The Lion's Roundtable (Guest: Annette Baldwin)
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Todd Delaney:Discussing topics of interest to the university, Hammond, and the surrounding communities. This is the Lions Roundtable. Now, here's your host, Doctor. Amber Narro.
Amber Narro:Good day. Good day. This is Amber Narro on ninety point nine FM, the Lion. I'm here with the Lions Roundtable. And today, my guest, on the first time, we're live here at KSLU in the studio in D Vickers Hall.
Amber Narro:Thank you to Robin Roberts for her wonderful donation to make all of this happen. What do you think, Annette? Isn't it beautiful?
Annette Baldwin:It's beautiful, but it smells like a brand new house.
Annette Baldwin:I mean, I can't
Annette Baldwin:get over. It's like, you never smell this smell very often. It's like everything's new. Smell.
Amber Narro:It's got a beautiful smell. So Annette Baldwin, you're here today with Lions Recovery and also, the Collegiate Recovery Project, I should say, here at Southeastern. And we're talking Merry Market, which is this weekend. It's everybody's favorite weekend of the year. Tell me about Merry Market.
Annette Baldwin:Well, we this will be our first weekend to have a two day market. And we kinda took a risk. There were some vendors last year that were kinda pulling to extend the market to two days.
Amber Narro:I've heard about that.
Annette Baldwin:I was like, I didn't know. Sassy folks. How is this gonna go? I don't know. But we have had a really good response.
Annette Baldwin:We were able to close the market floor about two weeks early because the amount of vendors that wanted to come in. So, apparently, a two day is better than a one day.
Amber Narro:Oh, Annette, congratulations. Yeah. This is a fundraising event for the community. One reason why I think it is very popular is because people know that they're coming not only to shop, which is very convenient. It's a early shopping date, to go ahead, and that's great for vendors to kinda set up their entire the rest of their year as far as, like, making sure that they're in shows and whatnot so they're making money.
Amber Narro:But it's also good for people to come in and kinda get in that spirit.
Annette Baldwin:You know?
Amber Narro:Absolutely. I'm decorating this weekend. I'm pulling it out. I'm making it happen. Yeah.
Amber Narro:Are you a early decorator?
Annette Baldwin:I just I love the holidays. I mean, I'm a early decorator. You know, I'm always trying to plan ahead for the holidays.
Amber Narro:Yeah, I don't plan. I just get it down and figure out what
Annette Baldwin:happens. Fun. Fun. Love it. Love it.
Amber Narro:Yeah. Alright. So, you are full. What does full mean? How many?
Amber Narro:Well, Who's in my, what's what's happening?
Annette Baldwin:We have eighty, eighty vendors total.
Amber Narro:That's amazing.
Annette Baldwin:We have 80 vendors total and I've kept the floor the same as last year. I didn't, I don't know. I mean, I could've, I could have more vendors but then it would be like super tight in there. Yeah.
Amber Narro:You need space to move around
Annette Baldwin:and look. You need space to move around and like socialize because I always see a bunch of ladies chatting it up in the market floor along with purchasing things.
Amber Narro:Yeah and you need to have room so that people can do their budget lap and then come back around. Always call it the budget lap.
Annette Baldwin:Absolutely. Yeah.
Amber Narro:You gotta look around first and then you figure out how much money you got which you or how much money is available elsewhere and then you can go back around, right?
Annette Baldwin:Right. Right. Right. Right. And get what's gonna haunt you if you go home without it.
Annette Baldwin:Absolutely. Right. But you know, it's our typical market. We do have Kendra Scott coming back for a give back event.
Amber Narro:We have. Talk about that because that that organization is brilliant with the way that they handle their markets and how they come and do their givebacks.
Annette Baldwin:I love Kendra Scott and they love us. They've done this ever since we started the market. And basically every purchase that you make, I believe we get a percent of that purchase and it ends up being really good for us and it's really good for them because I don't think people necessarily wanna take the drive to to go look at the big Kendra Scott store in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. So they do bring a lot of product. So it's a lot for you know they have a good selection for you to look at right here in Hammond.
