While attorney Shonn Brown has been known for her talents in the courtroom and her leadership roles at such highfalutin fundraisers as the Dallas Women’s Foundation Luncheon, Dallas CASA’s Cherish the Children Luncheon and the Dallas Museum of Art’s Art Ball, she replaced her stilettos with bowling shoes on Thursday, April 5, at Bowl and Barrel at The Shops at Park Lane. Despite not being old hands at striking down pins, Shonn and her attorney husband Clarence Brown were co-chairing the Readers 2 Leaders‘ (R2L) 2nd Annual Lanes 2 Literacy fundraiser.
The twosome took on their “alley” roles for a couple of reasons. It was natural for Clarence, since he was on the R2L’s board. As for Shonn, she admitted that in addition to Clarence’s involvement, the more she learned about the program providing tutoring for West Dallas children, the more she found herself involved.
Thanks to the 250 guests and 36 sponsors including Energy Transfer Partners, Locke Lord LLP, Texas Capital Bank, The Warner Group Inc., TSP (Technology Service Professionals), Baker McKenzie, Celanese, Alston And Bird, Belle Firma, Jordan Reality Advisors, Staff One, Bailey Brauer PLLC and others, the bowling, raffle and wine pull would provide tutoring programs for 460 students annually. Of course, it helped surge the effort when an anonymous donor provided a $25,000 gift making a “full year of after-school tutoring for 16 children was made possible.
On this evening it was feasting on the endless array of sliders, stuffed dates, giant pretzels and cocktails, as well as strikes and gutters, for folks like R2L Co-Founder Stephanie and Ted Schweinfurth, R2L Executive Director Norma Nelson, Jennifer Owen, Noble Gann, Jonathan Herman, Eric Johnson, Philip Walker, Matt Lillard, Henri Stark, Cheryl Seager, Aimee and David Sheahan, Carol and Truman Greene, Tanya and Ken McDonald, Wendy and Robin Bechtold, Lauren Leahy, Mo Alturk, Cathy Tang and Daniel Martinez.
As for Shonn and Clarence’s team made up of Jenna and Lane Wimberly and Charmaine and George Tang, they may not have scored the highest number of strikes, but they watch the evening’s take “roll right past its goal of raising $75,000 to net $97,000.”
But there’s still room to spare! Thanks to the “Give By Cell,” anyone can text R2L to 56512 for R2L to hit the $100K mark.