Curlew Club
Curlew Club
Gregor Lee

Welcome to Curlew Club

The evolution of etiquette

About Me

Gregor Lee Pickral hails from Asheville, NC and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Sweet Briar College in Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts in History, an Arts Management Certificate, and a minor in dance performance. She completed summer studies at Oxford University and the North Carolina Governor’s School, where tutorial, experience-based learning greatly influenced her own unique teaching style. Upon graduation, Gregor founded an award-winning etiquette franchise, which she led for eight seasons hosting almost 250 events and reaching over 2,000 students throughout western NC. As a dance teacher and choreographer, she created a system of mental and physical conditioning that prepared young dancers to achieve national prominence in competitive dance. Gregor was honored to be crowned Miss Asheville 2001, making over 50 community appearances during her year of service and receiving commendation as a NC Scholar at the Miss North Carolina pageant in Raleigh. An advocate of giving back to the community and bringing people together, she founded the Sweet Briar College Asheville Club and served as president for 15 years. In addition, she spent nine years on the Board of Directors of the Diana Wortham Theatre, and recently co-chaired the Arts for Life “Rise & Shine” breakfast. Gregor’s hobbies include reading, yoga, trying new recipes, and African drumming. Her husband, Thomas Pickral is a native New Orleanian with a degree in Economics from Hampden-Sydney College. Together they have created several entrepreneurial ventures including a retail store, costume company, and the non-profit Blue Ridge Ballet, through which they produced three full-length professional productions to benefit the children of WNC. Their love of entertaining and experience traveling and attending parties around the country and the world, inspired them to create a practical, modern program to benefit their many friends and godchildren.

Why join Curlew Club?

It is hard to keep track of everything that has changed since we were kids. 

Children today spend more time looking at a screen than talking to their friends, and it is getting harder and harder to raise well-mannered young adults who can confidently handle modern social situations.  


Some of us took Cotillion classes when we were kids, but today's kids need to know things like when is it an appropriate time to take a selfie, not how to use a finger bowl or when to wear white gloves.


The Curlew Club provides an action-oriented, age-appropriate atmosphere of positive reinforcement for kids to learn manners in a modern context. 


This is the evolution of etiquette.