Bev's Note A letter from Executive Editor Bev Church

A Note from Bev

We’re Back!

We’re back with our new redesign for St. Charles Avenue magazine celebrating our 25th Anniversary and it’s over the top! Thanks to Ali Sullivan and Morgan Griffith for all their hard work! We’re featuring new columns and have reworked everything – content, fonts, colors and more! Thanks also to our fearless leader Todd Matherne for all his support through the pandemic!

As I look back to our first year, when Terri Havens was publisher and I was Editor, we had a job to do to sell this brand-new magazine that was the brainchild of Bill Metcalf. Terri and I would walk into stores and of course buy something, so we could tell them about Avenue, the magazine spotlighting the A-List, the movers and shakers who put on the fabulous fundraisers for which New Orleans is known! This new magazine spotlighted New Orleans society, celebration and style, and we still do that today.

We are so excited to be back and to spotlight on our cover the 43rd “Hancock Whitney Zoo-To-Do” September 17 and “Zoo-To-Do for Kids sponsored by Children’s Hospital New Orleans” September 10! Thanks to our cover models: 2021 “Hancock Whitney Zoo-To-Do” Chair Leslie P. Gottsegen; 2021 “Zoo-To-Do for Kids sponsored by Children’s Hospital New Orleans” Chair Betsy T. Laborde; Surgeon-inChief of Children’s Hospital Ellis Arjmand M.D., MMM, Ph.D.; Vice President of Corporate Banking of Hancock Whitney Lindsey Wands; and Audubon Commission President J. Kelly Duncan! Put on your mask and enjoy a night under the stars, complete with fabulous food and drinks and entertainment, all to support conservation, our zoo and the whooping cranes! Visit ZooToDo.org and KidsZooToDo. org for tickets and information.

We can’t wait for you to see our new features showcasing designers, Philanthropic Faces, fashion and hosting tips, our new arts calendar, the return of Diane Sustendal’s social column, our 25th Anniversary feature, the “Registry of Charitable Events: September-December,” What’s Hot for our 25th Anniversary and so much more!

Again, my sincere thanks to Morgan Packard Griffith who's one of a kind! She's smart, stylish, funny and one of my best friends. She makes this magazine work! And thanks to all of you who read Avenue! If you’ve received this magazine, you’re on our A-List and are a positive New Orleanian who’s making our city a better place! Keep it up and please get your vaccination and wear your mask; we’ll get through this!

Bev Church

Terri Havens, Avenue’s first publisher, with her son, Prentiss, in 1997. The 1997 editorial staff of St. Charles Avenue working hard shooting photos for the article “Fridays at Galatoire’s.” Shown here are photographer Chris Granger, then-Managing Editor Sue Strachan, Bev (me) and Alexis Swanson who wrote the Nostalgia column.