Dallas, Texas – The fun has already begun for honorary chairs Mary and Mike Terry and event co-chairs Muffin and John Lemak and Susan and Gene Palma, hosts of Cristo Rey Dallas’ second Grow the Grove event, happening on Friday, November 17, 2017 at 7 p.m.

Following last year’s sell-out event, Grow the Grove will take place at the venue sixty five hundred, located at 6500 Cedar Springs Road.  The denim to dresses event will include a chef-prepared meal, fine wine, a spirited signature cocktail, live auction and more.

Proceeds from Grow the Grove will benefit Cristo Rey Dallas, an innovative high school located in Pleasant Grove that offers students who would otherwise not consider private school a rigorous college prep education paired with a valuable work study program. 

“The important work happening at Cristo Rey Dallas is making a positive impact on the lives of hundreds of dedicated high school students and their families, as well as the Dallas community as whole through the school’s Corporate Work Study Program,” says Muffin Lemak.

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate the great success of Cristo Rey Dallas,” says Susan Palma. “Grow to Grove will be a night of great fun that supports an even greater initiative—preparing hardworking students to go to and through college.”

Grow the Grove host committee members include: Lydia and Bill Addy; Helaine and Dan Blizzard; Becky and Ken Bruder; Susi and Peter Brundage; Jessica and Jeff Burrow; Karen and Mark Carney; Shelly and Tom Codd; Janie and David Condon; Claire and Dwight Emanuelson; Ola and Randall Fojtasek; Barbara and Brad Fritts; Susan and Mark Godvin; Jane and Greg Greene; Jean and Erik Hansen; Julie and Ed Hawes; Candace and Jimmy Krause; Leslie and Michael Lanahan; Patty and Mark Langdale; DeeDee and Jimmy Lee; Ann and Chris Mahowald; Kiley McGuire; Karla and Mark McKinley; Susan McSherry; Tricia and Bill Miller; Laura and Scott Moore; Michelle Moussa; Angela Nash; Ruthie and Jay Pack; Pam and Gary Patsley; Pam and Vin Perella; Susan and Jon Piot; Micki and Mike Rawlings; Randa and Doug Roach; Shelle and Michael Sills; Mary and Mike Smith; Mersina Stubbs; Beth and Chuck Thoele; Debbie and John Tolleson; Piper and Mike Wyatt; and Ana and Jim Yoder.

Sponsorships for Grow the Grove begin at $1,600.  Limited tickets will be available closer to the event at a cost of $320 each for preferred seating or $250 each for general admission.  For more information, contact Lisa Brunts, lbrunts@cristoreydallas.org or visit cristoreydallas.org.

About Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep

Located in Pleasant Grove, Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep provides economically challenged students of all faiths with a college preparatory education enabling them to become men and women of purpose and service. Through a rigorous curriculum, integrated with a hands-on professional work experience, students graduate ready to succeed in college and in life. cristoreydallas.org.

Mosaic Family Services gala co-chairs Ashley Anderson Smith and Nusia Sookarow, with honorary chair Susan Posnick, were joined by 40 attendees to the 8^th Annual Gala Kick-off Party on Wednesday, August 2 from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. at the Akola Flagship store.

Host Brittany Merrill Underwood, founder and CEO of Akola, welcomed partygoers as they arrived in their summer chic attire.  DJ Trance provided a cool vibe as guests enjoyed cocktails and light bites and shopped the Akola jewelry collections, including a first-view of the latest fall designs.

The cocktail party was in celebration of the upcoming 8^th Annual Mosaic Family Services Champion of Human Rights Gala, which will be held on Friday, October 6, 2017 from 7 p.m. – 12 a.m. at sixty five hundred, located at 6500 Cedar Springs in Dallas.  This year’s “a night in Monte Carlo” themed gala, will include cocktails, dinner by CN Catering, silent auction, raffle, casino, and music by DJ LC.   America’s sassiest lifestyle guru Steve Kemble will serve as this year’s emcee. 

A highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the 2017 Champion of Human Rights Award to Ms. Underwood for her inspirational work empowering women in disadvantaged communities throughout the globe. Akola trains and employs women in poverty, including survivors of trafficking here in Dallas, so they can support themselves and meet the needs of their families.
  

Tickets for the Mosaic Family Services 8^th Annual Champion of Human Rights Gala: Raising the Stakes are $150 each; sponsorships begin at $500. For tickets, sponsorships or more information, visit mosaicservices.org/events.

