Pelican Ball Honoree: Cathy Webre & Jody Nederveld

2024 Pelican Ball Honoree Spotlight, by Ruth Foote

Downtown Alive! Festival International de Louisiane. Children’s Museum. Federal Courthouse Building. Streetscape, UL Lafayette Science Museum, and Parcs Sans Souci, International and Putman.

Even Acadiana Center for the Arts. Even more.

What most of these have in common, but widely known not, are the footprints of two Lafayette women who helped to define—and seed—the cultural landscape of Downtown Lafayette in the 1980s.

Cathy Webre, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, and Jody Nederveld, associate director, were responsible—directly or indirectly—for the thriving tapestry that has become the heartbeat of the entire Lafayette region.

To understand the dynamics of Downtown Lafayette, and the immense impact that Webre and Nederveld have made, one must first understand the public-private partnership of DDA and Downtown Lafayette Unlimited and the roles they play today in embracing, sustaining and enhancing the district.

DDA’s mission, according to its website, is “the physical, economic, and cultural development of the downtown district— preserving and enhancing its important place as the heart of Lafayette and Acadiana.”

Likewise, and with a more targeted approach as a private nonprofit corporation, DLU “aims to create cohesion amongst Downtown business leaders, advocate for their success, and market the district’s assets.”

Webre and Nederveld were there in both entities’ early years, and the 25 years that followed.

They became cultural change agents, working nonstop to secure reinvestment and renewal for downtown, and were successful in leveraging public and private monies.

“We were frugal in the use of the dollars that we did have.” Webre recalls.

“We were too frugal,” Nederveld adds. “We just knew that there wasn’t that much. We had to be like smart about it.”

They cannot help but nod, and smile, at one another’s truths.

After all, they set the course, and put into place the right steps for the right path to ensure Downtown Lafayette’s prosperous longevity. Their goal was to ensure a centenarian legacy, burying a time capsule in place for posterity.

As the decades have descended since, and their seeds harvested as landmark anniversary celebrations, including Downtown Alive!’s 40th in 2023, it becomes more than obvious that these women were community pioneers.

But don’t tell them that. They find it somewhat awkward to accept accolades for a job well done. Even for them to discuss their achievements and accomplishments sounds too much like bragging, even boasting, because they insist that there were so many others who were visionaries and supporters before, alongside, and even after them.

Yet the evidence is overwhelming on why they are among the 2024 Pelican Ball Honorees.

It was much more than their commitment, dedication and devotion. It was their intentional drive to make downtown come alive. It was their ingenuity and perseverance.

They were indeed community visionaries.

Shy when it comes to patting herself on the back, even a quick one, Webre admits that she became married to her career, which first began as a planner for the city government. It was during a time when community development and planning were separate, then together, and vice versa, and she found herself back and forth between the two departments. But that is another story for another time.

Once aboard with DDA, Nederveld also acknowledges that their work through the years was an integral part of her family life as well, even when it came to rearing her daughters who were often alongside her, as young volunteers, implementing the Webre team’s projects and activities. And in April, Festival International honored her family, including her husband Lenny, with its annual volunteer award for helping out nearly every year since its first kickoff in 1987.

As part of the community’s driving forces, Webre and Nederveld working diligently to ensure progress was always in motion even when it was moving at a slow pace. The big picture meant that the U.S. Federal Courthouse Building became part of the downtown radius, and Streetscape became a popular reality.

Progress also meant overcoming that dark period across the country when downtowns were rivaled by superstores and malls, and their despair and decay were on the rise. Lafayette was no exception. While comebacks were possible, as so went the oil industry, that did not guarantee that greater setbacks were not around the corner.

Only a significant plan was the solution, and Webre and Nederveld knew that took intervention and implementation, as well as trial and error. They were going to make mistakes, and upset people and places, as is always the case with change.

There were always the believers though, and they encompassed those early and latter visionaries who also saw the puzzle’s pieces in place beforehand, and its powerful picture thereafter. These believers understood, really understood, what it took to invest in community spaces, and that economic windfall always came later.

Nederveld summed it up perfectly: “Vibrant cities have vibrant downtowns, and that’s all there is to it.”

Some of these believers were more than supporters. They were star quarterbacks, and it was to them that Webre, along with Nederveld, was able to toss the ball for much needed—and vital—touchdowns.

They can recite a litany of leaders and society of supporters—a brigade of believers and visionaries through those early decades.

