The Lion's Roundtable (Guests: Faith Peterson and Amanda Hammonds)
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Todd Delaney:Discussing topics of interest to the university, Hammond and the surrounding communities. This is the Lion's Roundtable. Now here's your host, Doctor. Amber Narro.
Amber Narro:Good day, good day. This is Amber Narro, ninety point nine FM The Lion. I am here at the Lion's Roundtable, and today I've got development here with me. I've got a developer. I've got Faith Peterson here with me to talk about all things that are going on at Southeastern, especially with chef's evening, which is probably why I mean, your hair looks lovely for it to all be falling out right now.
Faith Peterson:I know. It's it's yeah. It's been a lot, but it's been all good things. It is the final countdown. Yes.
Faith Peterson:But I know that
Amber Narro:you are super organized for it. It's next Sunday. It is. You got nine days.
Faith Peterson:Thank you for that countdown. Yeah.
Amber Narro:You're welcome.
Faith Peterson:Yeah. So chef's evening, it's, like you said, next Sunday. We have thirty three restaurants as of this week. I had somebody call in and say, is it too late? I said, not really.
Amber Narro:Yeah. Well, I'm a coming. Yeah. So I'm excited about that.
Faith Peterson:Yes. So we have 33 restaurants. I wanna say that might be the most we've ever had. Maybe in a while. That is I don't know.
Amber Narro:Faith Peterson does. She does the most.
Faith Peterson:I'm a little extra in good and bad maybe.
Amber Narro:But no, we we've had it I have never seen anything bad in your extra, ma'am.
Amanda Hammonds:Thank you.
Faith Peterson:You should be in the office right now. Thought they a dragon lady. Maybe it's Look,
Amber Narro:I bet your office probably looks like my house. You know, I've got middle daughter getting married tomorrow. Oh. Shout out to miss Blaine
Faith Peterson:Very cool.
Amber Narro:Hallnarrow getting married tomorrow. Gonna be Blaine Haws. So Very cool. We're very excited. Yes.
Faith Peterson:I know that.
Amber Narro:She and her husband, Michael, husband to be Michael, are gonna be Wow. Having a beautiful thing in Folsom. So that's Nice. While all my hair is falling out.
Faith Peterson:I get it. I get it. Yeah.
Amber Narro:So your your office probably looks like my house.
Faith Peterson:Yeah. Yep. Maybe. Maybe. I mean, I have candles,
Amber Narro:some pieces. Got those.
Faith Peterson:You got some bottles of wine? I got some of that.
Amber Narro:No. Don't have those.
Faith Peterson:Well, then come to my place and you
Amber Narro:can get some. Yeah. I'll hook
Faith Peterson:you up. Because, you know, it's because of all these things, you know, we have the centerpiece, but we have our wine raffle. That's one of our things that we do. So we've been collecting bottles of wine and putting together gift baskets and and things for our auction. So, yeah, it's a it's a little all over, but it comes together.
Faith Peterson:You know? And I tell people all the time that chefs is like a wedding. I mean, it's a lot of buildup, and it's about a two and a half hour event, and then you're done. And then you break everything down. We last year
Amber Narro:And you feel like, what have I done this all for? I know. The next day
Faith Peterson:Until you're you're like,
Amber Narro:okay, we're married and or you have
Faith Peterson:the money. You know? So we got it all up within two hours, and then it's and then it's all put away, and then it's done. But, yeah, we we have as many tables in the room as last year. We actually, interestingly, have the same amount of sponsors, if not more sponsors than last year, which is really exciting.
Faith Peterson:You know, last year was obviously the centennial. It was also the fortieth anniversary of chefs. And so it was kind of a big deal times 10 because of everything else. So, you know, I was anticipating maybe this year we want every year to be successful, but I'm like, was last year a fluke? You know?
Faith Peterson:Because it was kind of the perfect storm and all the right reasons. But so far, just looking at who's in the room, it's it's about the same or more or different, you know, in a good way. So, you know, we'll see when the final numbers come in, of course, but it's looking like it's gonna be a good one again.
