Bayou Community Foundation 10-Year Anniversary Gala Celebrates a Decade of Community Service

The Bayou Community Foundation (BCF) has helped Terrebonne, Lafourche, and Grand Isle through the direst of times since the organization’s inception ten years ago. BCF will host a 10th Anniversary Gala on Thursday, November 3 to celebrate the work the foundation was able to aid massive impacts local non-profits have had on our communities.

BCF Executive Director Jennifer Armand said many people’s first contact with the foundation was following Hurricane Ida and didn’t realize the foundation has been around for nearly ten years. The roots of the foundation were from disaster. After Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike, local stakeholders and community leaders realized the need for a foundation specifically for Terrebonne, Lafourche, and Grand Isle to serve as a “bucket” to help fund non-profit organizations to be able to provide community services. The genesis came from a local Houma attorney, Berwick Duval, who was the bayou representative on the Louisiana Recovery Authority following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As he sat on the authority, he would see millions of dollars of philanthropic funds coming into Louisiana, but none of the gifts were being allocated to Terrebonne, Lafourche, or Grand Isle despite the areas suffering damages from the storms.

Armand noted the reason behind our communities not receiving gifts from the storms was that there was no community foundation to serve the area. Duval brought together his wife Alexis Duval, J.J. Buquet, and Charlotte Bollinger to coordinate a plan for a community foundation. The initial core group grew over the next few years to create the original founding group: Charlotte Bollinger, Ed Bouterie, J.J. Buquet, Benny Cenac, Al Danos, Alexis Duval, Berwick Duval, Josephine Everly, Rob Gorman, Dr. Jim Leonard, Simone Maloz, Stephen Peltier, Donna Schwab, and the Gheens Foundation.

The tipping point of the inception of the foundation was the 2010 BP oil spill that hit our area hard, “We still had no bucket and our area was passed over again for significant philanthropic relief dollars,” Armand explained. That is when the group decided enough was enough and the foundation was more vital than ever. At the time, Mr. Benny Cenac had close ties with the Kentucky-based Gheens Foundation who agreed to help with a $1 million match grant program to which if the foundation raised $500,000 over five years, the foundation would match it, giving BCF $1 million to get the organization started. The $500,000 was raised in only three years, “That really helped the foundation blossom and we’re so grateful for their support,” said Armand.

After the foundation was started, the Board of Directors hosted a Community Needs Assessment in January 2013 where they invited representatives across government entities, industry leaders, health care, educators, and community leaders to see what the communities’ specific needs were. From the assessment, they were able to develop their priority issue areas which include education, workforce development, human services (which covers issues related to at-risk youth, the elderly, domestic violence, etc.), coastal awareness, and mental health. Armand said they were suprised to find out that mental health access was determined to be the number one need at the time. The director said it was a significant find at the time because they realized that the conversations about the lack of mental health care in the communities were simply not being had. That’s when they determined that although the “bucket” was created for aid when the next disaster struck, in the good times, the foundation would be focused on building non-profit capacities by awarding annual grants for programs that fit within the core priority needs.

In the summer of 2013, BCF held its first Annual Grants Program giving 11 local non-profits a total of just over $100,000. From 2013 through 2022, BCF has awarded $1,977,775 in competitive grants to nonprofits working in Lafourche Parish, Terrebonne Parish, and Grand Isle to meet critical needs in human services, education, workforce development, and coastal preservation.

Armand said the proudest moment of the last decade was the response following Hurricane Ida and the housing initiative which they are still working on. “Every year has had its wonderful and rewarding moments…every year we love hearing from our non-profits and hearing first-hand the impact that they have on our residents and it’s so fulfilling, but I am most proud, and our board is most proud, of the tremendous role that the foundation has been able to play in our area’s recovery after Hurricane Ida,” Armand said. She said that they were overwhelmed with the generosity of people, companies, and families throughout the country, “We are so grateful that we were able to be that bucket to accept all of that generosity and to be able to turn that around immediately into grants to get important relief and recovery services provided to our residents through our local non-profits…that has just been I think the proudest year of our ten year history,” she stated. She also said the most gratifying initiative they have done to date has been the housing initiative they have partnered with the Mennonites.

So far, the foundation has invested over $2.5 million in the initiative that has provided not only eight family homes built to hurricane standards in Dulac, but repaired almost 300 more homes through a repair project in the bayou community. The project is ongoing and the Mennonites will be returning this Fall for another building season where Armand said they are hoping to build ten additional homes in the area as well as working on a project to be able to do similar projects in Grand Isle through the Rebuild Grand Isle campaign.

The 10th Anniversary Gala will be held at the Thibodaux Regional Wellness Center on the 5th Floor on Thursday, November 3 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. “We’re so excited! It will be an enchanting evening celebrating not only BCF’s 10th anniversary, but also celebrating our precious communities of Terrebonne, Lafourche, and Grand Isle, along with the non-profits that make all of our work so worthwhile,” Armand exclaimed.

The November gala is the first fundraising community event that the foundation has ever hosted and will benefit the foundation’s Bayou Recovery Fund, the grant program, and all of the wonderful work the foundation does to take care of our community residents. 

The reception event will include chef-prepared food, a complimentary bar with drinks and cocktails, fellowship, a presentation along with a champagne toast honoring the BCF founders, and more! The gala will also have a silent auction that Armand described as a showcase of our local non-profits. BCF encourages local non-profits to contribute handmade items, services, volunteer opportunities, facility tours, or anything that showcases their organizations and the important services they provide. “We want to showcase their organizations and the wonderful work that they do,” she said.

Sponsorship opportunities are also available. For more information, contact Jennifer Armand at 985-790-1150 or email ArmandJ@BayouCF.org. Visit https://www.bayoucf.org/ for more information about the foundation and to purchase tickets.