Member and Donor Spotlight
The Avery Family – Supporters of our community AND the Community Foundation
The Avery family and the Just Imagine SWLA 50-Year Resilience Plan are proving to be a great match! Both are visionary, exciting, and coming to fruition! The Just Imagine project of Waterfront Development is becoming a reality with the recent groundbreaking of Crying Eagle Brewery Company – Lakefront. The original Crying Eagle location, now called Crying Eagle – McNeese, is on a part of the Contraband Bayou that is currently not more than a drainage ditch but will be navigable for kayaks and canoes in the future as part of Bayou Greenbelt, another Just Imagine project.
Fran Avery, the family matriarch and head pizza chef, exudes enthusiasm and shared, “Our family loves to be outdoors and bike so adding Bayou Greenbelt, both the water loop and bike paths to go with it, will be fun for us and our customers at Crying Eagle! Bayou Greenbelt will be a great addition to our outdoor space.” This Sulphur native believes that the enhancements going on in our whole area will have people saying “That’s where I want to be!”
Southwest Louisiana is very important to the whole Avery family. “We’re from here and we choose to be here,” added Fran. The family is proud to be a part of developing the lakefront and realizes they have a huge responsibility to do it right. “This is for our grandchildren and their children…and those of our whole area!”
Fran and her husband, Larry, make an annual contribution to be members of the Community Foundation and Larry is a former Foundation Board member, too. Their son Eric and his wife Jennifer, also partner with the Foundation by having a charitable giving fund to support causes important to them.
Q and A with Eric Avery:
Tell us what inspired you to be an entrepreneur and how does that connect with your support of our community?
It’s really hard to pinpoint a specific moment that led to my entrepreneurial spirit, but I have always been an “Idea” guy for as long as I can remember. I’ve been very blessed in that the businesses I have created have been quite successful, which has allowed me the ability to bless others with my time, money, and knowledge. My family and I have been on both ends of blessings and while it’s wonderful being blessed, to be a blessing is arguably one of the most fulfilling things you can do in life.
What energizes you about partnering with the Community Foundation to help enhance Lake Charles and SWLA?
I love the idea of my family and I having our own dedicated fund benefiting mission(s) that matter to us. In doing so we have the option of donating cash, stocks, real estate, and other assets to make grants to nonprofits from our fund.
With the recent groundbreaking of Crying Eagle Lakefront, describe what you think Lake Charles’ lakefront will look like in 5 years.
I know that with our recent groundbreaking, you can expect the development to continue for years. We have additional ideas we are working on now to further the development, but I feel that the new bridge, Port Wonder and Crying Eagle Lakefront, will spur considerably more interest from other developers. Within 5 years, I expect to see more dining options, entertainment, retail, and even hospitality.
How would you describe your personal mission?
Every single day I pray for wisdom, good health, understanding, and trust in God. With that said, my personal mission is to live out my life happy, satisfied, and fulfilling God’s intended purpose for my life.
If you had a family slogan (and maybe you do!), what would it be?
Make/making a difference
How are you instilling your family’s commitment to your community in your children?
While we often keep our donations private, we do let our children know of the impact we make in the community. Not so much as amounts given, but missions that are important to us. I know they too feel a sense of pride knowing their parents work hard to make a difference in the community. And while financial donations are not always possible, we do work to instill in them that donating their time to helping others is often as impactful, sometimes more so, than simply donating money.