Being honored and recognized is fulfilling, but Steve Tujague isn’t satisfied.
The longtime northshore resident and philanthropist received the Community Philanthropy Leadership Award in Washington, D.C., from the National Children’s Alliance Leadership Conference for his efforts through his In Jesus’ Name foundation to benefit Children's Advocacy Center and Hope House.
Tujague has donated both time and money since 2018 to the nonprofit organization that helps abused kids and their families cope, heal and thrive.
“We know that throughout his time working with us, we have served 2,800-plus kids, and those kids all have a better standard of care because of Mr. Tujague,” said Hope House Executive Director Thomas Mitchell. "He just wants to help kids, and he doesn’t care whether they are White, Black, Hispanic, poor … he just wants to help.”
Tujague, 73, grew up in New Orleans and graduated from Fortier High School. He did not go to college, but studied concrete technology, which led to a position at Boh Brothers construction, where he worked for 35 years. He was able to acquire a division of Boh Brothers that did work for the military and sold it in 2018.
“When we sold the company, we said we want to serve and do something to honor God,” Tujague said. “We don’t just want to start buying stuff and frivolous things. We said we wanted to serve each other and do work. We always had children in our hearts. We had backpack programs and we worked closely with the Samaritan Center. Then we said there was an opportunity here to do something on a larger scale.”
The In Jesus’ Name Foundation became the Tujague family’s way of reaching out. Tujague’s wife, Lucy, and their kids and grandkids all help with the Foundation.
The mission of Hope House connected to Tujague’s faith, and it calls to him. Mitchell said the two men speak often about the day-to-day and long-term needs of Hope House, and he called that proof that Tujague doesn’t just write checks and disappear.
“Being a philanthropist is way more than writing a check,” Tujague said. “It’s about developing a strong partnership. We believed in the mission of the Hope House and were confident in their stewardship. They made it easy for us to work with them because we saw the end result of kids being healed. That’s our biggest reward.”
“He’s more than just a philanthropist, if I had to guess, he’s probably given $3-$4 million to our community in the past few years, but he’s way more than that. He volunteers with us,” Mitchell said. “He’s befriended our staff. He’s an actual Christian.”
Tujague called winning the Leadership Award “a miracle,” noting that compared to other big cities, the northshore is small. But he is not ready to stop.
Tujague is partnering with District Attorney Collin Sims to try and hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes against children and families, and he wants everyone to know that the new challenges for kids are trafficking and cyberbullying.
“Our kids are being attacked all over the place, and we want to bring awareness to what is going on,” Tujague said firmly. “It’s 1 in 10, or 1 in 12 kids that are being violated. That’s unimaginable. We have to watch for this in our community. This is an emerging threat.”