A Month of Connection, Community Engagement, Local Business Support and Women Showing Up for One Another
If you wanted to see what Professional Women of St. Tammany looks like beyond a meeting room, August offered a pretty good answer.
Throughout the month, PWST members could be found supporting local businesses, attending community celebrations, participating in philanthropic events, gathering for professional and social opportunities, celebrating ribbon cuttings and showing up for women and organizations across St. Tammany Parish.
Some of those events were organized by PWST. Others were not.
And that distinction matters.
Professional Women of St. Tammany exists to connect, inspire and support women throughout our community. That means creating meaningful opportunities of our own while also encouraging our members to become active participants in the larger community around them.
August demonstrated both.
From supporting businesses that have invested in our scholarship mission to expanding opportunities for connection in St. Tammany East, PWST spent the month putting our message into action:
Stronger Together. Making a Difference.
Showing Up Where Our Community Is
One of PWST’s growing areas of focus is simple: show up.
Not only at PWST events, but for the businesses, nonprofits, organizations and women doing meaningful work throughout St. Tammany Parish.
Early in August, PWST members formed a Community Delegation to support Equine Reflections Therapeutic Center during its fundraiser and open house. The organization uses rescued horses in therapeutic, educational and team-building programs designed to strengthen confidence, resilience and personal growth.
Members also showed their support for The Chiffarobe as the longtime local business prepared to close its brick-and-mortar location and begin a new chapter. Earlier in the month, The Chiffarobe had recognized PWST through its Making a Difference Monday series, highlighting our scholarship mission and work throughout the community.
Later in the month, another PWST Community Delegation celebrated Reintegration Wellness and owner Elise Guidry at the business’s ribbon cutting in Covington.
Our members also represented PWST at events hosted by other community partners, including the St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce’s Southern Nights Soirée and Community Women of Folsom & Beyond, where PWST Retreat Chairman Kalish Morrow led a conversation on women’s strength, wellness and confidence.
These appearances aren’t simply about visibility.
They’re about relationships.
When another organization is doing worthwhile work, when a woman launches something she has worked hard to build, or when one of our own members is leading, speaking or serving elsewhere in the community, we want PWST women in the room cheering them on.
Supporting Businesses That Support Our Mission
August also brought two stops in PWST’s growing Around Town Takeover series.
Members and guests gathered at Pat Gallagher’s 527 and later at Keith Young’s for relaxed opportunities to meet one another, share a meal and build relationships without a formal program.
But there’s a purpose behind these gatherings that extends beyond networking.
PWST’s Around Town Takeovers intentionally return support to businesses that have supported our organization through contributions to our silent auction and scholarship fundraising efforts.
When a local business helps PWST invest in the future of women in our community, we believe in returning that support.
You showed up for us. We’re showing up for you.
Our Takeovers are also open to non-members, creating an easy, welcoming opportunity for women who are curious about PWST to meet members, make new connections and experience our organization before deciding whether membership is right for them.
Creating More Than One Way to Connect
Not every woman wants to network the same way—and we don’t think she should have to.
August reflected PWST’s continuing effort to create a variety of experiences where relationships can form naturally.
At Angelle Victoria Studio, members traded traditional networking for paint, texture, gold leaf and creativity while making art together.
There were no formal introductions or business-card exercises. Instead, women talked, laughed, created something together and learned more about one another.
That is intentional.
PWST believes professional relationships don’t always have to begin around a conference table. Sometimes the strongest connections develop while women are learning something new, serving alongside one another, supporting a local business or simply sharing an experience.
That same philosophy was behind PWST’s August After Hours gathering at Triangle Square in Slidell.
The evening was relaxed and open to members and non-members alike, bringing established PWST members together with women who were meeting our organization for the first time.
But the evening also represented something bigger.
PWST Goes East
St. Tammany Parish is a large community, and PWST doesn’t intend to operate from only one corner of it.
In August, we intentionally brought an After Hours gathering to St. Tammany East, welcoming women in Slidell and inviting members from across the parish to make the trip.
They did.
The result was an evening filled with new faces, new conversations and an encouraging response from women who want more opportunities to connect in their part of the parish.
Our goal isn’t simply to ask women to come to PWST.
We want to bring PWST to them.