Amber Narro:I love that. Yeah. I'll be shopping at that booth for sure because I know not only again that's I think what's so precious about this market is that you know that every dollar that you spend there is either going to help those vendors who are there, who and this could be their bit you know, spend money at this because this is where they make their money for the year. And then also too, that when you purchase things like at Kendra Scott's booth or you purchase your ticket to get in or you're sponsoring the event, that you are sponsoring something that is so awesome for this for this, not only for Southeastern but also the community, the world. So let's talk about that for just a second, and then we'll get back into who's gonna be at the at the market and who's gonna be there.
Amber Narro:Tell me about Collegiate Recovery and what this event Yeah. Helps.
Annette Baldwin:So, you know, I always I always have to say it, you know, Southeastern was the first university, public university in Louisiana to host collegiate recovery. That's the first, y'all. That's the first. In Louisiana, not nationally, there's actually over a 180 now collegiate recovery programs and other higher education programs across the country. Now England and Canada that we're working on Ireland
Amber Narro:Go on. To have some Brits in the
Annette Baldwin:House with me.
Amber Narro:We're half Brits, we always say. We are half Brits. Your dad and my dad are are both British. We are.
Annette Baldwin:We are. So, we didn't create it but we were the first in Louisiana to to host a collegiate recovery program which you know, collegiate recovery is this is it's basically wraparound support services to for our students in recovery here on campus engaging in higher education and balancing their recovery program whether that's eating disorder or you know, alcoholism or you know, some kind of drug addiction and you know, I was talking to a friend the other day and it was just you know our service you have to think of a parent you have to think of a parent that has. Maybe funded their child daughter son through treatment and now they're moving their son on the campus or you know their son and or daughter is going on to get their college degree. You know it must really be something for parents to know that they we have that here we have support for that student here. So it's just like another way of to looking at the work that we do.
Annette Baldwin:Right?
Amber Narro:Right. And it's not just about parents. It's about students who are coming back. We've got nontraditional students who are in this program
Annette Baldwin:as well.
Amber Narro:And what we mean when we
Annette Baldwin:say
Amber Narro:nontraditional students is typically people who are not coming here straight out of their high school years or or who are in that 18 to kinda 23 pocket. Right. It's those who are maybe older. They may have children. They may have a job, a forty hour a week job, they they may live at home with their parents but just be older as well.
Amber Narro:Correct. And are probably having a different type of experience from their college or have different expectations coming back in a different different goal setting at that point.
Annette Baldwin:So funds from the market go to our programming account. They go towards scholarships for students in recovery. We do scholarship our students who participate in our program just as an extra incentive to, you know, be more conscious of balancing recovery with higher education. But we do things like it funds our camping trip, our fall retreat with collegiate recovery programs throughout the Southeast. We always meet North Alabama every fall for a camping retreat.
Annette Baldwin:We do recovery at Ren Fest. We'll be doing recovery at Ren Fest December 6, which is big. So it's these funds go towards supporting activities that are recovery positive, support sobriety, and build community.
Amber Narro:I love that. So, Annette, when you're talking about students, I wanna talk about how hard it is for students to who are in recovery, and it's hard for anyone who's in recovery. Right? Alcohol is all around you. Drugs are all around you.
Amber Narro:You know where to get them. You know where whether we like it or not, and we can say that, you know, we're we're gonna be here and and nothing's gonna happen, and we're gonna be able to control everything. It's hard.
Annette Baldwin:It is.
Amber Narro:For those who are recovering. You can't just necessarily make the decision and not. You've got to have some things around you. Tell me from a personal standpoint from seeing these individuals recover and and and get back in school and get back to success. What is that like for them to experience that kind of success in their in their life and have that support around them pushing them?
Amber Narro:Rather than having to go it by themselves. I know that's a deep question.
Annette Baldwin:You know, it makes me, you know, back in it when I was a little girl and I was in graduate school for counseling and I worked at a treatment center in North Louisiana. I worked for Palmetto Addiction Recovery. I never forget one of the counselors would say, you know, for people to get in recovery, he he would say, they have to change everything. Like, you have to change your friends. Yeah.
