Women With Heart 2018
Please join the St. Landry-Evangeline United Way Women United for the annual Women With Heart Luncheon and Power of the Purse Auction onFriday, February 9, 2018 with Honorary Chair Maureen Little and Keynote Speaker Valerie Cahill at the Opelousas Civic Center.
HONORARY CHAIR FOR 2018 MAUREEN LITTLE
A native of South Louisiana, Maureen Little has a degree in Culinary Arts with over 20 years of experience. At one time she studied with Nicholas Lodge, the former Chef to Buckingham Palace. As a chef she once traveled to French Guyana to teach the Creoles there how to prepare food like the Creoles in Louisiana. She has done cooking demonstrations on an international level where she was the only chef representing the United States.
She has owned and operated Virtual Bistro Catering which specialized in Intimate Dinners, Dinner Parties, 3D Sculpted Cakes, Gourmet cookies and Edible Promotion Business Cards and logos; was featured on Passe Partout as the chef for KLFY Channel 10 for over a year.
Teaching is something that comes very natural to Maureen as the new culinary Instructor at the Washington Career & Technical Education Center. She hopes to impart her cooking and management knowledge to her 11th and 12th grade students.
She is the loving mother of both Alex (18) and Ayrton (16) who recently were accepted at Harvard and Stanford Universities respectively.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER FOR 2018 VALERIE CAHILL
Valerie S. Cahill is a positive thinker and a bridge builder. A reader of Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peele since she was a teenager, Cahill became a voracious consumer of positive thinking books. These books (and ways of thinking) helped guide her in and through a background in sales. She thinks of herself as a career salesperson, but also knows that good sales skills help us in many aspects of daily life.
Valerie used sales as a foundation for her business career, and is now a licensed general contractor, a real estate developer, an independent investment banker and a hotelier. Living in Jefferson Parish, Valerie was appointed by Governor Blanco in 2007 for a 5-year term on the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans. In 2011, her colleagues on the Board elected her to serve as Chair, making her the 3rd woman in Port history to so serve. Cahill retains her connections within the world of maritime trade, just as she retains her love for the Port of New Orleans.
Valerie is also extensively involved in civic and trade associations throughout the region. She was a member of the board of directors of the World Trade Center and Women’s Professional Council, and served on the executive committee of the Louisiana Urban Land Institute, and was named “Women of the Year” by CityBusiness in 2004 and 2011. Valerie is a Fellow of the Loyola Institute of Politics and was active in the Junior League of New Orleans and the New Orleans Real Estate Investors Association. She has also participated and/or led New Orleans regional trade delegations on trips to Cuba, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama, as well as Hamburg, Germany, Paris, Istanbul, Turkey, and Canada. She holds the distinction as IPPPM certified (International Program of Port Planning and Management).
Valerie purchased the Hotel Cazan, circa 1911 in the heart of Mamou in January of 2016, and was opened for business by Mardi Gras 2016, attracting tourists and ghost hunters, as well as businesses for meetings and people looking for a unique place to hold weddings or other special events. She notes that people from all over the world come to Mamou for a taste of Cajun culture, and 40 percent of the parish self-identifiy as speaking French. Hotel Cazan was originally a bank, and its massive brick walls remain from its original construction. In the 1950s, Frank Cazan Fontenot turned the building into a hotel and expanded the property. The hotel contains a 1950s-era cafe with red vinyl chairs and a soda fountain counter, a mahogany bar (Cazan's) handcrafted by locals and terrazzo floors sporting a dramatic C for Cazan in its center. This venue is available for special events, business meetings, and private parties, and soon Valerie will add another jewel to the Mamou crown - the Acadian Antiques and Arts.
Optimism paired with execution can be a powerful combination, as Cahill has demonstrated. She believes to be well rounded citizens, we must apply both in improving our communities, and our world, as well as in our careers and businesses.
As the 2018 keynote speaker, her story will be captivating and entertaining, leaving all in attendance inspired and motivated!