Spring will be sprung in radiant color on April 24 and there is no better way to spend a blooming enticing Saturday that the annual Heart, Art & Stroll Festival sponsored by the Old Mandeville Business Association.
There is something for everyone, young and old, in this old Mandeville spring ritual: competitive running, a more leisurely champagne stroll and scores of regional artists displaying their creativity in front of businesses along Girod and Lafitte streets.
The always exciting competitive run — a 4-mile jaunt through a large sector of Old Mandeville — will begin at 4 pm at Varsity Sports, 2021 Claiborne St. and end there.
At 5:30 pm those who want to set a bit slower place will line up and leave for the champagne stroll at Maxien's Coffee House at the south end of Girod Street and end at Good Earth Market & Cafe at the north end of Girod Street.
Meanwhile, throughout the day several acclaimed artists in the region will be setting up outside displays of their work for viewing and purchasing in front of businesses along Girod and Lafitte. Among those artists scheduled to display are Mary Stephens Powe, Kerrie Jones, Kelly Landrum Hammill, Sissy Coughlan, Rita Maduell, Austin Calamari and Andre Maduell. OMBA volunteers organizing the event, including board member and officer Terri Fogarty, are still determining the exact locations.
Joy is music also and there will be plenty of that including, Les Ensembles playing on the lawn of Vianne's Tea Salon & Cafe at Girod and Livingston streets, the Outsiders on the front porch of Ed Greene's house at Girod and Monroe and, NOLA Express at Good Earth. The latter band will be kicking off in an outside concert about 6 pm just as the champagne strollers arrive.
The rhythmic thundering of experienced runners will serenade the streets of Old Mandeville beginning at 4 pm in a race coordinated by OMBA board member and officer, Ryan Green, who is also managing partner of Varsity Sports.
Running is healthy for the heart, the soul, the mind and the spirit.
And it is more: “A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they're capable of understanding,” said Steve Profontaine, a well known long and middle distance runner credited with getting much of a generation off the couches and out on the running tracks in the 1970s in America. So be a part of exciting moving art and sign up for the big race on April 24.
Green said pre-registration for the 4-miler ends on April 16th and the early registration fee is $20, which includes a commemorative champagne flute for those runners who want to walk around the corner to Maxien's and do the stroll after the run.
Race day registration begins at 3 pm at Varsity for $25 and also for the commemorative flute. Interested participants can begin registering immediately in person at Varsity where entry forms are available, and printable forms can be obtained online at www.varsityrunning.com and www.15thstreetflyers.org. Call Varsity at (985) 624-8200 for additional details.
Green said forms can be mailed to Varsity in advance with the entry fee check, and he asks that AHS (for Art, Heart & Stroll) be written on the envelope and postmarked on or before April 16.
There will be awards to top finishers at the end of the race at Varsity in age brackets including overall male/female, masters at 40 years old and plus, male/female 15 and under and for 16-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40- 49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70 plus.
The commemorative flutes will have the OMBA and event logo on them.
Get out the running shoes and get registered. As Olympian and legendary marathoner Peter Maher put it, “Running is the big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today’.”
As Nietzsche observed: “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.”
Or as the Diamonds put it in their 1957 Evergreen hit record, The Stroll: “Well, rock a my so-oul — How I love to stroll.... So turn around baby, let’s stroll once more.”
Yes, dear fans, you have flocked to Old Mandeville in the past for OMBA sponsored champagne and poinsettia strolls so by popular demand, the champagne stroll is back. You can stroll once more.
The commemorative champagne flutes go on sale the day of the stroll (April 24) at 4:30 pm at Maxien’s and will be on sale prior to the event at Varsity Sports, Das Schulerhaus, Whitney Bank on Marigny Avenue, Good Earth Market & Cafe and Vianne’s Tea Salon & cafe.
For those who want to stroll only at 5:30 pm at Maxien’s, the cost is $15. As already mentioned, those running the 4-mile and the stroll, the cost is $25, if purchased on the day of the race and stroll.
Pre-race costs are $20 if entering the race and stroll, and $10 if only strolling.
There will be champagne stations at participating businesses along the route meandering from Maxien's northward to Good Earth.
There is still plenty of time for artists who want to display and sell artwork to get an assigned spot by contacting Fogarty at (985) 778-0700.
You will enjoy the views and meeting interesting people along the stroll. Henry David Thoreau would probably be among the number if he were still around. "It's a great art to saunter,'' he observed.
There will be complimentary tea served from 1 pm until the last stroller passes at Vianne’s, and free refreshments from 10 am at Das Schulerhaus until the last stroller passes.
Artists will definitely be on display in tents in the parking lot of Das Schulerhaus. So run, stroll, sway to the music and come see the exciting art on April 24. There will be something notable as Daniel Berenbeim observed, “Every great work of art has two faces; one toward it own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.”
When the day is done and you again have experienced the 2010 OMBA Art, Heart & Stroll, you will agree, as the old saying goes, “The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found in the heart.”
QUICK REMINDER
You might be scanning this just in time to enjoy some of the many activities of a literary bent and lots of fun also during the third Old Mandeville Jane Austen Festival unfolding March 6-7 at the Mandeville Trailhead and The Lakehouse Restaurant sponsored by the Jane Austen Foundation of Louisiana Inc.
DUES DUES DUES DUES
Not to sound like a stuck record, but your 2010 OMBA dues are due and please try to pay them as soon as possible. Your membership dues enable your OMBA to do lots of positive things each year to benefit the businesses of Old Mandeville.
You have all received a letter from OMBA Vice President/Membership Carol Self and OMBA Administrator Julie Egle soliciting dues for the new year. Please don't ignore it or forget about. Take a moment and fill out a check and mail it as indicated.