Annette Baldwin:You have to get those triggers from away from you. You have to change how you cope with things. You have to get rid of things and you have to add things but he would say, you have to change everything
Amber Narro:and. Right. That that's not just where you go. It could be where you live. I mean, it's right around you.
Annette Baldwin:You know? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Annette Baldwin:I've definitely had students that have said, you know, like, I'm environmentally triggered. You know, I can't live in certain areas because that's where, I always call it research and development, that's where I would do my thing, so I've had to kinda move away from that. But no, you have to think of, it's hard for a freshman to transition to college. Imagine transitioning to college while you're also maybe even transitioning your identity. You know, from a person who, you know, maybe used alcohol and drugs to someone who's also in recovery.
Annette Baldwin:So it it is a lot.
Amber Narro:Indeed. And we know that, you know, colleges are where people kind of explore things and change things and they're not necessarily under their parents' umbrella anymore for So having an organization or a or a a program in place that can support these individuals is super important. So. Absolutely. It's wonderful.
Amber Narro:Now, you talk about the scholarships that are available for these individuals. Tell me why that's important.
Annette Baldwin:Well, most of the more successful collegiate recovery programs do host scholarships for their students. And a couple reasons are, number one, most of the time a parent maybe has depleted their college fund because of having to pay for treatment for their child. Or addiction took, addiction took it. Alcoholism took it. Or the consequences of addiction or alcoholism took the money.
Annette Baldwin:When you're a person in recovery, you might not be well resourced. So that was like the main tenets of why. But also I think it means something different. It means something different to our students to receive a scholarship. These are not necessarily students that were like in line so to speak, doing all the things.
Annette Baldwin:You know, they might have had a different high school experience. You know, nobody was coaching them to get that scholarship. So, we do host a gratitude night once a semester where we give scholarships and that there's just like a whole another level of gratitude because you're maybe working with people who never really thought that they were gonna ever ever be the student that would
Amber Narro:get a scholarship. That's amazing. Correct. Annette, when when you have your gratitude night, obviously, there's gonna be a lot of tears at that night. Right?
Amber Narro:Because this is hard. This is a hard thing for students to do. And I just want to, just from my experience being on campus, seeing these students, seeing friends who've also been in recovery, seeing people who, have had to embrace a different life and seeing how hard that is, I just wanna thank you for all your efforts to I wanna show you some gratitude because you're saving lives. I mean, you're really saving lives and you're really changing the trajectory of what people are doing. And I I gotta imagine that coming to work every day isn't isn't as easy some days than others.
Amber Narro:I mean, we gotta fill out a lot of forms here at Southeastern. Some days, those are not fun, but I gotta imagine that coming to work every day knowing that these individuals are successful because of this program, and leading up that program has gotta fill you up with a lot of joy and and gratitude yourself.
Annette Baldwin:Absolutely. Absolutely. I I told doctor Emerson, I said I could retire doing this. Yes. I really could.
Annette Baldwin:And then I think, you know It's your place
Amber Narro:in this
Annette Baldwin:fills my cup is it's not also, it's the helping the individual but it's also, you know, I think when you host a collegiate recovery program on your campus, there's more conversations related to addiction recovery happening. You know, we're not hiding it. We're not pretending.
Amber Narro:Making it easier for people to find you and get to you when they need you. Which is. I love it.
Annette Baldwin:It should it should be how it's that's how it should be. Yeah. You know, it should be as accessible to get recovery help and treatment as it is for anxiety, depression, go down the list.
Amber Narro:Right, and you're talking about anxiety, depression, you're talking about addiction and things like that. There's a lot of stigma that goes around all three of those things that you just mentioned that people should just snap out of it or just make different choices Right. Or just go a different route. How come it's so hard? I mean, why why does that as a counselor make you just why does it make you a little cringey?
Annette Baldwin:You know, I I wanna say it's
Amber Narro:getting better.
Annette Baldwin:I hope it's getting better.
Amber Narro:I think it's getting better.
