History

An Adventure Four Decades in the Making

Carolina Junior Cotillions was founded in 1981 by Ann B. Cherry, who continues to lead the organization today. Remaining firmly rooted in our eastern North Carolina heritage, we’ve taught generations of students the finer points of dance, dining skills, and social graces. Over the years, we’ve expanded our reach and our service portfolio and currently serve students from Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Lenoir, New Hanover, Pitt, Wayne, and Wilson counties.

Ann’s founding philosophy continues to guide our everyday work through cotillion and protocol/dining skills programs currently held in Kinston and Goldsboro.  We think today’s society is craving well-mannered people — in schools, in social settings, in the workplace. So we set about equipping each new group of students with the kind of social skills and etiquette needed to succeed, not so much in our classes, but in life.

You won’t find us listed in the phone book this way, of course, but we’re basically in the “make-the-world-a-better-place” business. We use cotillions and protocol classes to teach our participants — most often fifth, sixth and seventh graders — social skills and etiquette that will guide them during critical moments throughout their lives. How they act at those moments, we believe, can have a positive influence on every person they interact with.

We’ve been teaching sure-footed success for more than three decades. And as long as the world needs socially skilled, well-mannered and poised young men and women, we’ll be here to teach them.