Liz Terrell: The ‘what-if?’ person behind Shadows’ fundraisers
Sitting in Adirondack chairs looking out on Bayou Teche, Liz Terrell says, “The grass isn’t any greener anywhere else. I’ve been there.” Liz grew up on Avery Island, but as soon as she graduated from LSU in accounting, she was off and running with a career that took her to Texas. While implementing software for ExxonMobile, she traveled the world. Today she says, “If I never pack another suitcase, I will have no regrets. I am tickled pink to be sitting here on the bayou.”
Three mallard ducks quacked, preened and nibbled the grass while we visited. Liz laughs as she tells the story about how she got started raising ducks. “My nieces won a contest at the Delcambre Shrimp Festival and a duck was part of the prize package. Aunt Liz offered to take the duck.” She no longer has the original duck. Life on the bayou isn’t kind to ducks. “Everything wants to eat duck.” Owls, hawks, and coyotes patrol during the night, so Liz trains her wild ducks to go into their “duck camp” when she takes them in at dusk.
When Liz is not caring for her adopted animals, she is directing projects at the Shadows-on-the-Teche, New Iberia’s first National Trust for Historic Preservation site. After her house was completed, she got bored and talked to her cousin Cathy Schramm, then curator of education at the Shadows. “I got involved with everything from the Charley program to checking in vendors for the Arts and Crafts show.”
By 2016, Liz had found her way back to the Sugar Lumps, a dance group she had joined in high school. Since the Sugar Lumps were Goodwill Ambassadors for the Sugarcane Festival, she naturally wanted to connect her interest in the Shadows with the Sugarcane Festival in some way. A seed of an idea was planted and less than 6 months later, the first Farm Fest was held. Now, each year Liz organizes more than 100 volunteers for this family-friendly old-fashioned event with games, music, and concessions.
I just pop into the Shadows and say, “How ‘bout this?” Liz generates ideas like she adopts animals, with a full commitment to do the work it takes.
Liz is concerned that people do not understand the Shadows is a nonprofit organization, and, like many nonprofits this year, has been faced with an uphill battle as fundraisers have been cancelled. Pat Kahle, Shadows director, wanted to do something that would highlight Weeks Hall’s birthday on Halloween. Weeks Hall, the last owner of the home, had a dog, Lady Shadows Ghost, fondly known as Spot, who was featured in many photographs from the archives. Liz suggested, “What if we get people to dress in costume and pose for photos with their pets?” The online fundraiser Howl-O-Ween was launched.
Another “What if” fundraiser idea is blooming that she hopes will be made public before the end of the year. “I’m so project-oriented that I always have another one in my mind.”
With retirement comes the freedom to choose where you’ll live. “Why start over in a new place?” Liz asks. “New Iberia has a lot going on. I’ve lived in Dallas and Houston, but there’s no place I’d rather be than here.”
MARGARET SIMON is an elementary teacher of gifted students in Iberia Parish. She writes a blog regularly at reflectionsontheteche.com.