The calendar might not suggest a time for a warm, afternoon party along the bayou, but organizers for the annual Jazz on the Bayou fundraiser—normally held the first weekend in April—are off and running for a special event in 2017.
Elizabeth Schneider told me that a recent Jazz on the Bayou committee meeting was held to begin plans for next year’s event that will celebrate the 25th year of the very popular fundraiser.
Elizabeth’s last name is certainly familiar to many of you since she is related to Ronnie Kole and Gardner Schneider Kole who have hosted the Jazz party each year at their home on Bayou Liberty. The benefit is held in their backyard, right near the banks of the bayou, and provides a spectacular location for a fundraiser that few other benefit events can match.
Elizabeth is daughter-in-law to Gardner since she married Pete Schneider, and has become one of the key people heading the planning and work for Jazz on the Bayou each year.
She said they are still developing some very special projects and additions to the 25th celebration, but one of them that will be of interest is to bring back the “Jazz Girls” who have served for years to assist the event.
The Jazz Girls are the young ladies who dress in beautiful ball gowns for the event and stroll around the party selling raffle tickets for some of the special items.
Elizabeth said they are now asking for any past Jazz Girls to please contact her at St. Joe Brick, where she works with with Pete at the family business. Call 985-863-6161 and ask for here to get on the list for next year’s Jazz party.
The original Jazz on the Bayou fundraiser was started by Gloria Miramon as a fundraiser to support the Slidell Performing Arts in the late 70s. Then when Ronnie and Gardner took it over in 1982 they started out with 75 people attending and had a guest chef that weekend of Justin Wilson, the famous Cajun who was most popular for his cooking and his Cajun accent.
Elizabeth said there will be other special features for the 25th annual Jazz on the Bayou, such as etched wine glasses to commemorate the event. So mark your calendars right now for April 1-2, 2017 for the Jazz party. I am certain it will be a sellout.
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John Perkins is one of my good friends from our many days working together at the Slidell Sentry-News and now with him mostly in retirement, I notice he is one of those folks who enjoys seeing interesting things on the Internet or through e-mail that he will forward to friends.
I got one this week that I thought was worth repeating. Maybe you’ve seen it before, but it was new to me and I’ll guess it will be new to others who might enjoy it.
This information was apparently distributed by Warren Buffet, a man who consistently ranks among the wealthiest people in the world, currently with a net value between $5 billion to $10 billion, depending on which reports you believe.
The ironic thing about the information is that Buffett is a big supporter of the Democratic Party, particularly Hillary Clinton, yet he also has a reputation for being very frugal—something that apparently was linked to his interest in this topic.
Here is the information I received from John:
–Salary of retired presidents: $180,000 for life.
–Salary of House or Senate members: $174,000 for life.
–Salary for Speaker of the House: $223,500 for life.
–Salary for Majority or Minority Leaders in Congress: $193,400 for life.
–Average salary for a teacher: $40,065.
–Average salary for a deployed soldier: $38,000.
Buffett said that looking at those figures it was clear where Washington needed to do some financial cutting to the budget. But he also added that “I could end the federal budget deficit in five minutes. You pass a law that says anytime there is a deficit of more than 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.”
I must say I like the entire plan, and I also think that for public officials to get that kind of money from the taxpayers for their entire lives after serving in a job that was considered public service is a shame. And you wonder why our national debt is so out of control? Think how much is being spent each year for every congressional member who ever served!
Those dollars show how easy it is for Congress to spend money from hard-working Americans who are actually paying taxes—especially when that money is not their own.
That kind of reckless spending is why our national economy is such a mess and it’s why business owners are paying a third to a half of their income to the government, all so many others can get a free ride for so much in their lives.
I think those simple statistics are the reason Donald Trump garnered so much attention for president, and it’s the reason so many were willing to take a chance on someone like him—simply hoping something can get our system back in order.
Kevin Chiri can be reached by e-mail at kevinchiri@gmail.com.