When she’s not running major charity events and he’s not winning high-stakes lawsuits, Dallas’ Skye and Bill Brewer like to spend time in East Hampton, on New York’s Long Island. Their hangout is just 20 minutes or so away from Montauk, where fashion designer/business executive Ralph Lauren has a beach home. The Brewers’ son Will, now 23, worked at the Lauren store in East Hampton for awhile, and the Brewers and Lauren have come to know each other better and better over time.
Which goes a long way toward explaining why Skye and Bill found themselves at the Ralph Lauren store in Highland Park Village last Sunday. As they have for four years, the couple was helping raise money for the Bickel & Brewer Future Leaders Program, an academic and leadership development program benefiting nearly 200 students in the Dallas Independent School District.
Sponsored by the Bickel & Brewer Foundation—Bill is a named partner at B&B—the FLP pairs up DISD with private schools Greenhill, St. Mark’s, Hockaday, and the Episcopal School of Dallas. DISD students in grades five through 12 spend time on the campuses of the private-school partners, where they receive special tutoring in subjects like math, technology, and leadership.
Greeting an estimated 200 old and new friends Sunday at Ralph Lauren, which was donating 15 percent of the store’s sales proceeds to FLP, Skye said the program has made a big difference for a number of its young participants. More than 40 FLP grads have received nearly 140 college acceptance letters over the last four years, plus almost $3 million in scholarship offers.
They’re also attending some prestigious universities, she added, including Amherst College, New York University, and The University of Texas at Austin.
* Photo provided by the Bickel & Brewer Leadership Foundation