“We were fortunate to have a dedicated leadership of both DDA and DLU who were outstanding of Downtown and its progress on behalf of the Lafayette community,” Webre says.

She notes that there were “so, so many” who played key roles as government, business, community leaders and volunteers in the development, prosperity and posterity of Downtown Lafayette.

“They worked tirelessly, often behind the scenes,” she adds.

The support of Lafayette’s state delegation and key legislators led to the legislation enacting the downtown district, according to Webre.

“Later on,” she adds, “a successful special election enabled the DDA to carry out goals and implement plans and visions with its partners.”

Not everyone was aboard though. There were the naysayers. And doubters.

“I was willing to work on a project I knew was going to take five or six years,” Webre says. “A lot of people want it here and now, and [want to know] ‘what have you done for me lately?’”

“You have a lot of that kind of stuff,” she adds. “And: ‘Why isn’t there any business developing going on?’ Well, I’m not quite there yet.”

But Webre was willing to look ahead, and understood that with progress, there was delayed gratification. Yet she and Nederveld were confident their seeds would sprout, and knew there was an endgame to the foundation they created that would bring forth sustainable growth.

Such confidence was based upon the fact that they did not try to reinvent the wheel, and in their case, it was the blueprint. They were among the driving forces that went to the experts—to those cities, even global ones, which had achieved success in their downtown endeavors, such as New Orleans and Shreveport, and learned the how-to, which involved more than a lesson or two, and then some.

Webre and her team, fortified by their believers and supporters, took what was given, revised strategies, and customized, to make sure that Lafayette retained its cultural identity and vibrancy through the ongoing process. They were adamant about incorporating Lafayette’s rich heritage and history into the downtown landscape so that both coincided with modern times.

“It’s all about remembering the history and arts culture being the roots of a lot of things,” Webre says.

So much has happened since those pioneering, and at times, harrowing early days, including delays in capital outlay funds due to Hurricane Katrina. For some, it may seem like a lifetime ago when one bears witness today to the thriving cultural and business district planked by residential areas.

One thing is certain: there is a lot of shared history between these two pioneers. Not possible to prove, but it appears as if the planets aligned to ensure that they would become a resilient team.

Today Nederveld can laugh about the day she showed up to be interviewed by Webre for an assistant’s position, which was being offered through the City of Lafayette. For the Texas native, who grew up in Austin, Lafayette had become her home once her husband accepted a job offer here. And while laughter is good for the soul, it was not funny when she realized after the interview that she had locked her keys in her car.

Those were the days, after all, when cell phones and roadside service were not quite on the horizon.

But there was one thing Nederveld knew that she was not going to do, and that was confess her mishap to her potential new boss.

“I wasn’t about to come back and tell her that I had locked my keys in the car because how irresponsible could that possibly be?” Nederveld says.

And yet, from that day forward, Webre considered Nederveld as “capable” and “a highly valued partner and associate director.”

Fond downtown memories are also part of their childhood. Both remember downtown and movie theaters, and carefree days growing up in neighboring states. That fondness was part of their culture that they carried forward, and worked to instill, throughout their DDA days.

As they reflect, they are aware that a new performing arts theater that was once envisioned, would have to be adjusted to coincide with downtown’s limited space, as well as AcA’s theater, to become reality now. But that does not stop them from imagining, and reimagining.

They love Lafayette, and believe that there is still room to grow, and when it comes to economic and cultural development, they believe the community’s job is never done.

And they never lose sight of why the arts are so important in a community, and take pride in the fact that they were able to assist in intertwining the arts into downtown, including the implementation of murals and the transformation of AcA into the arts epicenter.

“The arts are a way that people can communicate with one another, and connect, so it creates connections amongst groups that might, otherwise, not be connected,” Webre says.

For example, she points to ArtWalk, and the AcA performances, and the diverse ages participating in these activities as the reason for its longevity.

“I think all the studies also prove that people do better in school and are better prepared when the arts are part of their lives,” Webre says.

“Again, it builds community connections,” she adds, “but I think it also builds tolerance, at least I hope it does. That’s my—that’s my wish.”

Nederveld agrees. “The AcA on ArtWalk night, you come in here and you’re going to just see such a diversity of ages,” she says. “And that’s just—it’s heartwarming for us I know that we can see that.”

“Because,” Webre adds, bringing her friend’s comment full circle, “that’s what we basically built—built things upon.”