Amber Narro:Well, looky looky who just walked in the door, y'all. So absolutely. Absolutely. Let me check your mic here. Hello, miss Amanda.
Amber Narro:We are so glad to have you.
Amanda Hammonds:Thank y'all for having me today. A
Amber Narro:little a little warm walk in there with a big smiling face. How you doing? I'm doing great. We got Amanda Hammonds. She is the director of Southeastern Alumni, and she come over to talk to us today about things that are happening there.
Amber Narro:We typically have this development partnership going on with alumni mainly because y'all love each other and we're all friends here. That's right. But because y'all keep putting each other to to each other's spaces and I know. Yes. I know.
Amber Narro:We yep. Alright.
Faith Peterson:It's funny how that works.
Amber Narro:Yeah. And Melaine's not here again, so we're gonna talk bad about her while she's while she's not here. How's she doing in her new spot?
Faith Peterson:She's doing great. I was just on the phone with her, actually, telling her I was coming over and doing this, but she has done such a good job. I mean Mhmm. I just enjoy getting to work with her again because, you know, we got to work a year together in alumni, but she's really done a great job. I think she's doing great with bringing over connections from alumni, and also, you know, bringing in new connections, enhancing those relationships.
Faith Peterson:And then, know, for me personally, it's just fun to work with her again.
Amber Narro:Indeed. You know, she this
Faith Peterson:is her first chefs, you know, as our interim VP. So, you know, she's getting to learn a little bit more of the ins and outs of that. And, yeah, it's been good.
Amber Narro:It's exciting. Excellent. Amanda, you are in Malayne's shoes now. Malayne Sharp. This is who we're talking about here.
Amber Narro:And she's half decent. Like, we'll we'll highlight.
Amanda Hammonds:Incredible. Yeah.
Amber Narro:And did she leave you okay over there? Absolutely. What's going on with y'all?
Amanda Hammonds:So she has she really has done a great job to set me up and to set alumni up for success. So, yeah, we got a lot going on over there. We have let's see. We've got the big event coming to our building tomorrow
Amber Narro:Yeah. To
Amanda Hammonds:do some cleaning up.
Amber Narro:We're coming to Alumni? It needs to be clean? It doesn't look dirty.
Amanda Hammonds:Well, we're doing, like, some zhuzhing up. You know?
Amber Narro:We're freshening
Amanda Hammonds:we're freshening her up. Yes. I love that.
Amber Narro:I know. I'm from LaRoger. What does that mean?
Faith Peterson:Out there.
Amanda Hammonds:Just like fluffing, you know. We all know what that means.
Amber Narro:Right? Right. We're just giving her
Amanda Hammonds:a little dust, you know. Get shining. Making her shiny.
Amber Narro:Okay. Very good.
Amanda Hammonds:And also, it's important
Amber Narro:For spring events.
Amanda Hammonds:Yes. Right? And it's current students, you know, who are involved with the big event. So to me, it's very important for current students to have their hands in things that involve alumni. So I want them to have that, you know, that that literal impact.
Amber Narro:And get experience for zhuzh Absolutely. So that when they're my age, they won't go, what's that? And I'll be out there
Amanda Hammonds:too with them. Scrub, you know?
Amber Narro:Love it.
Faith Peterson:Make sure it's
Amber Narro:your Of course you will because that is what you do.
Amanda Hammonds:Yeah. So I'm excited about that. And then we have our family day next weekend along with chef's evening.
Amber Narro:Yes. Fun
Faith Peterson:day. Indeed. Indeed. Really hoping we can make it out to I hope we can too. Next week.
Faith Peterson:Because, I mean, our load in for chefs is Thursday and Friday. So, you know, I am hoping that I will be done for the most part with setup on Friday. But if I have to come in Saturday and, you know, do some things I can, but I'm hoping that I can come in if if I have to come in.
Amber Narro:I doubt it. We can go You'll be good.
Faith Peterson:And and enjoy family day a little bit because, you know
Amber Narro:Because I know you. I know you you will probably just be coming in just to make sure that it all still looks the same as it did yesterday when you left, and you'll be able to take sweet little June, go over to your
Faith Peterson:I'm hoping.