Annette Baldwin:It's really difficult difficult for our population. You know, 18 21 is like you're the most likely to be diagnosed or diagnosable with a substance misuse disorder, like to fit that category, but you're the least likely to seek treatment. And I think part of that is we still have a lot of old ideas about what like the rights of passage should be, you know, when like you go to college or like, you know, people are easy to or quick to say, oh well, you know, they're just experimenting like, oh, you know, that he's just partying and you know, when which may be the case, but when people start having, like, real consequences and it at the price of their college degree, I think we really need to look at it.
Amber Narro:Or their freedom sometimes. Or their absolutely. When you're talking about this or their health, their physical and mental health. I mean, these things are this is real, y'all.
Annette Baldwin:You know? And
Amber Narro:it was thank you for saying that because just a few minutes ago, I couldn't find the words that were that I was meaning to find about this age and and what they're looking for. So, yeah, just excusing it as that's just what they do at this age. Correct. That's that's dangerous. So, I appreciate you saying that.
Annette Baldwin:Yeah and I mean, I'm not shy about it. I'm I've identified as a person in recovery. You know I found recovery at 29 and you know a lot of us that got sober a little later in life will say you know man like what if I would have found it at 21, you know what if I would have found it at 20, you know what kind of person you know because I've already gotten so many gifts for being in recovery, you know so many opportunities that I would not have had I would have stayed drinking or you know doing whatever else. So why not, you know, why do people have to wait? Like, they can get
Amber Narro:recovery early if they want it, you know? Indeed. Thank you so much for that. But the recovery that you're doing today is good for tomorrow. So Absolutely.
Amber Narro:That's, you know, we can we can start at any time. Absolutely. The time we've lost is not what we will gain.
Annette Baldwin:So Right.
Amber Narro:So let's do this. Alright. Mary Market. Back to Mary Market. Let's talk about this weekend.
Amber Narro:So, this is why Haman America, you are supporting this event this weekend that starts when? We are live. Tell me when it starts.
Annette Baldwin:Saturday morning at 09:00.
Amber Narro:Very good.
Annette Baldwin:The doors will open. We have a $5 admission. Vendors will be ready for everybody to come and look. We do have 500 shopping bags. So, we will give shopping bags to the first 500 shoppers.
Annette Baldwin:We also have a little map that you get. At 10:30, the community music school will be playing a little concert. We also have KSLU that'll be DJing for us. Playing holiday music, the whole event.
Amber Narro:Go the lion. Go the lion.
Annette Baldwin:Absolutely and then we close at four but then open back up on Sunday from twelve to four.
Amber Narro:I like it. Yes. I like it. And that came at the request of several vendors who are there, and I've heard that chatter among the vendors. So very excited.
Amber Narro:Yeah. They can't wait. Yeah. They think that they're gonna have busy days on Sunday as well. So I'm looking very much forward to seeing what that does.
Annette Baldwin:Absolutely. Absolutely. And then we also have the Lionettes coming.
Amber Narro:Ah, they're gonna do a dance workshop
Annette Baldwin:on Sunday. If you have any child between the ages of five to 13, they will be taking you at the door. You can register online. $40. You can learn some dance moves with the lionettes, and then they will perform at 03:45 right before the market close.
Amber Narro:Go on. I know. Oh, you're brilliant. I love it. Thank you for surrounding this market and its vendors with lots of activities to bring people so that they can enjoy the day.
Amber Narro:I appreciate that very much. Let's talk about the vendors. Yes. I see you got that map in front of you. Yes.
Amber Narro:It's a beautiful map by the way. Yes. Indeed. Tell me about them.
Annette Baldwin:Let's see. We have our you know, a lot of our favorites coming back. Amy Dernan with Scentsy. We have Erin Nicole and Co who was our winner last year for the most festive vendor booth.
Amber Narro:Yes. She deserves it and she works hard at that and I'm super jealous of all of her decorating talent.
Annette Baldwin:Of course, we have Kayla Handbags coming back as well. Indeed. We And some of these
Amber Narro:people have been with the market since the very beginning. Like, when it was still with junior auxiliary. So the the history of this market is that it was a junior auxiliary event for several years under your direction. Under my direction. You brought this up, and then JA decided that it was not an event that they wanted to participate in one year, and you decided that we would keep this going because the vendors were going, hey.
