This year’s “ACCESS Jazz Brunch” helped commemorate 45 years of providing critical services to women and families in our community with a lunch, live music and an exciting silent auction.
Most Reverend Archbishop Gregory Aymond and the ACCESS Pregnancy and Referral Center Board invited 250 guests to the Audubon Tea Room to mark this milestone with ACCESS’s largest annual fundraiser. Catholic Charities President and CEO Sr. Marjorie Hebert and ACCESS Board President Lisa Baynham presented the 2016 Outstanding Pro-Life Parish of the Year award to Divine Mercy Pastor Fr. David Dufour and Divine Mercy Culture of Life Coordinator Natasia Kissinger on behalf of the Parish and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School. On behalf of the ACCESS Board and staff, Board President Lisa Baynham presented a bouquet of spring flowers to past Event Chair and Board Member Jean Rice to recognize all of her hard work and dedication to ACCESS over the years.
The auction hosted 135 one-of- a-kind items such as a framed New York Times front page Titanic headline print, a 26-inch mother-of- pearl mosaic-style decorative round dish, an “Eye of the Tiger” painting on a huge wooden pallet, an autographed Tyreke Evans No. 1 Pelicans jersey and a Saints Super Bowl commemorative NFL football.
This year’s silent auction was Co-Chaired by Jean Mitchell and Auction Chair by Sheila Spring, with the help of ACCESS board members and Archbishop Rummel High School “Student Ambassadors.” Rummel students also participated by entertaining the 250 brunch guests with many jazzy tunes.
The “ACCESS Jazz Brunch” is the single largest fundraiser benefitting ACCESS, a pro-life program of Catholic Charities which serves nearly 900 abortion-vulnerable women each year.
EVENT AT A GLANCE
What: “ACCESS Jazz Brunch,” benefiting ACCESS Pregnancy & Referral Centers of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
When: Sunday, April 17
Where: Audubon Tea Room