NEW ORLEANS – The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Mississippi/Louisiana Chapter will welcome 18 candidates at a cocktail party on Wednesday, April 5, at the National World War II Museum for its inaugural Man and Woman of the Year kickoff.
The event is from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. in the Louisiana Freedom Pavilion, 945 Magazine St.
Candidates will compete for 10 weeks between April 5 and June 15, raising funds and awareness for and about blood cancers. The male and female candidates who raise the most money will win the local title of Man of the Year and Woman of the Year and go on to compete for national honors.
The Man and Woman of the Year campaign is an annual campaign held in more than 40 cities in the country, including Lafayette, LA and raised nearly $40 million in 2016. This will be the first year it is being held in New Orleans.
Money raised will benefit LLS's mission to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families, event reps said. This year's fundraising is in honor of two patient heroes, the 2017 Boy and Girl of the Year: Quentin Murray and Lucy Boudreaux.
"We are thrilled to unveil this incredibly talented class of candidates for our inaugural year," says Katie Triplett, executive director. "We are so grateful for the unwavering support of these fine men and women who will set out on an amazing journey to raise money for lifesaving cancer research. We really wanted to set a prescient for what will be an annual event. It's going to be a great campaign!"
The campaign is being chaired by Chris Bellone of Property South.
This year’s candidates and their employers are listed below:
• Warren Backer, Jr., Engel & Volkers
• Bob Bergeron, Crescent Title
• Kaye Courington, Courington, Kiefer & Sommers
• Kaitlin Crabtree Rodgers, Arnaud's Restaurant
• Hartley Crunk, Whitney Bank
• Amy Edmond, Preservation Title
• Dan Forman, The Dependency Pain Treatment Centers
• Blake Haney, Dirty Coast
• Ben Kazenmaier, City Greens
• Tricia King, Gardner Realtors
• McKenzie Lovelace, FSC Interactive
• Travers Mackel, WDSU
• Lauren Marshall, Woodward Design + Build
• Billy Nungesser, Louisiana Lieutenant Governor
• Dito Patron, Ameriprise Financial Services
• Peggy Rodriguez, Everybody LLC
• David Salley, Salley, Hite, Mercer & Resor
• Sidney Torres IV, IV Capital
Winners will be announced at the Grand Finale Gala held on Thursday, June 15 at the National World War II Museum. Both the kickoff and the gala will be emceed by Mark Romig.
