2007, 7 o’clock. Kevin Scott (a
very loyal UNO alumnus) is the Proprietor of the New Orleans
Bistro, and he will prepare a Special Red Beans & Rice
Dinner for us. The price will be $19.95: gumbo,
catfish, red beans & rice, dessert, tea & coffee. Vegetarian
dinners will be available, as well as a children menu. This
will be a pre-holidays social gathering for UNO alums, their
families and friends, and supporters of the University (in other
words, this is not a business meeting!). The dinner is being
organized by alumni chapter Vice President Ariane Richaud and
chapter Treasurer Patricia Montegut. The Bistro is located at
4907 Cordell Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland. For reservations
call 301-986-8833. You can reach Kevin Scott at
cajunkev@neworleansbistro.org www.neworleansbistro.com
Mardi
Gras Brunch
Mark your
calendars now for next year’s UNO Mardi Brunch at the Washington
Hilton Hotel, Sunday January 27, 2008, 10 a.m.
Details will be available in November. This year’s annual UNO
Mardi Gras Brunch on Sunday, February 11, 2007, at the Hilton
was a huge success! Thanks to UNO Chancellor Tim Ryan and
Monique Gardner, Executive Director of the UNO Alumni
Association office on campus, for their solid support! The
annual Mardi Gras Brunch (now in its fifteenth year) is the
signature event for our local UNO alumni, and it's free to
alums. About two hundred UNO alumni, their families (children,
too) and guests enjoyed a wonderful brunch spread with
appropriate libations, made possible by the UNO Alumni
Association budget, as well as some generous contributions from
local UNO alumni and corporate sponsors.
Special guests were U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu and U.S.
Representative Bobby Jindal (recently elected LA Governor), each
of whom came to the podium at the Brunch with laudatory comments
abut UNO's fortitude and determination to continue quality
education (right from the days after Katrina struck) in the face
of continuing socio-economic struggles for New Orleans and
environs. William Jenkins, President of the LSU System, was
most complimentary of UNO and its students, faculty, and staff.
Another visitor at the Brunch was State Senator Walter Boasso,
District 1, St. Bernard Parish. Senator Boasso is a local hero
who has been fighting for one single levee board. He was the
UNO 2006 Alumnus of the Year.
A most enthusiastic thank-you to the local UNO alumni who made
generous contributions as official sponsors of the Brunch: Jeff
Brooks, Andrea Roane Skehan, Judith Atkins, Leo Surla, Roy
Morgan, Kevin Scott, Patricia Montegut, Jennifer Harrop, Andi
Holston, Ariane Richaud, Ann Juneau, and Ann Wade. Corporate
gifts matched the total from individual contributions.
Mardi
Gras Parade...In Our Own Back Yard
For the past
several years the Clarendon Community in Virginia has sponsored
its annual Mardi Gras street parade on Fat Tuesday night.
Central to that event’s success has been the organizational
support of a group of Louisiana college alumni groups,
principally the LSU folks. The UNO alumni chapter has also been
involved to some extent. Once again, the Clarendon Krewe is
calling on UNO alums to participate in next year’s parade in
Clarendon: Tuesday, February 5, 2008, 8 p.m. If
you can help, contact
kreweofla@yahoo.net.
Crawfish
Boil
UNO is part of
the D.C. Louisiana Collegiate Consortium comprised of alumni
organizations of seven LA schools. The DCLCC’s big annual event
is the crawfish boil at Fort Hunt Park, Alexandria, VA. The
fifth annual mudbug feast is t scheduled for
Saturday, May 31, Noon to 5 pm. This past spring we broke
all records with a showing of 1,500 happy folks who consumed
10,000 pounds of crawfish and lots of beer and sodas, etc. In
the past we’ve been entertained with live bluegrass, zydeco, and
New Orleans swing music. This year’s event promises, once
again, to be a tremendous blast!