The Slidell gathering was another step toward building an organization that reflects and serves professional women throughout the entire St. Tammany community.
And we’ll be back.
Turning Community Visibility Into Community Connection
PWST also stepped into one of the Northshore’s favorite summer traditions during White Linen Night.
Our members joined the community throughout the evening while PWST distributed 250 branded fans to help attendees contend with a Louisiana summer.
It was a simple gesture—and a very visible reminder that community engagement doesn’t always require a formal program.
Sometimes it’s a conversation at a booth.
Sometimes it’s recognizing a familiar face in a crowd.
And sometimes it’s handing someone a fan on a hot August night and introducing her to an organization she may not have known existed.
Those small interactions matter because organizations are built on relationships long before those relationships become memberships, partnerships or sponsorships.
Celebrating Women Who Lead
PWST’s mission also includes celebrating what women in our community are accomplishing beyond PWST itself.
In August, members Heather Rietschel and Bethany Boice were celebrated after being selected for the Leadership St. Tammany Class of 2027, an achievement reflecting the leadership and community involvement we hope to encourage throughout our membership.
PWST members Robyn Helwick, Kalish Morrow and Sarah Clifton also stepped outside their usual professional roles and onto the runway during the Mandeville Fashion Show, with fellow members there cheering them on.
Meanwhile, our monthly Member Spotlight introduced the larger PWST community to Jennifer Minor of Northshore Media Group, highlighting not simply what she does professionally, but the experience, perspective and community involvement she brings to the women around her.
Membership in PWST isn’t meant to make the organization the center of a woman’s world.
It should help expand her world.
We want our women serving on boards, leading businesses, speaking in community rooms, volunteering, taking chances, launching ideas and supporting one another when they do.
Service Remained Part of the Month
Connection and professional development are important pieces of PWST, but service remains part of our foundation.
During the August Lunch & Learn, members were invited to contribute to the PWST Community Love Box benefiting Tammy’s Table of Hope, collecting nonperishable food items to assist individuals and families in our community.
Small contributions can create meaningful results when a community participates together.
That same philosophy runs through PWST’s scholarship efforts, Community Delegations and philanthropic work throughout the year: individual women have tremendous capacity, but collective action can multiply their impact.
Building Toward What’s Next
August wasn’t simply a busy month.
It was representative of where PWST is headed.
We’re building an organization where a woman might attend a professional education program one week, support a local business the next, volunteer through a philanthropic initiative, celebrate another woman’s accomplishment, meet someone new at an After Hours gathering and find herself representing PWST somewhere else in the community before the month is over.
Not every opportunity will appeal to every woman.
That’s the point.
The goal isn’t to fill everyone’s calendar. It’s to create enough different doors that women can choose the opportunities that help them connect, learn, serve, lead and grow.
August provided a glimpse of what that can look like.
August by the Numbers
In just one month, PWST:
- Supported multiple local businesses, nonprofits and community organizations through organized gatherings and Community Delegations.
- Hosted two Around Town Takeovers supporting businesses that have contributed to PWST’s scholarship efforts.
- Expanded community programming into St. Tammany East.
- Distributed 250 PWST fans during White Linen Night.
- Created both members-only and public opportunities for women to connect.
- Collected food to support Tammy’s Table of Hope.
- Celebrated members earning leadership recognition and contributing throughout the broader community.
- Continued building toward a fall filled with education, connection, philanthropy and the Phenomenal Women’s Retreat.
And those are only the moments that fit into one article.
There’s a Place at the Table
For current members, August was another reminder that membership can be whatever you choose to make of it.
For former members, consider this an invitation to see what’s changed.
And for women meeting PWST for the first time, you don’t have to wait until you’re a member to begin getting to know us. Many PWST community events are intentionally open to guests.
To the businesses, nonprofits, civic organizations, sponsors and donors who continue to partner with us:
Thank you.
Your investment does more than place a logo on an event.
It helps create scholarships. It creates educational opportunities. It brings women into new rooms. It strengthens relationships among local businesses and organizations. And it gives PWST the ability to continue expanding the ways women throughout St. Tammany can connect, contribute and lead.
August was busy.
September will be different.
That’s part of what makes PWST, PWST.
Professional Women of St. Tammany
Stronger Together. Making a Difference.