(New Orleans, LA) – On Thursday, January 19, 2012, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., the first honorees of the Algiers Volunteer Wall of Fame will be recognized at a reception at the Algiers Courthouse, 225 Morgan Street. Five Algerines – Georgiana Brunet, Emma Bryan, Irene Burrus, Valerie Massimi and Marge Sherrod – have been selected for their many years of service to non-profit organizations in Algiers, across New Orleans and beyond. They are all tireless and committed volunteers, and they will be honored in a permanent exhibit at the Courthouse.
Barbara Waiters, Executive Director of Algiers Economic Development Foundation (AEDF), said, “The Algiers Community, especially AEDF, is very fortunate to have this group of individuals take the initiative to make a difference not only in our community but throughout the entire New Orleans metropolitan area. They continue to humbly and joyfully make a huge difference in our community.”
Each year, more volunteers will be honored and added to the Algiers Volunteer Wall of Fame, which is designed to recognize Algerines who have maintained lifelong commitments to community service, and to encourage other citizens to follow in their footsteps.
The Algiers Volunteer Wall of Fame Committee – the Honorable Marty Broussard, Leslie Ellison, Kathy Lynn Honaker, Amy Hubbell and Donna St. Louis – organized the event. For more information, please contact Marty Broussard at (504) 368-4245 or marty8lunch@yahoo.com.
About the honorees:
Georgiana Brunet has maintained a lifelong commitment to helping her neighbors, especially the elderly, and her extended family. She has a contagious laugh and is always doing something to keep people happy. She was a long-time volunteer with Charity Hospital, Holy Name of Mary, the Girl Scouts and other organizations, and remains active with the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies’ Auxiliary,
especially on the Social Outreach Committee.
With a grandfather who was a slave and a son who has travelled the world as an opera singer, Emma Bryan has had an enormous breadth of experiences. She’s dedicated decades of her energy and business skills to the Red Cross, Orleans Parish Schools, United Churches, Total Community Action, Saint John African Methodist Episcopal Church, Landry School and more. It is far easier to find her out volunteering, helping her neighbors or socializing than to find her at home.
Tireless and fun-loving, Irene Burrus has seen a lot of change in her lifetime, and embraced it all. In addition to being a wife, mother, grandmother and career woman – at the Tourism Commission and elsewhere – has been a State Volunteer of the Year, honored for her amazing work with so many organizations in Algiers and across New Orleans, and for initiating the Mardi Gras breakfasts and Christmas parties that support and honor NOPD’s 4th District.
A Rhode Island School of Design graduate, Val Massimi had a career in Manhattan before becoming a Navy wife for 30 years during which she began travelling the world. A true adventurer, she has a home in Spain and still travels, but she and her husband call Algiers home. Here, she has been a volunteer and leader, working with Friends of the Algiers Courthouse, Algiers Republican Women, the Algiers Police Advisory Board, Kiwanis, Bocage Civic Association and many more.
As a child in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, a sorority girl in Jackson, as a wife and mother and throughout her career, Marge Sherrod has been active in her communities. She committed years to New Orleans Public Libraries, serving on the NOPL and Foundation Boards and founding Friends of Algiers Regional Library. She has also been active with Friends of the Algiers Courthouse, Senator John Breaux, Welcome Neighbors and many more causes in Algiers and elsewhere.