Takoma
Park Jazz Fest
This annual
all-day, outside jazz concert in Takoma Park, Maryland is a gem,
now it its twentieth year. This year’s Jazz Fest was June 9,
and featured dozens of performers and bands. Food vendors and
information booths were all around the park. UNO Alums Ann
Juneau and Roy Morgan represented us at the UNO information
booth and distributed packets of materials from the UNO Music
Department’s Jazz Studies Program. The organizers of the Jazz
Fest are interested in featuring a New Orleans music theme next
year, Saturday, June 7, 2008, and have requested
that the UNO chapter and the UNO campus alumni office assist in
this. More information will be forthcoming later.
Number of
UNO Alums in Washington Region Jumps Dramatically
Just two years
ago, the number of University of New Orleans alumni in the
greater Washington region was less than 400. Today that number
is more than 1,200 according to the latest numbers given us by
the UNO campus Alumni Office. Obviously this reflects the great
post-Katrina exodus from New Orleans. So that the cost of
mailings to the chapter membership can be held in check, we are
putting more emphasis on upgrading our Web Site. If you know of
fellow UNO alumni who are not aware of the local UNO Web Site,
please inform them for us. Thanks.
UNO
Student Recruitment Program Needs Your Help
Monique
Gardner, Executive Director of the UNO International Alumni
Association on campus, has asked that UNO alumni here in the
Greater Washington region assist the campus in recruiting
potential students. It is truly vital that UNO increasingly
market itself in the prospective student arena outside the city
of New Orleans. The potential student base in the N.O.
metropolitan area is severely diminished. Andi Holston
(Washington alumni chapter president) and Ann Wade (former
chapter president) will spearhead this effort. If any of you
can assist UNO in talking to prospective students, please
contact Andi as soon as possible at 301-213-2900 or
andiholston@comcast.net You can reach Ann at
totsie3149@aol.com Monique can be contacted at the
Homer L. Hitt Alumni and Visitors Center, 2000 Lakeshore Drive,
New Orleans, LA 70148, 504-280-6159 or 800-488-2956.
www.unoalumni.com
Saints
Games Gatherings
UNO alum
Jean-Paul Bergeaux has been organizing Saints games parties this
season. You can contact him at NetApp in McLean, VA. Tel:
703-430-8910. E-mail:
jeanpaul@netapp.com.
Nick
Spitzer is back on WAMU 88.5 FM
Nick has sent the UNO alumni chapter this note: With much
public support and help from the UNO alumni network, the
American Routes radio show has returned to
WAMU Sundays, 4 pm. For now it is only the first hour of the
program, however there is hope the full program will return
eventually. Thanks to the many UNO alums in the Washington area
who helped spread the word of support for American
Routes produced in collaboration with the University
of New Orleans.
Nick Spitzer, Professor of Folklore and Cultural Conservation
School of Urban
Planning and Regional Studies, University of New Orleans
Creator and Producer: American Routes,
Public Radio International
501 Basin Street, Suite D, New Orleans LA 70112 www.Americanroutes.org
Flying to
New Orleans
Since Katrina,
many Louisiana natives and friends of the Pelican State here in
the mid-Atlantic have traveled to N.O. to help bring some amount
of badly needed revenue back into the devastated city. There
has been a steady stream, but sometimes finding reasonable and
convenient accommodations in the city is not easy. Greg Chase,
UNO alum and long-time native of New Orleans, manages a
NOLA-oriented tourism Web site. Check out Greg’s sites at
www.xnola.com and
www.seewashingtondc.net.
“A
Cultural Treasure That Must Be Saved”
A very nice
article – Memories of a City – about New Orleans appeared
in the August 29, 2007 issue of The American Spectator
in Quin Hillyer’s column “Streetcar Line.” www.spectator.org/search
Thanks to UNO alum Ron Faucheux for calling this to our
attention.
“Dispatches From The Other America”
Truthout News
Service carried a five-part series of stories about New Orleans
in the week of August 6-10. The author is Charles Anderson of
Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. He can be contacted
through his web site:
www.charleseanderson.com. Go to the archives section of
www.truthout.org for the five articles.
