New class of N.O. ambassadors to campaign within Louisiana, too

• By JOE GYAN JR.
• Advocate New Orleans bureau
• Published: Mar 8, 2008 - Page: 16A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — The Fleur-de-lis Ambassador Program, organized in March 2007 to build a solid base of support for New Orleans and its recovery from Hurricane Katrina, rolled out a new crop of ambassadors Friday with a new twist to the mission of their predecessors.

Like the inaugural group of ambassadors, the 2008 class will travel to major cities across the country to meet with business, media, philanthropic and political leaders. But this year’s group also will spend time traveling across the state.

“We are really looking forward to making Louisiana a focus of the program this year,’’ New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow, one of the program’s co-founders, said. “It is of equal importance that the cities in our own state — and the policymakers, business leaders and media in those cities — know the true story of New Orleans’ progress.’’

The 2007 class of ambassadors traveled to Boston; Birmingham, Ala.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and New York. This year’s class will visit Chicago; Houston; Dallas; Miami; Memphis, Tenn.; Philadelphia; San Francisco; St. Louis; and Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla.

Tulane University President Scott Cowen, the program’s other co-founder, said 2007 was a “very good year’’ for the program and “one of the most rewarding years’’ of his life.

“We began relationships with many people and organizations who now want to help New Orleans become an even greater city than it was before,’’ he said during a news conference at Tulane.

During a visit to New York last year, Cowen said he and other Fleur-de-lis ambassadors met with the Wallace Foundation, which is keenly interested in the arts and K-12 education. Cowen said the meeting went well, but he wondered whether it would bear fruit. Two weeks ago, five representatives of the foundation spent three days in New Orleans.

“I have no doubt that they will be an investor in our city,’’ he said.

Ti Martin, managing partner of Commander’s Palace Restaurant in New Orleans and one of the two dozen 2007 Fleur-de-lis ambassadors, said she is pleased that the program lives on.

“I am most thrilled you all are not going to stop this,’’ she said. “It is critical that we keep getting the message out.’’

Martin said one of the messages she conveyed as an ambassador last year is that “civic activism has replaced civic apathy’’ in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Fielkow, former executive vice president for the New Orleans Saints, said he did not witness any “Katrina fatigue’’ on his 2007 ambassador trips across the nation.

“The country is still engaged,’’ he said. “The country is still interested in the recovery and the rebuilding of New Orleans,’’ he said.
The 2008 Fleur-de-lis ambassadors are as follows: