Dedicated gala leaders feted by Abp. Hannan High

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Rita Dauterive chuckles whenever she thinks back to how she and her fellow “Crimson and Blue Gala” organizers would blanket the French Quarter in their quest to solicit auction donations for Archbishop Hannan High’s biggest annual fund-raiser.

“We would go to the Riverwalk and say, ‘You all take this side and you all take the other,” Dauterive recalled. “You would walk from store to store and ask people to donate something. In Chalmette people would say, ‘Here she comes again.’ You would work on it all year, and when one was over, you’d start working on the next one.”

Dauterive, chairwoman of a dizzying five Hannan galas, was one of the mostly unsung heroines honored March 2 at a special luncheon at Benedict’s Restaurant in Mandeville. The meal, organized to recognize the women who chaired Hannan’s first 20 galas, thanked the women for forging on, even when Hurricane Katrina made Hannan’s future uncertain, and even when most members of the public assume a gala’s tasks can be completed with a few phone calls.

‘Strong backs’ of support

“Volunteers who coordinate and run the fund-raisers for our schools, churches and social service organizations are a very special breed of people,” said Sandra Martin, the Hannan religion teacher and development office staffer  who came up with the idea to formally thank the women for their hard work. “They are the strong backs that make so much of what we do as an archdiocese possible,” Martin added. “They deserve some public recognition. Other Catholic entities should follow suit and find a way to thank their volunteers.”

A year-round commitment

Dauterive, 62, the mother of two Hannan graduates, said she got involved because of the “really nice” teachers and parents she met at her sons’ high school. Her husband also worked at Hannan as athletic director, and her oldest son went on to teach algebra at Hannan for about five years.

Dauterive, who had experience helping with the auction end of galas, was asked to chair her first gala in 1996 when the person who was next in line bowed out unexpectedly.

“I said, ‘As long as y’all help me,” Dauterive recalls. “The next year they asked me to do it again, and I said, ‘OK, but y’all better get me a co-chair, because I’ll be in divorce court if you don’t!’”

Dauterive said time is the job’s biggest sacrifice, with the chairwoman and the various committee heads expected to spend every night working together in the weeks leading up to the event.

All-nighters

“We used to close the gym and go down every night to work on decorations; it was like a family,” Dauterive said. “We would go out to eat together or order food in, and you’d also go down there to work on weekends.”

Soliciting interesting and varied auction items – and getting the donors to follow through on their promises – is another labor-intensive facet of the job, Dauterive said, noting that she and her fellow workers had to revise their donor list after Hannan relocated from St. Bernard Parish to the Northshore.

“Every chairperson tries to make a little bit more than the one before them,” Dauterive said. “People have just so much to give – and they just can’t give (an auction item) to everybody who asks for something. For example, you had a list of people you couldn’t ask because they were already contributing to the golf tournament.”

Gathering donations is just the tip of the iceberg of a chairwoman’s responsibilities. Working in coordination with committee co-chairs, she must also select the caterer, oversee publicity and volunteers, procure the emcee and photographer, and collaborate on the theme-specific decorations and centerpieces. Music at the majority of Hannan galas has been provided by the school band, Dauterive said.

“Down in Chalmette the students would help serve the dinner,” she recalls. “That was one of the things they really enjoyed. You started serving in eighth grade, and as you got older you got to work the auction tables because you had experience,” she said, offering two tips to would-be gala chairs: be assertive and be willing to work year-round.

During the lunch, Dr. Donalyn Hassenboehler, Archbishop Hannan’s assistant principal, handed a rose to each honoree. Each woman also received a goblet decorated with the theme from the year or years she was chair.

Mary Ann Francingues recalled heading up the high school’s first gala in 1991.

“Hannan was only a few years old, so people wouldsay, ‘What school are you from?’” Francingues recalls. “It was hard work for no pay, but it was also fun to be with each other doing something good. We did it because it was good to see the kids get their computers, band uniforms or whatever we were raising money to purchase.”

At the March 2 luncheon, Myra Weber, the gala’s 1999 chairwoman, made a plea to her younger counterparts.

“You know I still come every year,” Weber winked, “so you better go ask someone to give you some good jewelry for me to bid on!”

Currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, Archbishop Hannan will hold its 2012 gala, “The Roaring Twenties,” March 31. Proceeds will help to build Hawk Field, an on-campus field for football and soccer. Since Hurricane Katrina, Hannan’s student-athletes have had to play on borrowed or rented fields. For more information, call (985) 249-6363.

Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].