About Mosaic Family Services

Mosaic Family Services is a safe haven for survivors of human rights abuses, including domestic violence and human trafficking. The multicultural staff at Mosaic supports, educates, and empowers more than 25,000 people each year through direct services and outreach. Refugees and survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence receive shelter, legal representation, counseling, access to health care, and support services in more than 30 languages. Every year, Mosaic House provides emergency housing to hundreds of women and children fleeing domestic violence and human trafficking.  They are the only shelter in North Texas providing comprehensive services to multicultural survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking.  For more information, visit www.mosaicservices.org.

The Trustees of the Dallas Historical Society have announced the 2017 Awards for Excellence (AFE) in Community Service.  This honor is bestowed on selected recipients who have demonstrated generosity of spirit, civic leadership, and ability to encourage community-wide participation in a particular phase of the growth of the city. The recipients will be honored at the 36^th AFE luncheon on Thursday, November 9, 2017 from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at the Fairmont Dallas. 

Former award recipients JoAnne and Tony Roosevelt will serve as 2017 honorary co-chairs. With their generous gifts to the community of time and resources, the Roosevelts have provided volunteer leadership to numerous educational and charitable organizations, including co-chairing the Texas Chapter of the Theodore Roosevelt Association's annual Dallas Police Award luncheon since 1996.  Carol Montgomery and Kaysie Montgomery are the 2017 event co-chairs, with Louise Caldwell as advisor/coordinator. 

“The Dallas Historical Society proudly announces our 2017 Awards for Excellence recipients.  Each has made significant contributions to the history of our city, and we are honored to recognize them for their commitment and generosity to the Dallas community,” said William C. Helmbrecht III, chairman, Dallas Historical Society Board of Directors.

2017 Awards for Excellence recipients:

Arts Leadership – Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller

This award is given to that individual(s) who has enriched the cultural life of Dallas as planner, organizer, fundraiser, collector or art historian. 

Creative Arts – Carolyn Brown

This award is given to that individual whose prominence as a practitioner of the fine arts as artisan, architect, writer, composer, producer or performer has enriched the cultural environment of Dallas.

Education – B. Hobson Wildenthal, Ph D.

This award is given to that individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the field of education as a teacher, administrator or benefactor. 

History – Willis Cecil Winters

This award is given to that individual who has researched and chronicled aspects of the history of Dallas and Texas as a historian, journalist, researcher, folklorist or author.

Humanities – Nicole Ginsburg Small

This award is given to that individual whose active sense of civic duty has provided leadership in achieving specific community goals.

Health/Science – Steven M. Pounders, MD

This award is given to that individual who has made an outstanding contribution through prominence or public service in medicine, scientific research, the behavioral sciences or public health.

Philanthropy – Jorge Baldor

This award is given to that individual whose vision and personal generosity has greatly benefited this city.

Sports Leadership – Tony Dorsett

This award is given to that individual who has brought distinction or achievement to team or individual sports as an athlete, coach, journalist, promoter or sports advocate.

Volunteer Community Leadership – Peggy Carr

This award is given to that individual whose generous gift of self has enriched the community.

Jubilee History Maker – David O. Brown, Former Dallas Police Chief

Created in 1991 and given in recognition of Jubilee Dallas!, this award recognizes an individual whose achievements extend to more than one of the award categories.  

Tickets for the 36^th annual Awards for Excellence Luncheon begin at $125, with table sales/underwriting levels beginning at $1000. For more information or to purchase a ticket or sponsorship, visit http://www.dallashistory.org/support/awards-for-excellence/ or contact Nora Lenhart, 214-421-4500 ext. 106 or Nora@dallashistory.org

Mosaic Family Services announces Brittany Merrill Underwood, Founder and CEO of Akola, as the recipient of the 2017 Champion of Human Rights Award, which will be presented at the nonprofit’s 8^th Annual Gala on Friday, October 6, 2017 from 7 p.m.– 12 a.m. at sixty five hundred on Cedar Springs.

The Champion of Human Rights Award is presented each year to individuals and/or groups who strive to ensure the protection of the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms to which all human beings are entitled. The award is presented to Ms. Underwood for her inspirational work empowering women in disadvantaged communities throughout the globe. Akola trains and employs women in poverty, including survivors of trafficking here in Dallas, so they can support themselves and meet the needs of their families.

“Brittany Underwood and Akola have transformed the lives of thousands of women and children around the world”, remarked Ashley Anderson Smith, event co-chair and Mosaic Family Services board member. “We are thrilled to honor her as a Champion of Human Rights. We hope the community will join us in ‘Raising the Stakes’ as we raise vital funds to support Mosaic Family Services and our mission of providing a safe haven for survivors of human rights abuses.”