Amber Narro:Lovely event for family day. Yeah. I will be in in Montgomery, Alabama from Thursday through Saturday. So exciting. Yes.
Amber Narro:Southern Regional Honors Conference taking 11 students over there to share their research with other folks across the state. So we're very excited about that. Thank you to the Student Government Association for putting together a grant for that. Thank you to the College of Honors and Excellence for helping to fund that. Thank you also to our development fund, by the way, for helping with that as well because we do fundraising all year to make sure students can travel.
Amber Narro:The students will have $0 to put down on this event. So I'm very excited about that. Those who are going are going for nada. They're they are. It's not gonna cost them anything.
Amber Narro:So I'm very excited about this experience for them. Mhmm. And for me to be with them, it's gonna be a great learning experience for me as well. So this lady that we keep talking about, Malayne Sharp, she is the new she is the interim development director right now. Alumni falls underneath that as well.
Amber Narro:Yes? Is that correct? Mhmm. So just trying to place all our people and who we're talking about right now because we're we're not on video or
Faith Peterson:or anything.
Amanda Hammonds:Not today. Yeah.
Faith Peterson:Thank god because You hair is
Amber Narro:know, I'm I'm working on that doe face, so you better come over here made up whenever you're ready. Me too. Look at me. I'm like sweating it today with with the wedding tomorrow. So and that's always my choice.
Amber Narro:If I if I feel like I'm looking good that day, we do video. If not, then Well, you can
Faith Peterson:give us a heads up. So real. We'd appreciate that.
Amber Narro:Yeah. Thanks. Indeed. Alright. So chef's evening is set is Sunday.
Amber Narro:We've also got family day on Saturday. What does family day look like leading up to our chef's evening big weekend here
Amanda Hammonds:at Southeastern? It's an exciting time. So we have our football scrimmage that morning. Then we have alumni family day in conjunction with Superlion Saturday. So that's eleven to two, and then it finishes with the baseball game at 2PM.
Amber Narro:Okay.
Amanda Hammonds:So, yeah, so it's a lot of just both athletics and just family fun. We'll have an Easter egg hunt for the children.
Amber Narro:That's what you're excited about Yeah. With June because she went, like, for five minutes or something last
Amanda Hammonds:year if I remember it.
Faith Peterson:We went last year.
Amber Narro:She fall asleep or something.
Faith Peterson:She fell asleep in the car on the way there, so I just sat in the car. I know. I know. Now it's like we're fighting her to take naps. So it's like, what do you want?
Faith Peterson:I don't know. Right.
Amber Narro:Can't be happy with anything, can you, Faith? I mean,
Faith Peterson:come on. I know. But June's first Easter egg hunt was at alumni family day, and so she was just also starting to kinda stand up a little bit, and so one of her first time standing up was in Strawberry Stadium. So I have her on the field in a picture. It was really cool moment.
Faith Peterson:So that's why I wanna come. I'm very sentimental. If you don't know me personally, the I'm very sentimental.
Amber Narro:Which is why family day is so important. I'm so sad I'm gonna miss it, I know. Just take your trip. They can't,
Faith Peterson:like, work around you.
Amber Narro:Can't change the whole conference.
Faith Peterson:FaceTime. That's rude, honestly.
Amber Narro:Don't FaceTime. Really?
Faith Peterson:Yeah. Hey.
Amber Narro:Go enjoy your time. Just tell me about it. We'll talk about it the next Talk
Faith Peterson:about it, Chefs.
Amber Narro:And I'll whine. The next time y'all come on here, I'll complain about it.
Faith Peterson:You can whine at Chefs.
Amber Narro:Yeah. Oh, I see what you did there. Yeah. Whine and whine all you want. Indeed.
Amber Narro:That's where my brain went.
Amanda Hammonds:Is that bad? No.
Faith Peterson:It's just because you're thinking about chefs. It's it's marketing.
Amber Narro:Yes. Yeah. Indeed. Really marketing. Chef's evening next week is gonna be beautiful.
Amber Narro:Beautiful. We're looking forward to it. It's gonna be a wonderful event. Mhmm. Everybody's gonna come and enjoy their Yes.