Bill
Quigley at Loyola
Law Professor
Bill Quigley at Loyola University in New Orleans has written a
series of excellent articles about Katrina and its aftermath,
and these articles also can be found in the archives of
www.truthout.org. Or you can contact him at
Quigley@loyno.edu.
UNO
Alumni Chapter Business Meeting
Thanks to Kevin
Scott we had the Bistro restaurant available for our membership
meeting on Saturday, June 2. He served a delightful Creole
brunch to the chapter officers and other UNO alums who
participated in the meeting. The revised by-laws were adopted,
and officers for the two-year term beginning this summer were
elected (see “Officers” section of this Web Site). Special
events for the next year were discussed. The need for a bank
account and the possibility of chapter dues will be explored by
Chapter Treasurer Patricia Montegut.
UNO Ring,
Credit Card, License Plate, Insurance Program
Contact Monique
Gardner on the UNO campus for details about the official UNO
ring, MasterCard credit card, UNO insurance plans (life and
medical), and the soon-to-be announced UNO license plate.
504-280-1080 Contact Monique Gardner on campus at
mgardner@uno.edu
Sad News
Monique Gardner
in the UNO campus alumni office has sent us this notice: Dr.
Frances “Fran” Miller Cashner, beloved wife of Robert C. Cashner
and mother of three daughters and a lifelong educator and
biologist, passed away after a valiant struggle with ovarian
cancer on July 13, 2007. She was 63. Dr. Cashner taught
anatomy and physiology to thousands of students at the
University of New Orleans for 26 years. She had previously held
teaching and research positions in immunology at Louisiana State
University Health Sciences Center and Tulane University Medical
Center. She was also on the faculty of Xavier University and
Tulane’s University College before accepting an instructorship
in the Department of Biological Sciences at UNO. A memorial
service will be held at the University of New Orleans in the
fall. In lieu of flowers, donations are encouraged to the
National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (www.ovarian.org),
or The Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org),
or WWNO FM (www.wwno.org);
or to one’s own favorite charity.
UNO’s
Zydeco Brunch
The chapter
sponsored a Zydeco Brunch, Saturday afternoon, April 28 with
live Cajun and Zydeco music provided by the Riverdale Ramblers,
a local five-piece band. This was the second year the UNO
chapter had sponsored the popular event at the New Orleans
Bistro. The weather was lovely, food was great, and lots of
dancing.
Bastille
Day Celebration
The Louisiana
College Consortium (comprised of a number of LA colleges)
sponsored its annual Bastille Day Celebration on Thursday night,
July 12, at the New Orleans Bistro in Bethesda. More than 125
alums from UNO, LSU, Tulane, Loyola, University of Louisiana at
Monroe, U.L. at Lafayette, Northwest, Nichols State, and McNeese
State joined to
celebrate the anniversary of the 1789 storming of the infamous
five-hundred-year-old Bastille Prison in Paris during the French
Revolution. Kevin Scott, UNO alum and Bistro owner, was a very
gracious host. As
he did last year at the Bastille Day Anniversary Party, Kevin
prepared a marvelous spread
(fried green tomatoes with shrimp, muffaletta crustini, and
Cajun crawfish egg rolls), and he also was behind the bar much
of the time mixing the Hurricanes.
Libations from the bar were half-price.
Whatta deal! And what a great time we had. Thanks Kevin! By
the way, the Bistro is the only place in all of the Nation's
Capital area where you can get a real Zazerac!! And Kevin is
well and truly just about the only restaurant chef in all of
Washington who knows how to make a proper roux; his gumbos are
the best around.