Past award recipients include Councilmember Jennifer Staubach Gates, director and filmmaker Libby Spears; fashion designer Abi Ferrin; Judge Roberto Canas, Jr., presiding judge of Dallas County Criminal Court No. 10; Jan Langbein, executive director of Genesis Women’s Shelter, and Paige Flink, executive director of The Family Place; Ambassador-At-Large Luis C. deBaca; and local philanthropist and women’s and human rights activist, Lauren Embrey.

Chaired by Ashley Anderson Smith and Nusia Sookarow, with honorary chair Susan Posnick, the event will be a “night in Monte Carlo” themed gala, including cocktails, dinner by cn catering, silent auction, raffle, casino, and music by DJ LC.   America’s sassiest lifestyle guru Steve Kemble will serve as this year’s emcee.

Tickets for the Mosaic Family Services 8^th Annual Champion of Human Rights Gala: Raising the Stakes are $150 each; sponsorships begin at $500. For tickets, sponsorships or more information, visit mosaicservices.org/events.

About Brittany Merrill Underwood

Brittany Merrill Underwood has made an extraordinary impact through her dedication over the past 13 years to transform the lives of impoverished women and families through the Akola Project. Akola operates a thriving social business designed to empower women in disadvantaged communities through training, employment and holistic care. Akola’s products are sold throughout the country, and their elevated jewelry line is the first Full-Impact Brand to be sold in the luxury space through their national launch in Neiman Marcus.

As a nonprofit, Akola reinvests 100% of their profits to support work opportunities, training, social programs and the construction of training centers and water wells in impoverished communities throughout the globe. Akola makes a social impact throughout its entire supply chain and offers women opportunities through the creation of handcrafted raw materials, assembly of the product, and in the distribution center that acts as a second chance job program. The hope of Akola is to encourage new thinking about international development and to inspire the next generation of social innovators to deliver the highest level of impact in disadvantaged communities.

In 2017, Brittany was named among the World’s Top 10 CEOs in Inc Magazine. In 2014, she was asked to join the mentoring class for the Laura Bush Women’s Initiative and joined the faculty of Southern Methodist University as an adjunct professor in 2015 where she teaches a new course on Social Innovation. As CEO of the Akola Project, Brittany continues to devote her life to creating a brand that empowers women through economic and holistic development.

About Mosaic Family Services

Mosaic Family Services is a safe haven for survivors of human rights abuses, including domestic violence and human trafficking. The multicultural staff at Mosaic supports, educates, and empowers more than 25,000 people each year through direct services and outreach. Refugees and survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence receive shelter, legal representation, counseling, access to health care, and support services in more than 30 languages. Every year, Mosaic House provides emergency housing to hundreds of women and children fleeing domestic violence and human trafficking.  They are the only shelter in North Texas providing comprehensive services to multicultural survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking.  For more information, visit www.mosaicservices.org.

The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) hosted a reception and dinner honoring the first recipient of The Richard Brettell Award in the Arts, landscape architect Peter Walker, on Tuesday, April 11, 2017.

Dr. Richard C. Benson, president of UTD, and Dr. Richard R. Brettell, the Margaret McDermott Distinguished Chair of Arts and Aesthetic Studies and the Edith O’Donnell Distinguished Chair at UTD, were joined by more than 90 guests for the occasion, held in the Founders Building on the UTD campus.

As guests arrived, they mingled over cocktails and passed canapés while enjoying music from the Radiant Guitar Group.  After cocktails, patrons progressed to the dining room where tables displayed accents of gold and topiary centerpieces of magnolia leaves and white roses.

Dr. Benson welcomed attendees and introduced The Richard Brettell Award in the Arts that recognizes the essential and fundamental role of the arts in the life of the university.  As he shared, the award will honor an artist working in or between any of the broad spectrum of artistic endeavors, including the visual arts, music, literature, performance, and architecture/design.  Given every other year, the award consists of a prize of $150,000 and a week's residence on the UT Dallas campus and in Dallas, during which the awardee will present a major public lecture and interact in a variety of venues with the students, staff and faculty of UT Dallas and with the larger arts community of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

The concept of the Brettell Award is inspired by the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, created by the McDermott Family at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974. The MIT McDermott Award is also made every other year, and it is planned to schedule the two events in alternating years.

Dr. Benson also extended his gratitude to Mrs. Margaret McDermott seated nearby, who provided the gift for the annual award.  He then took a few moments to recognize just a few of the many accomplishments of Dr. Brettell, to whom the award is named in honor of.

Dr. Brettell, who has three degrees from Yale University, came to UTD 15 years ago. His resume includes having served as curator of European paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago and director of the DMA, a position he held from 1988 to 1992. Brettell occupies the Margaret M. McDermott Distinguished Chair of Arts and Aesthetic Studies and the Edith O'Donnell Distinguished University Chair at UTD.