Amber Narro:Libations as well as dinners and things like that. Tell me about some of these restaurants. I know you don't wanna name everybody, but give me some of the top level sponsors that we have this year for chefs.
Faith Peterson:Thank you. So our premier sponsor this year is Gulf Coast Bank and Trust.
Amber Narro:Oh. So
Faith Peterson:Lovely. Just love them. Of course, we have North Oaks is one of our sponsors as well, as well as Merrill Lynch and RK Hodnought. We have Holly and Smith, a local company, of course, Punch and Train Investment Management. They're actually out of Slidell, so it's kind of exciting that's a new sponsor for us, but we have so many other sponsors on our website.
Faith Peterson:If you wanna go and look at southeastern.edu/chefs, it'll pull up a whole list of sponsors. And people, like, you may bank with some of these sponsors. We have a lot of banks. We have, like, Sterling, Hammond Square. So, I mean, if you shop at any of their places, their properties, just go through and look.
Faith Peterson:We have a ton of in kind sponsors as well. Some new people in the room for that, and just see maybe your bank or your business that you work with is participating in Chefs in some capacity, and thank them for us. Indeed. You know, we're giving them some love. They're coming to the event.
Faith Peterson:There's some exposure there. But, you know, if you run into somebody that you know participates every year or a restaurant, you know, just thank them. Go into their restaurant. You know, we I like to say I'm very good at my job because I am just I'm really good steward of these relationships because I
Amber Narro:You are. Eat You are.
Faith Peterson:At a lot of these places. So I I try to go when I ask, and I and I joke about that because my husband's like, another something from another shop that you went into? I said, well, I went and asked for an auction item, and I had to buy something. I had to pay it forward. He's like, I don't think that's how that works.
Faith Peterson:I'm like, it's how it It's how it You don't understand.
Amber Narro:It's good excuses anyway.
Faith Peterson:Yeah. Is. But, you know, we do have so many local businesses that participate in this, and we do try to support these businesses throughout the year. But, you know, there are so many giving people in the community, and I think that's very evident through giving day that I get to plan, and also this. We have a lot of new restaurants this year.
Faith Peterson:Tootsie's Barbecue, they are one of our new restaurants. They're actually our restaurant row restaurant in The union this year. And so they called and said, I'd like to participate. I said, sure. I mean, I had a restaurant this this week, say I wanna get involved.
Faith Peterson:So, you know, it's kinda special to see people it's not a hard ask for a lot of these things. People want to be involved this event. Mhmm. You know, I'm not having to pull teeth and and beg someone, like, please get involved with Southeastern. They want to.
Faith Peterson:They are bought in. They know the value. It's good for their business. It's good exposure, and they have fun doing it. All of the restaurants, especially who come, they say, we love this event.
Faith Peterson:We look forward to this event every year because it just gets them out in the community and gets them in front of a lot of important people that come to this event, and it's good exposure for them and giving back to a university who hopefully has given something to them. So it's a fun event to be a part of.
Amber Narro:Indeed. Amanda, what do you have going on past Family Day next weekend? Alumni is getting Yeah. You're you're We're revving we are busy. Yeah.
Amber Narro:For graduations, Lion's and Doffs and I know. We just
Amanda Hammonds:had grad fair last week. I do I do have to yeah. I'll let y'all know that we had grad fair last week and it was incredible. We had over 800 students attend. That's awesome.
Amanda Hammonds:And it's just a great That's great
Amber Narro:because we only graduate like a thousand or something? 1,100? Yeah. Exactly. Wow.
Amber Narro:That's excellent. Excellent.
Amanda Hammonds:It's so special to not only get you know, obviously, they need to to check off their their preparation list, but we really want to make sure they feel celebrated even at grad fair. So yes, we had that event last week. We had a lot of volunteers come out and show up for that. So yeah, did wanna let y'all know about Grad Fair. It was incredible.
Amanda Hammonds:And then we have, coming up in April, we have our Livingston alumni chapter, Crawfish Boil. That is April 11. I know. Do you have y'all heard of crawfish? No.
Amanda Hammonds:What is that? Right? We're very excited about that. I know. So, yeah, networking with a little bit of seasoning in there.
