Dallas CASA Executive Director Kathleen LaValle and her team had been worried. Because NorthPark was preparing for its August kick-off of its 50th anniversary, the NP management team had asked CASA if they would move their 20th Annual Parade of Playhouses to July instead of the traditional August.
The CASA crew shored up with the builders and made it happen. The question was whether there would be traffic and interest in selling raffle tickets. From the smile on Kathleen’s face at the Wednesday, July 22, party at Pirch, there was no question about the outcome.
The playhouses were OMG better than ever. The July foot traffic was amazing and resulted in more house shopping than ever and raffle chances had the Northwood Women’s Club selling them like Garth tickets.
Just trying to get to the party was a major accomplishment with the NP parking lot jammed as if it were the week before Christmas. But the 300+ builders and CASA friends like Dallas CASA Board Chair Greg May with wife Hannah May, Jana and Mike Brosin and Reese Threadgill with Luis Bartolomei persisted and made it to the luxury home retailer where pizzas were being made and food stations were set up. It was a wonder that no one tried out one of the BainUltra tubs.
The occasion was also to mark the closing phase of the group’s capital campaign. According to Capital Campaign Chair Jim Lozier, the target had been $37M with the intent to “take care of 100% of kids in foster care over five to 10 years.” At this time they’re only able to handle 30-40% of the kids. By having such a forward-thinking campaign, “we’ll be right there” if the number of kids needing services goes up in the next five to six years, Jim added.
Another goal was to expand CASA’s presence, Jim said: “We’re known in town, but not really known in town.”
Once the campaign was announced, the money started rolling in. They got a couple of very big gifts early and, since then, they’ve ranged from $500 to $500,000. Jim added that the Rees-Jones Foundation gave very generously and still another anonymous donor provided great assistance.
Capital Campaign Vice-Chair Christie Carter reported that they were less than $1.5M from meeting their goal.
As for the raffle, Kathleen reported they were 20% ahead of schedule as of the night, and they were on schedule to break all previous records.