Organization issues awards for nonprofit and community leadership, celebrates top-5 year for philanthropy, elects new board members Baton Rouge, LA – The Baton Rouge Area Foundation today announced the appointment of three new members to their board of directors. Thomas “Tim” Barfield, Anita Byrne, and Milford “Mike” Wampold were elected by BRAF’s members at their […]
By Sara Bongiorni A pandemic shakeup has restructured the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Baton Rouge into a regional organization focused on serving more children, and with new services that include mental-health counseling for kids coping with loss and upheaval. There is a new name for what is essentially a new organization. The Boys […]
Currents Q3 2021
By Jeff Roedel Leslie Lacy had no intention of steering her legal career toward representing children in foster care, and yet that path found her. The Tucson native’s experience included interning for Vice President Al Gore and focusing on family planning and special education cases after graduating from LSU Law School. But that changed when […]
By Mary Ann Sternberg On the concrete T-head of the old Baton Rouge municipal dock are now-fading words in white paint of John Lennon’s famed song “Imagine.” According to local lore, this graffiti appeared soon after singer and spiritualist Lennon was killed in 1980, when a devoted fan (one of many adventurous trespassers) sneaked out […]
A Water Institute tool could transform river management and transport across the globe By Sara Bongiorni For captains and their crews, moving goods can be a white-knuckle experience. Heavy with goods, boats must dodge each other through fast-moving and shifting currents, while also maneuvering around silt hidden under the water. The Water Institute of the […]
For more than two decades, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation has honored the best and most devoted nonprofit leaders with the John W. Barton Sr. Excellence in Nonprofit Management Awards. Four years ago, the Foundation added an award for a younger nonprofit leader—a rising star. How do we choose the winners? People who have charitable […]
In his 33-year tenure, BRAF grew to $722 million in assets, changed the region John G. Davies, president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, announced Wednesday that he plans to retire at the end of the year. Davies has led the Foundation for 33 years, increasing total assets in that span from $5 […]
Currents Q2 2021
Editor’s note: This story was written when restoration began in February 2021. The monument will be fully restored in March 2021. We thank donors to this project: Entergy, Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation, Jennifer Eplett and Sean E. Reilly, Baton Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation, Capital One, ExxonMobil, […]
By Maggie Heyn Richardson Imagine it: a new park replacing an empty lot—broken concrete and poison ivy exchanged for native shade trees, picnic tables and flower-filled raised beds. A vibrant component of the Imagine Plank Road Master Plan is a neighborhood “pocket” park on a vacant lot at 4258 Plank Road, the corner of Plank […]