Amber Narro:Yeah.
Amanda Hammonds:And then we have let's see. We've got Line For Life launch in May, commencement. Just a lot of fun fun things happening.
Amber Narro:Linda, how you doing over there?
Faith Peterson:I'm doing
Amber Narro:great. I I am. Amanda went to alumni from admissions Yes. Kind of very quickly over the Christmas holiday when some things started shaking up and Melaine left and went over to development Mhmm. To become your new boss.
Amber Narro:Right? Right. Yeah. And you're in alumni now. I gotta imagine that you're getting a lot of support from that development office having Yes.
Amber Narro:And Melaine wanting to make sure that she takes care of her baby in alumni. Right? Absolutely. Wonderful. I appreciate that.
Amber Narro:And, Faith, when you're looking like, after chef's evening's over with and you I mean, you'll immediately turn to start looking at giving day again. Right? You're like giving day chef's evening. I feel like year.
Faith Peterson:I'm gonna be like, I'm just gonna relax today a little bit. Yeah. So Yeah.
Amber Narro:But the day after chef's evening is a Monday. Are you taking a day off? Let's be
Faith Peterson:real. Yes.
Amber Narro:I know we have take day off. I I said that now.
Faith Peterson:Don't take I don't like to take days off. Don't even like to take a day off when I'm sick. When I'm sick and I have to take a day off, I'm so aggravated because, I mean, this is a silly reason I have to take off. I hate taking off. Unless it's vacation, then I'll be like, bye.
Amanda Hammonds:But no. That's what you need to do Monday.
Amber Narro:I know. Won't.
Faith Peterson:No. We we have to load everything out of the Pennington. So when we set up, you know, we set up everything in the Pennington, that's where Chefs is at. We put everything in one spot, and so I have to kinda make sure things are picked up out of Eric Amon's hair because we got few extra items and
Amber Narro:and save her Yes. Some some heavy lifting.
Faith Peterson:Yeah. Please. So, yeah, we'll be picking up on Monday, but we do have spring break starting on that Friday. So it's a short week. But, yeah, we'll be looking at giving day.
Faith Peterson:You know, I do a little bit of planning for homecoming, not as much as I'm looking out around this room we're in. I'm looking at all the Robin Roberts photos from the ribbon cutting. So that won't be an event that happens this year. So that was something I was a part of. Me and Amanda, actually.
Faith Peterson:But, yeah, we would start planning, kinda just looking at some things for giving day, setting a date. Mhmm. I wanna be a little more strategic this year. I this is I feel like this is my first chef. So it's really my second, but it feels like my first that I've really got to own myself because I started kind of in the middle of the planning last year in this position.
Faith Peterson:So just we started some chefs early, but there's still some things that I can start earlier. So, you know, just trying to be a little more strategic about planning out to maybe ease the load of the heavy three months, especially with I have no idea when Chef's is gonna be next year because Mhmm. Easter is very early, and we kinda have to dance around Easter and Mardi Gras.
Amber Narro:So Oh.
Faith Peterson:Mhmm. You know, kinda looking at some of those things. But yeah. You know, it's just on to the next thing. Yeah.
Faith Peterson:But it'll be it'll be good to kinda have a little bit of a cushion.
Amber Narro:Well, speaking as a professor who has students, I'm thrilled that Easter's gonna be a little earlier because Yeah. When it's late, honestly Yeah.
Faith Peterson:It just
Amber Narro:messes with our final exams. It probably, know, it stresses your semester a little bit. Well, it messes it when it's like you've got a week and then you've got one more week of class or two more weeks of classes right after that, it's just hard to shift back into gear getting into finals.
Amanda Hammonds:Get that.
Amber Narro:I find that students do better when you pull it back.
Amanda Hammonds:Exactly. I feel like they're so tired, you know, which I which I get. Right.
Amber Narro:Know? Right. Because you have the long Yeah. Know? And we're all trying to get everything in before that break because we know what happens after the break and, you know, people go and it's hard to get them back involved and whatnot.