Raddy and
the Cats...Late-Nite Live N.O. Jazz
The New Orleans
Bistro restaurant (www.neworleansbistro.org)
presented New Orleans jazz musician and Katrina evacuee John
“Raddy” Lowery in a late-night jazz performance, Saturday,
September 1. Part of the proceeds benefited the Musicians
Village in New Orleans, a Habitat for Humanity project. Grammy
nominee John Lowery has performed with Aaron Neville, Marva
Wright and many other New Orleans music legends during his
40-year career. Raddy and the Cats, a four-piece jazz ensemble,
performed at the Bistro from 10 pm to after midnight. An
expanded appetizer and dessert menu was offered at reasonable
prices along with a full bar featuring New Orleans drink
specialties.
Mary
Sand, UNO Academic Counselor in ‘60s and ‘70s
From The
Washington Post, Obituaries, October 22, 2007: Mary
Sand, 89, who spent 28 years in the federal government before
retiring as an instructional design system specialist with the
Federal Aviation Administration in 2004, died Oct. 6 at Suburban
Hospital in Bethesda, MD of congestive heart failure. Mrs. Sand
began working with the Civil Service Commission in 1976 and was
part of its reorganization with the Office of Personnel
Management. In the late 1980s, she joined the FAA.
Before moving
to Bethesda in 1975, Mrs. Sand lived in New Orleans and was
active in civil rights work there. In the 1950s and 1960s, she
was president of the group Save Our Schools (SOS), which pushed
to keep the public school system integrated. The group, which
included white and black residents, fought against
segregationists’ efforts to shut down public schools in the face
of court-ordered integration. The group also worked to thwart
attempts by Louisiana elected officials to funnel tax money into
the creation of separate “white flight” academies, either
through direct use of tax money or through vouchers redeemable
at all-white schools. “Education was dear to her heart,” said
her son, Fred Sand, adding that was the arena in which she
carried out her civil rights efforts.
As president of
SOS, Mrs. Sand debated Democratic politician Leander Perez on
television. Perez was nationally known as a strident opponent
of desegregation. “No one wanted to take him on…but she did,”
said Sand, a Bethesda resident. Sand said that his mother’s
life was threatened on numerous occasions and that she had to be
given police and FBI protection. The book “The Second Battle of
New Orleans” (1996) by Liva Baker recounts the stories of Mrs.
Sand and other residents involved in New Orleans school
desegregation efforts. Mrs. Sand also participated in the work
of the Southern Regional Council, a racial justice group, and in
the early 1970s, at the request of Walter Cowan of the
Times-Picayune newspaper, she founded and led an organization
that worked to protect women in New Orleans from assault, sexual
violence, domestic abuse and other violent crimes. She also
designed and implemented academic and counseling programs to
assist returning Vietnam veterans with their transition to the
University of New Orleans.
Mrs. Sand
worked with religious and civic groups to help disadvantaged
preschool children prepare for the classroom. Her efforts in
New Orleans were recognized by former mayor Moon Landrieu and by
President Gerald R. Ford. Born Mary Eiermann in Madison, Wis.,
she graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1940 and
taught Latin and English in Rice Lake, Wis., before marrying
Norbert Sand in 1944. The couple moved to Washington, where her
husband worked for the Office of War Information. She taught
high school in Upper Marlboro and attended George Washington
University, receiving a master’s degree in 1947.
She and her
husband then moved to New Orleans, where she was a substitute
teacher in the public schools, worked briefly as an adjunct
English instructor at Tulane University and taught Latin and
English at a high school. In 1964, she was appointed academic
counselor for the school of liberal arts at the University of
New Orleans (formerly Louisiana State University in New
Orleans), a position she held until 1975.
In Bethesda,
she was a member of the St. Jane de Chantal Church, where she
sang in the choir. She also belonged to the American Council of
Catholic Women. For years, an informal group of parishioners
met at her house weekly to read and discuss church history and
other religious topics. Her husband died in 1986. Survivors,
in addition to her son, include three other children, Thomas
Sand of Gales Ferry, Conn., William Sand of Broussard, La., and
Mary Elizabeth Hamilton of Louisville, a sister, and two
grandchildren.
Thanks to all for supporting the University of New Orleans!
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