Amber Narro:We gotta have this market.
Annette Baldwin:Right. Right.
Amber Narro:So we appreciate you taking that over and Yeah. And continuing that. That's wonderful.
Annette Baldwin:So a lot of different foods this year. We have a first time Louisiana pepper jelly Mhmm. Company, and I was excited. We have Pralines this year.
Amber Narro:Is that the company from Punch Tool? Yes. Okay. Very good.
Annette Baldwin:They're in. Love it. They're in. I got some friends. It was really, it's always a struggle.
Annette Baldwin:I always have like a lot of jewelry people. So, we do have, we definitely have lots of jewelry but we also have a lot of clothing a lot of food. We what do we have? We have
Amber Narro:accessories. What about Christmas booths?
Annette Baldwin:We have we have two people doing wreaths. Uh-huh. So, Christmas decorations, Christmas boot boots. We have a lady that's doing what do you put across your table that goes through the middle? Table runners?
Annette Baldwin:Table runners. Holiday table runners that you can flip. Oh, nice. So, can Holiday. Yeah.
Annette Baldwin:So, you can go from Thanksgiving to Christmas and not have to pull two out. I like it. Yeah. Excited about Expressions Salon and Spa from Ponchatula. They're joining us.
Annette Baldwin:I didn't realize how big they were in the vendor market and they have like their own boutique and they're bringing a bunch
Amber Narro:of stuff. So, that'll be fun. Indeed. So, you got some new people going. This time.
Annette Baldwin:Lucky Kettle will be with us with their delicious popcorn.
Amber Narro:What about the dip people?
Annette Baldwin:I do have one. I have one. I think I have at least one. I have Boudreaux's. Yeah.
Amber Narro:Yum. You gotta have dip people so you can walk around with a cracker. You know, and they give you the samples and things like that. So this is a great market for you to be able to go to and get samples too. So if you're if you're coming in, you're gonna be full by the time you leave.
Annette Baldwin:Cousin Boudreaux is it Cousin or Cousin? Cousin Cousin Boudreaux's Cajun food. I didn't really mess that up.
Amber Narro:I think it probably I'm thinking Cousin. I I like Cousin for that one. Okay. For sure. Well, with this market, we have tons of different vendors, tons of different activities, tons of different things going on.
Amber Narro:I, you gotta be proud of this.
Annette Baldwin:I am. I'm I'm excited for where it's going. You know what I mean? Like, because I feel like it's growing every year. We're having better vendors every year and I see a lot more of our Hammond community like this is kinda like now they're like a little tradition.
Annette Baldwin:It kicks off the holidays and they just go and get, you know, maybe they're who's it? Somebody I was talking to, she was like, well, I don't buy for other people when I come to roomies. I buy for myself.
Amber Narro:It's like, let
Annette Baldwin:me get myself myself off my Christmas list first and I was like, that works. Whatever brings you in.
Amber Narro:Let's support these people in recovery. Come on.
Annette Baldwin:Right? So that's fun. Oh, I also have to say too that we have the lab school dads coming. They'll be in the front of the Pennington.
Amber Narro:They're gonna grill. Think they are getting it ready right now. Like, I've the word on the street is that they are starting to move. They're starting to mobilize.
Annette Baldwin:I well, I love that. That is a fundraiser for the lab school and they came to me and they were like, hey, can we can help you help us? And I was like, absolutely and so they're gonna be grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and I heard pasta lie, jambalaya, they're even gonna have a salad. Go on. Yeah.
Annette Baldwin:So you will not have to shop hungry.
Amber Narro:I love that. I love that. You have to be thank you for bringing this event. I mean, I know I'm thanking you for a lot today, but you deserve a lot of community thanks, not only for Collegiate Recovery and what it's doing for our campus and our community because we're turning people who are actually, you know, who whose freedom may have been taken away from them at some point into people who are taxpayers. Right?
Amber Narro:So we need these people contributing back to the community. Get them back on the streets and and clean and living a a sober lifestyle and contributing to our community because a lot of these individuals actually go back into careers where they help other people.
Annette Baldwin:Absolutely.