Amanda Hammonds:So a
Amber Narro:lot of things come due right before that break, which if you had a little bit more time, you could get them back into it after the break and then you've got the projects that are due, right? Now you get them back into it and they got finals. Yeah. I know. So it's it's Goodness.
Amber Narro:Not fun. But the students, you know, they're I I think they they're resilient, but at a certain point, I I I really enjoy it when it's pulled back a little bit. I've had better experience when Yeah. Spring break is a little earlier. Mhmm.
Amber Narro:Yeah. So I'm I'm it. The perfect I'm appreciating it. I'm sorry it's coming early for you, but
Amanda Hammonds:I'm not
Amber Narro:for me.
Faith Peterson:A lot of works out for you.
Amber Narro:Yep. I like it.
Faith Peterson:I like But we'll figure it out. Yes. I do wanna mention too just because we were talking a little bit about the auction. If you're listening and you're attending chefs this year Amber, you're attending chefs this year. I are.
Faith Peterson:Yes. We are doing an online auction this year.
Amber Narro:Oh, wow. Very cool.
Faith Peterson:Our bidding will be all through an online auction platform. So all of the items will be there for you to see, but it won't be pen and paper. So just be a different way to bid. Yeah. Yeah.
Faith Peterson:Something different. Lot of events of our magnitude are shifting to this
Amber Narro:if we have see who's in the lead, though?
Faith Peterson:Honestly That, I don't think you'll get to see the actual names, but you'll get to see what the highest bid
Amber Narro:is. Because I do feel like some people get snotty over there, and they're like, I am I'm not gonna let that person in.
Amanda Hammonds:Right. You know?
Faith Peterson:Yeah. So I don't know if that will be unless unless you're allowed to be in public, I guess it would be. But but yeah. So just a different way to engage. You know, we've had a lot of people tell me, I didn't even get to go over to the auction because I wanna go taste all the restaurants.
Faith Peterson:And last year, we had so many people by the auction tables bidding and standing over the papers, not letting people pass, that it did kinda hinder the auction experience for some people. Because, you know, I had a friend say she came, she's like, I made it my point to try every single dish, and I never got to go to the auction because I was I'd stop and talk to someone. I'd go get a drink. I'd go do this, and she didn't even get to participate. And so you can participate while standing in line waiting for food or at your table.
Faith Peterson:You'll get notified immediately when you're outbid, and you can bid at the comfort of your seat and say, boom. This is what I wanna bid. You
Amber Narro:can Y'all need to have some TVs sitting up over there I know. And showing I know. What's happening Yeah. To remind people. Yeah.
Amber Narro:You'd be like, some TVs on wheels. I have TVs on wheels. I can bring it.
Faith Peterson:Well, good to know. We can help. Yeah. Maybe next year. Don't don't throw any more wrenches into my my thing right now, please.
Faith Peterson:But, you know, it's something new that we're trying. It's it's, again, a lot of events of our magnitude. I mean, we have over a 100 auction items. We have over 500 people in the room. It just kinda seemed like a natural shift for this year.
Faith Peterson:So we're trying it, and, you know, I've told people I don't do anything that's not successful. So, you know, if we find that this is not success, which I don't want it to not be a success because we have to get the numbers, we have to fundraise for the students. But if we have issues, we'll work through it, or, you know, adventure, or look into more adventures with it for next year and see what we can make better. We're always gonna improve things, but I think this will be a good shift. I've had a lot of positive feedback.
Faith Peterson:Mhmm. A lot of our event goers who I've talked to seem excited about it. A lot of, again, a lot of events around here do this, and so there are people already familiar with this type of auction experience. So think it'll be good. I hope it'll be a good experience, and we'll be sending out communication.
Faith Peterson:So if you can't come to Chef's, we'll send out a link, and you can bid on these auction items from the comfort of your couch and PJs. So you don't have to be at Chefs to participate. So that's another kind of draw for this. You'd have to obviously if you win the item, you'd have to come into our office and pick up the item, which would be fine, of course. But, you know, some people don't come
Amber Narro:to the get to this website
Amanda Hammonds:that So we will
Amber Narro:still at the event. Yeah. So we'll still have some communication. Of the night?
