HOLLYDAYS TURNS 25

• By KAREN MARTIN
• Assistant People editor
• Published: Oct 13, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:00 a.m.

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It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t know any better.

Ask Nell McAnelly. In 1984, she was tapped to chair the Junior League’s first holiday market.

When planning started, the location where the market would be held, the Great Hall at the Bellemont, was not yet built. Merchants had to be talked into participating in this unknown event. And, oh yeah, McAnelly found out she was pregnant shortly after agreeing to chair the fundraiser. She delivered the day after it closed.

Who knew then what Hollydays would become?

Certainly not McAnelly. But she couldn’t be more proud.

Hollydays turns 25 this year with its market Wednesday through Saturday at the Baton Rouge River Center. Today it is Louisiana’s largest fundraiser, according to the League, and one of the top six in the nation. Over the past quarter century, the League has given more than $4 million back to the community from its Hollydays earnings.

Kellee Hennessy is chairing this year’s market.

“I remember going to the Bellemont as a kid. I loved it then, and I love the philosophy of what it does for the community,” said Hennessy.

What McAnelly and her committee did in nine months has now become a year-round planning process.

As Hollydays has grown, from about 50 merchants in 1984 to about 200 this year, so has the work.

From dealing with liquor licenses, fire codes and contracts to terrorist attack insurance, the market is a big business that gets more complicated by the year.

Both women heaped kudos on the League members, both past and present, who devote hours and hours to the Hollydays cause.

“Your volunteers are priceless,” said McAnelly. “And doing this builds friendships that last long after Hollydays are over.”