Well, the biggest annual fundraiser
for Catholic Charities of Louisville
is right around the corner.
And of course, it is all about
Mardi Gras and letting the good
times roll for a good cause.
It's called rule and I'm joined
by CEO Lisa Djeco Crutcher in
our Great Day live studio today.
This sounds like such a fun event, Lisa.
I mean, what what a great kind
of theme to get people kind of
out in the middle of winter.
You know? It really is Claudia.
It is such a good time.
Our whole goal in planning this
fundraiser is to make sure that we are
having a truly fun party that everyone.
I really enjoy. You know,
we don't really have a great tradition here
in Louisville around celebrating Mardi Gras.
And so a few years ago,
we're changing that.
We decided that that was going to be ours.
We're, we're Catholic charities.
So Mardi Gras belongs to us
and we're we're taking it on,
you know, especially, we think of
all the fish fries that are coming.
So why not kind of couple that with
a Mardi Gras celebration as well?
Rule is happening February the
21st. That's right.
On fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday.
This is your celebration.
That's right.
You don't do anything else.
It's a Tuesday night.
It's a perfect time.
Enjoy yourself. So
many things that are happening
along with this event there, right.
Like give us a kind of a taste.
Absolutely. So like I said,
our whole goal is to have a fun party.
There's a live band,
an open bar, Cajun food gambling,
there's a silent auction,
there's bingo, there's all
kinds of things happening.
It is really a
good time rolled into one.
And and as we talked about at the
beginning of the of the interview it's
for such a good cause because we hear
a lot Catholic charities of Louisville.
But to really I think understand
how many different services you all.
Effect and and why this kind of
a fundraiser is just so needed.
You your hands are very deep
in the community.
Absolutely. I mean,
depending on how you're counting,
we have 10 different programs helping
everyone from expecting moms to
folks who are in nursing homes,
long term care facilities
and even after death.
We managed the indigent burial
program for the City of Louisville.
But we do refugee resettlement.
We work a lot with the
international community,
our immigration, legal services,
our language services program,
but we also help you know,
folks right here at home.
Your sister visitor center is the emergency
affiliate of the area community ministries
for the entire area West of 9th St.
and north of Broadway.
So you know,
we're doing all kinds of
different things to help
people in all walks of life.
So
this having this kind of a fundraiser,
it really can kind of mean
helping programs survive and
continue to function at the level
that you want them to observe.
I can't only imagine the number
of people that you're serving.
I feel like the need has gotten
greater in our community.
That's absolutely true,
especially around our food pantries.
We have two food pantries, one down in West.
Global and one near our
headquarters near Churchill Downs.
And the need is just exploding.
Our West End Food pantry has seen
need almost four times higher
in the last couple of years.
Yeah, we know that there's a
whole lot of things out there
that that people need help with,
and that's what we're here
for and all are helping them so much.
Most definitely. So how could
people obviously get tickets to
the tickets still available?
Tickets are on sale now.
You can go online to the Catholic Charities
website and find the link that will allow
you to go and purchase your tickets for
folks who maybe can't make it out on that.
Tonight you're still able to
participate in our silent auction,
which will go live on the 17th.
There's some super,
super exciting things in the silent auction.
There's a collection of WL Weller Bourbon.
There are a couple of really
great vacation packages.
There's a week in the Maldives,
which sounds what I know, I know.
I'm going to have to try
to bid on that myself.
A private island?
Stay off Cape San Blas in Florida.
Dinner with the Archbishop.
You may know we have a
new Archbishop in town.
This will be his first year.
He's from Louisiana, right?
So gonna really enjoy this.
I hope we're gonna make him feel
at home a little bit or he's
gonna be really tactful about how.
How
can tucky everything celebrate Mardi Gras?
He always says, like, you know,
things aren't as spicy.
We think there's a little bit lighter here.
Yeah, I told him. I told him we're
open to his constructive criticism.
After the event, he can tell us how to
make it even more authentic. I think
he appreciates just the the
different events that we do to
kind of make him feel at home.
Yeah, in his new home.
But again, I just can't
think of anything better to.
I mean, this is great for Mardi
Gras to get out there and celebrate.
We're very excited and we hope
that lots of folks will come.
So we started this event in 2020.
So as you can imagine,
it's been a little bit of a
rough launch back this year,
but we are ready to welcome
everybody in town to come and
have a good time with us.
Lease Le Bonton roulette.
There you go. There you go.
Alright, Lisa, thank you
so much for stopping by. Thanks.
Let you know those tickets are still
available to purchase your tickets.
Just head on over to ccu.org
back slash Roulet. 23.