Faith Peterson:Yes. So we're closing it at the end of chefs. Mhmm.
Amber Narro:Which is what time?
Faith Peterson:So we'll be closing everything probably around 07:30, actually. So we'll close out everything around 07:30.
Amber Narro:There'll a clock and stuff, I'm sure, on the website.
Faith Peterson:Yeah. And that way we can, you know, transport all of our items to the pickup area. This should ease the checkout process because if you are bidding on it, you can already load your credit card into system and go ahead and just pay right there. You don't have to wait in line to scan a a, you know, a card, you know. So we're hoping that this eases the auction bidders experience Mhmm.
Faith Peterson:To kind of facilitate that a little better. Of course, we're gonna have lines, you know, you have to wait to pick up your item, but we're hoping that this makes it a little bit quicker of a checkout process for our team, but also more importantly, the donors and the bidders. But, yeah, something new we're trying. I love it. It's got some new surprises.
Faith Peterson:We're having a jazz quintet come. Some faculty are participating in that. So we're having our faculty jazz quintet. We'll have some cheer lionettes. Our national champs will be around.
Faith Peterson:The band, we'll have some band members there as well. We've had them the last couple years. We're gonna have them in a little bit different way this year. But, yeah, we're excited. I'm really excited to see kinda what comes.
Amber Narro:Excellent. Yes. Me too. Thank you. Thank you.
Amber Narro:I'm loving this conversation. This is this is very cool. I So if you are wanting to bid on an item that is at chef's evening in this new platform, where do they go that night?
Faith Peterson:Yeah. So we will send out it'll probably all email communications. So we'll send out the link, and I think we're gonna be opening everything up probably on Thursday.
Amber Narro:How do we get on the list for that?
Faith Peterson:So if you are on our email communication list, which is over a 100,000 people, if you get any communications from the university and you have allowed us to communicate with you, if you haven't, you know, said I don't wanna hear from Southeastern, you would hear from us. So we might put something out on social media as well. We're also selling raffle tickets online right now as well. That's Just in
Amber Narro:case I'm not on in case I'm not one of the people on that 100,000 list right now, how would I go about becoming one? Yeah. I just moved here. I got Yeah. Yeah.
Amber Narro:I I like the Southeastern place. It does good for my business. Whatever it is.
Faith Peterson:Yeah. So give us a call. We can talk about it. Our email database is mostly alums, donors, friends of the university. So give us a call.
Faith Peterson:You may not be on the list, but maybe there's some way we can kinda get you involved in in some way. Because especially if you're new to the area and you're looking to get involved, I mean, is a great place to do that. So just give our office a call. My my exact number since I'm the one saying, and I should probably give my number, is (985) 549-5221. You can call me and talk about that.
Faith Peterson:Chef's evening, we're still selling tickets. Like I said, we're doing online raffle tickets for our jewelry raffle, which is a emerald and diamond gold necklace and earring set valued at over around $6,000. So we're selling raffle tickets for that. Yeah. Get excited.
Faith Peterson:And so if you're not coming to Chef's, you can still purchase a ticket for that. The winner does not have to be present to win that. And so we have some tickets coming in for that. So there's a lot of ways to get involved, and you don't even have to be in the room this year. We want you in the room, but you don't have to be if you can't be in the room.
Amanda Hammonds:Excellent. Excellent. Hamilton's song.
Amber Narro:Oh, was it? Oh.
Faith Peterson:I love it. I love it. You you got it.
Amber Narro:Yep. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.
Amber Narro:So all of the things that are going on, I'm a start with you, Amanda. We're gonna end with chefs since it is imminent. So tell me what days what what's happening? Where were going?
Amanda Hammonds:Okay. So we have let's I'm trying to go in, like, date order. So we have alumni family day, Saturday, March 28, eleven to two. It's outside near the Dugas Center on campus.
Amber Narro:Y'all have
Amanda Hammonds:fun. Yes. We're gonna have a great time. And then we have let's see. April 11 in Livingston Parish, we have our Livingston alumni chapter, Crawfish Boyle.
