A share of the proceeds from this Saturday's colorful champagne stroll through the enchanting heart of Historic Old Mandeville will go to the St. Francis Animal Sanctuary to aid in their continuing recovery of a devastating fire at their Girod Street thrift store in April.
The Old Mandeville Business Association is sponsoring the stroll as part of its annual Art, Heart & Stroll festival which also features works by the region's best known artists who have displays set up during the day in front of many of the businesses on Girod and Lafitte streets.
On Tuesday, the board of directors/officers of the business association voted to designate St. Francis as a recipient of proceeds from sales of the champagne flutes. This comes on the heels of a hugely successful OMBA-sponsored benefit for St. Francis on May 15 at Good Earth Market & Cafe which generated about $5,000 in revenue to help the no-kill animal facility recover from losses incurred by the fire.
The stroll will begin at 4 pm at Maxein's Coffee House, 115 Girod St. and end about 7 pm at Good Earth Market & Cafe, 821 Girod St.
The souvenir champagne flutes can be purchased before Saturday for $10 at Maxein's, Good Earth, Das Schulerhaus Gift Gallery, 528 Girod St., Vianne's Tea Salon & Cafe, 544 Girod St. and Whitney Bank at U.S. 190 and Marigny Ave. Those who buy a flute in advance are reminded to bring it with them for the start of the stroll at Maxein's.
Flutes will go on sale on Saturday beginning at 3:30 pm at Maxein's in the open space underneath the raised coffee house. They cost $15 on the day of the stroll.
Leaving Maxein's with a filled champagne flute, strollers will next stop at the Beach House for free refill and then proceed north on Girod for free refills at Broken Egg Cafe, in front of the house of association resident member Jay Arbisi, 217 Girod, turn left onto Jefferson Street for stops at Betsy Myers-Green jewelry studio and Juniper at the corner of Jefferson and Lafitte streets. They will then come back on Jefferson to Girod stopping in front of offices at 301 Girod for displays and refills by BJ's Quickprint and Doggie Divas. Proceeding north on Girod the next refill will be at the The Wash House Salon & Boutique, Mae Antiques, Pontchartrain Winds Bed & Breakfast at Girod and Monroe, Das Schulerhouse, Vianne's Tea Salon & Cafe, 544 Girod St., Accent Event Rentals, 629 Girod St., then turn left on Woodrow for a refill at Evan Waller Photography studio at Woodrow and Lafitte Street and double back to Girod walking a block and a half north to Good Earth.
Along the way strollers can browse in the shops, eat at restaurants if so desiring and hear live street music from the Outsiders at Pontchartrain Winds and Margaret McNeil and her band and NOLA Express band in the parking lot at Good Earth. The music at Good Earth will continue past the 7 pm end of the stroll and dining at the restaurant will be available.
At most of the stops along the way artists will be displaying work for looking and for sale including Mary Stephens Powe, Kerri Jones, Kelly Landrum Hammill, Connie Henry, Terri Weishalt, Abby Miller, Britta Higgins, Rhonda Laddin, Joe Derr, Peggy Hess, Sissy Coghlan and children's author Kim Hall will be appearing at The Broken Egg.
The event was postponed from April 24 because of severe and dangerous weather conditions.
"Since we re-scheduled and because we want to continue to assist St. Francis fully recover from this horrible fire, we decided to share some of our proceeds from Heart, Art & Stroll with them,'' said Ryan Green, of Varsity Sports in Old Mandeville, a co-organizer of the event and member of the business association.
"We hope lots of supporters of the great work being done by St. Francis will turn out Saturday to enjoy our champagne stroll and know that by participating they will be helping even more in the financial recovery of the animal sanctuary,'' said Terri Fogarty, the other co-organizer and owner of Accent Event Rentals.