Amber Narro:And I mean, it's a full circle cycle of of folks who understand the ramifications and the consequences of addiction and come back and give back to people who are struggling as well. This is a beautiful program and if you are not at the Merry Market this weekend, figure out how to donate. And speaking of that, tell me about your sponsors.
Annette Baldwin:Sponsors for the market? Let me see. We didn't do a whole lot of sponsorship this year, but we did we do have American Factory Direct. So we are I didn't talk about Santa and the elves. Oh my gosh.
Annette Baldwin:Mhmm. Santa and we have two rookie elves and an executive elf coming in to the market Saturday morning, and we have this like 12 foot Santa display that I didn't
Amber Narro:know that elves could be ranked. I mean, of course, there needs to be
Annette Baldwin:a hierarchy for for elves. Always, the most experienced elves or the executive elf.
Amber Narro:Yeah. What's the elf on on Rudolph's name? We'll have to figure that out. The one that's like top elf. I'm writing his we'll have to remember that.
Amber Narro:We'll we'll come back to that. We'll come back.
Annette Baldwin:We have events by KD who she is so excited. It's a business off of out of Madisonville. She's coming in with like a 12 foot Santa backdrop. She's super excited about it and then, I was so excited to get some help from American Factory Direct. They are supplying Santa with his lovely couch.
Annette Baldwin:So we don't have a professional photographer, but you can totally snap some pics of you and your friends on the couch with Santa or you know your with your own phone or your own camera or. Probably even get one of the elves to help out as well with the picture taken too of Santa. But we're excited to have Santa. We're so thankful, you know, because you wanna talk about a busy person. Santa's like super busy for him to come out to Southeastern.
Annette Baldwin:That's a big deal.
Amber Narro:That is wonderful. We appreciate you inviting him and letting him this might be his first event of the year as well. I'm I'm claiming it. I'm just gonna say that it's Santa's first event of the year.
Annette Baldwin:It's cool that Santa supports recovery. You know? Indeed. Can we talk about that? Absolutely.
Amber Narro:We can talk about Santa's important recovery. Thank you, Santa. We appreciate him, and we appreciate American Factory Direct. Are we serving breakfast this year?
Annette Baldwin:No pancake breakfast this year. Not this year. Now we do have a mini pancake lady coming in Okay. Who I bet we could get into trouble with that. It's these little mini pancakes in a bowl and then you you know, she has what all these toppings.
Annette Baldwin:So, we do have a mini pancake lady. If, you know, feel free to partake with that.
Amber Narro:I feel free.
Annette Baldwin:There's plenty of stuff to get in trouble with.
Amber Narro:I mean, we have
Annette Baldwin:Mel's cheesecakes coming in. Love it. We have some definitely some bakers coming in. So, yeah.
Amber Narro:Love it. Okay. So give me the details. Let's write it down.
Annette Baldwin:Entrance is $5 we open at 09:00. We close at four on Saturday. On Sunday, our hours are from twelve to four. There's a dance workshop. You can register on-site.
Annette Baldwin:Santa and Santa pictures will be Saturday morning from nine until twelve. And then don't forget the community music school concert performance at 10:30. And the lab school dads will will not let let you leave hungry. You can always get you something on the way out if you want.
Amber Narro:Do I need to bring cash?
Annette Baldwin:Cash is good but you don't have to bring cash.
Amber Narro:So I can Venmo out my way in.
Annette Baldwin:You can Venmo Venmo it up.
Amber Narro:Alright. Wonderful. And most of the vendors at the event will probably also take Venmo as well. So you don't have to run to the to the Capital One or to the First Guaranty Bank or wherever you bank here locally before you come. You can just come on in.
Amber Narro:Correct. Very good. Thanks, Annette. I appreciate you being here and sharing about the Merry Market this weekend. Starts on Saturday at nine.
Amber Narro:Get over there and vendors, get ready. Because you're setting up tomorrow. We're laying out the floor tonight.
Annette Baldwin:Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you.
Amber Narro:Alright. Join us again here on Thursdays and Fridays at 09:00. We are on KSLUs 90.9, the lion at the lion roundtable. I'm 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.