Amanda Hammonds:Exciting. You can purchase tickets online now, and we are excited to see everybody. You can even make a donation on that website as well. And then we also have our our, let's see, past football players golf tournament on Monday, April 20. Yeah.
Amanda Hammonds:That's coming Fun time. And then on May 2, we'll have a shrimp boil on in the alumni in the alumni center for alumni. Yeah. Or even friends of the university.
Amber Narro:Just come and join us. Stay tuned for information about the Lion launch and all kinds of other things. Graduation. Absolutely. Yes.
Amber Narro:Thank you for being here. But we'll we'll see you again before those other events come up. So excited about that. And thank you, Faith, for coming to share about chef's evening. Give us a little bit of shout out about how you get involved with like Tickets been saying are available.
Faith Peterson:Yes. Tickets are still available. Get them now. The room is getting very full. So definitely get your tickets now.
Faith Peterson:You can get that online. You can give us a call. You can come by the office. We do close at 12:30 today, but you can come by next week if you need anything. But also if you're listening, especially if you're maybe a faculty or staff member on campus or even a student, we are always looking for volunteers.
Faith Peterson:So we have a great group of volunteers this year, I think more than I had last year, which I'm very thankful for. But if you wanna come and you wanna get involved, maybe you've never been before, come and volunteer. I can put you somewhere. We've actually had students and and people in the opinion tell me they've actually hired a student that they met because they were at chef's evening volunteering. So it's a good networking.
Faith Peterson:And I mean, maybe I'm biased, I don't know. But every time I hear the students talk about it, they have a great time. Like, they have fun volunteering. They'll do some waiter staff kind of stuff, so they come with like little bow ties, and they have a tray, or the people will walk them to their seats, they get to talk to the donors coming in. And we had a table, it's actually my family's insurance agent comes every year, And she said, we had the best time.
Faith Peterson:Like, you gave us the best student to serve. Because they'll serve at certain tables depending on the level of table you bought. And she's like, we just so enjoyed getting to know that young man. I mean, he just did such a good job. And now she's coming back again because she said, your students that you assigned to me gave me such a good experience and my friends that we wanna come back every year.
Faith Peterson:So, you know, they are a part of the success of this. If you're listening, you wanna get involved, have a good time, looking for volunteer hours, I can sign off on your volunteer hours. Come and do it. You'll get a ton of hours because we're gonna be there for a little while. So come knock Like, out your
Amber Narro:think of what that does You for
Faith Peterson:know? Yeah. It's it's a fun place to be. It's fun. So come check it out.
Amber Narro:Excellent. Thank you. Amanda Hammonds with Alumni Center as well as Faith Peterson with development. We're talking all things Southeastern as we usually do. We had to move them a little bit this this month because of some
Faith Peterson:thrown off, Amber.
Amber Narro:What's happening? With you. Well, things were happening. We had we had stuff going on. We appreciate them.
Amber Narro:Yeah. We're good. Indeed. Thank you for coming today. Thank you for sharing.
Amber Narro:We'll see you again next month right here on KSLUs ninety point nine FM, The Lion. One final shout out to a student this morning, Darci Lourigan. Miss Darci Lourigan, who is a student here at Southeastern and also big time KSLU voice that you hear constantly. I got a little message from Tyler Thomas saying that miss Darcy is the LAB radio student broadcaster of the year right here at KSLU. Congratulations, Darci.
Amber Narro:We love her. She is fantastic. We're super proud of her. Well done, ma'am. Appreciate you here at KSLU, and we appreciate everybody for listening to Darci.
Amber Narro:Please continue giving her your accolades, giving her your encouragement because we love our students here, and we're super proud of this one. So congratulations from all of us at Southeastern and definitely all of us at KSLU. You've been listening to the Lion's Roundtable here on ninety point nine The Lion. I've been here with Amanda Hammonds and Faith Peterson. Come join us again Thursdays and Fridays at 09:00.
Amber Narro:Y'all have a great day.
Todd Delaney:Thank you for joining us today. If you missed any part of the show, you can listen to the Lion's Roundtable on demand at our website, lionupradio.org. The podcast version is also available for download from Amazon, Google, Spotify, and TuneIn.