As dessert was served, Dr. Benson returned to introduce the first recipient of The Brettell Award, landscape architect Peter Walker.  Before formally presenting the award, Benson welcomed artist Linda Ridgway to the podium whose bronze and 24k gold sculpture, Nature’s first green is gold, 2016, served as this year’s award.  As Linda shared, the sculpture was inspired by poet Robert Frost’s poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” which she then recited for the audience. 

Dr. Brettell and Walker joined Dr. Benson and Ridgway as they unveiled the sculpture.

Walker, a renowned landscape architect whose work includes the transformation of the UT Dallas campus, the design of the sculpture garden at the Nasher Sculpture Center and the National 9/11 memorial, extended his thanks to Dr. Benson and the University of Texas at Dallas, Dr. Richard Brettell, and Margaret McDermott for the distinct honor.  In his remarks, he humbly accepted the award on “behalf of all landscape architects.”

In closing, Dr. Benson asked all in attendance to raise up their glasses in a toast to Peter Walker, the first recipient of The Richard Brettell Award In the Arts.

For more information about The Richard Brettell Award in the Arts, visit http://www.utdallas.edu/brettell-award.

 About Peter Walker

A renowned landscape architect with over 50 years of experience in practice and teaching, Peter Walker is the mastermind behind the ongoing campus enhancement plan at UT Dallas, which includes the magnolia tree-lined mall, the trellised plaza, and the wooded area surrounding University Parkway. The scope of his concerns is expansive — from the planning of cities to the design of small gardens– with a particular emphasis on civic design, corporate headquarters, plazas, academic campuses, and urban renewal projects. Exploring the relationship of art, culture, and context, he has challenged traditional concepts of landscape design.

After graduating from Harvard's Graduate School of Design, Walker banded together with his professor Hideo Sasaki to found Sasaki, Walker and Associates in 1957, which later became The SWA Group. Walker spent seven years building up the company's reputation as an internationally recognized urban design firm before forming Peter Walker and Partners (now PWP Landscape Architecture) in 1983.

Walker also designed the landscape for the Nasher Sculpture Center in downtown Dallas in collaboration with Renzo Piano Workshop. Framed by live oak and cedar-elm allées, rows of holly hedges, and a series of stone plinths, the garden design at the Nasher provides a stunning outdoor gallery for the museum's collection of sculptures.

The firm's architects challenge traditional concepts of design, and they frequently join with renowned architects to create significant projects. Advocating a landscape that responds to — as well as influences its environment — Walker has collaborated with architects of such stature as I. M. Pei, Arata Isozaki, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Yoshio Taniguchi, Ricardo Legorreta, and Helmut Jahn.

Over the years, Walker's firm has received honors and awards and won numerous design competitions, including the National September 11 Memorial in New York, the United States Embassy in Beijing, and the Library Walk at the University of California, San Diego.

About Richard Brettell

Richard Brettell is among the foremost authorities in the world on Impressionism and French Painting of the period 1830-1930. With three degrees from Yale University, he has taught at The University of Texas, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago, Yale University, and Harvard University and is currently the Margaret M. McDermott Distinguished Chair of Art and Aesthetic Studies and the Edith O’Donnell Distinguished Chair at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is also an international museum consultant with projects in Europe, Asia, and the United States. He established the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Museums at UT Dallas.

In 1980, Dr. Brettell was appointed Searle Curator of European Painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1988, he became the McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). Since leaving the DMA, Dr. Brettell has been involved with the purchase of the M.H.W. Ritchie Collection for the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, with the building and renovation program of the Portland Museum of Art (Oregon), and with the Millennium Gift of the Sara Lee Collection, for which the company won the National Medal for the Arts in 1999. He is Senior Advisor for International Art for the National Gallery of Australia and is working with Professor Stephen Eisenman of Northwestern University to catalogue the collection of 19th and 20th century French Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.

Dr. Brettell worked with Elizabeth and Felix Rohatyn, former Ambassador to France, and Françoise Cachin, former Director of the French National Museums, to create FRAME (French/Regional/American Museum Exchange).

Dr. Brettell is actively engaged with architecture in Dallas, as a board member and founding president of the Dallas Architecture Forum, as a Consultant to Philip Johnson for The Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, and as curator of an exhibition devoted to "Five Dallas Modern Architects" for UT Dallas in January/February 2002. This exhibition has traveled to the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas in Austin, and the University of Houston. He has published architectural criticism, including "Beyond the Golden Age: Three New Art Museums for Texas" in Southwest Review (Vol. 87, no. 4) and "Lost in Translation: Ando's Building for The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth" for CITE: A Quarterly publication of the Rice Design Alliance.