• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Advertising

My Sweet Charity

An Ongoing Conversation For the Good Of Dallas

  • Home
  • Photo Gallery
  • Event Calendar
  • Fundraisers
  • Health
  • Heroes
  • Contact

Program Hits All The Right Notes At Annual Wings of Spring Fundraiser For Literacy Achieves

May 1, 2019 9:30 AM by Jeanne Prejean

With the strong hint that North Texas was going to be the victim of a spring cold blast, Wings of Spring organizers were not taking any chances for the annual fundraiser for Literacy Achieves — a nonprofit adult literacy program — on the evening of Monday, April 1.

Instead of holding the event’s supper in Temple Emanu-El’s open-air courtyard, it was moved to a big meeting room inside. And, to dress up the space, a mammoth, two-story balloon centerpiece festooned with butterflies had been hung in the center. Joked Lee Papert, husband of Literacy Achieves Executive Director Sarah Papert: “We started blowing up the balloons last week.”

Michael and Melina Cain and Deborah and Don Stokes

While guests like Linda Metcalf and Byron Harris, Melina and Michael Cain, Deborah and Don Stokes, Kaki and Shelton Hopkins, Frank Risch, Carol and Don Glendenning and Tom Dunning filled the hallway, others sat at tables after checking out the buffet lines. As tasty as the tenderloin looked, it proved to be a bit of a challenge for some diners. It seems that the only utensils provided were forks. As one guest sawed away with her fork, aiming to get the beef down to bite size, another was surprised to sample what appeared to be a confectionary stack of chocolate topped with kiwi sauce. Yum! But, it wasn’t a sweet-layered cake, after all; instead, it turned out to be a “sushi tower.” After getting over the initial shock, the guest admitted that it was very tasty — not to mention much easier to cut than his partner’s meat.

Lottye and Bobby Lyle
Lee and Sarah Papert
Marnie Wildenthal and Liz Bruni
Shirley Miller
Kern Wildenthal

Across the room, meantime, Bobby Lyle was being congratulated on being selected to receive the Linz Award on Wednesday, April 17. … Lee Papert was accepting plaudits for his relatively new role as philanthropy officer for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation. … Marnie and Kern Wildenthal were looking forward to attending the Saturday, April 13 unveiling of a life-sized statue of President Lyndon B. Johnson in the south Texas town of Cotulla, where LBJ was a young schoolteacher for Mexican-American children in the late 1920s. Seems Kern’s father Bryan Wildenthal, an economics professor and business manager at the time at Southwest State Teachers College (now Texas State University) in San Marcos, helped arrange for the future president to get the one-year teaching assignment. … Shirley Miller, sans husband Bob Miller, laughed that she had offered to donate her down-to-her-waist hair to some charity group, “but nobody wants gray hair.”

Soon enough, everyone repaired to the temple’s Stern Chapel for the evening’s formal program. Following a welcome by emcee Mike Sims, the temple’s immediate past president, the packed house enjoyed an invocation by Cantor Leslie Niren, who declared, “Jewish tradition encourages us to ask questions. How can we help make the world a better place?” Next up were Melissa and Barry McNeil, the Wings of Springs co-chairs. Barry recounted the history of Literacy Achieves, saying it has helped 11,000 students learn English, thanks to more than 400 volunteers. One of them is Gayle Johansen, the evening’s honorary chair, who teaches at Literacy Achieves while juggling family life and a thriving real estate career.

Leslie Niren
Barry and Melissa McNeil
Margarita Rojas
Andreas Kern
Paul Cibis

Then, after hearing from one of Gayle’s students — Mexico-born Margarita Rojas — tell how the program had helped her succeed in the U.S., a call for contributions was made. Kicked off with a $10,000 pledge from KPMG, the funding-drive total, which was shown on a big screen, had hit $29,973 half an hour into the program. That’s about when the evening’s musical entertainment, called “Piano Battle,” began. It featured two super-talented, classical pianists — Andreas Kern, who was clad in white, and Paul Cibis, wearing black — who sat at opposite pianos and did their best to one-up each other with their musical talent, not to mention their wit.

Paul Cibis, Sarah Papert and Andreas Kern

Andreas, for example, said: “Paul bought his first grand piano with an inheritance from his aunt. And she died under mysterious circumstances.” Shot back Paul: “Andreas had to apply to five different academies just to make sure he got into one!” Their performances, a series of pieces ranging from Chopin and Liszt to Schubert and Rachmaninoff, were equally entertaining. In the end, though, with the audience holding up cards that were black on one side and white on the other to indicate their winner’s choice for each “battle,” it appeared that the face-off would end in a tie. So, Sarah was called to the stage to make the final decision, and Paul emerged as the night’s big winner. Another victor was Literacy Achieves, which, according to the screen, had raked in commitments of more than $30,000 by evening’s end.

Filed Under: Education, Entertainment, Events, Fund raiser, Grazing around, Literacy, Performance, Philanthropy Tagged With: Andreas Kern, Barry McNeil, Bob Miller, Bobby Lyle, Bryan Wildenthal, Byron Harris, Carol Glendenning, Deborah Stokes, Don Glendenning, Don Stokes, Frank Risch, Gayle Johansen, Kaki Hopkins, Kern Wildenthal, Lee Papert, Leslie NIren, Linda Metcalf, Margarita Rojas, Marnie Wildenthal, Melina Cain, Melissa McNeil, Michael Cain, Mike Sims, Paul Cibis, Sarah Papert, Shelton Hopkins, Shirley Miller, Tom Dunning

Primary Sidebar

We cover the people, organizations and activities that make the North Texas area unique thanks to philanthropic and nonprofit endeavors. We limit our coverage to only news that directly impacts and benefits the area, but we do it with an "honest but friendly" hand.

MySweetCharity does not cover activities or news of a controversial nature.

Materials on this site are © copyrighted. Images contained on this website are not within the public domain. To republish, please send request to [email protected] for permission.

Disclaimer: We are provided gratis invitations from organizations without any expectations on their part of any coverage.

Subscribe for Email Updates

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Search

Follow MyTweetCharity on Twitter
Follow MySweetCharity on Facebook

MySweetCharity

Resources

  • After-School All-Stars North Texas
  • Baylor Scott & White Health
  • Callier Center
  • Children's Health
  • Community Partners of Dallas
  • Dallas CASA
  • Dallas Film Society
  • Dallas Symphony Orchestra
  • Equest
  • Family Gateway
  • Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas
  • Goodwill Industries of Dallas
  • Housing Crisis Center
  • Leukemia Texas
  • North Texas Giving Day
  • Southwest Transplant Alliance
  • Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas
  • Texas Women's Foundation
  • The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture
  • The Dallas Opera
  • The Family Place
  • The Magdalen House
  • Trinity Park Conservancy

Categories

Archives

MySweetCharity sponsorships

  • Callier Cares Luncheon
  • Cattle Baron's Ball
  • Celebrating Women
  • Community Partners of Dallas
  • Crystal Charity Ball
  • Day At The Races
  • Equest
  • Healing Hands Luncheon
  • KidneyTexas
  • Mad Hatter's Tea
  • North Texas Giving Day
  • Texas Women's Foundation Annual Luncheon
  • Women's Auxiliary of The Salvation Army Dallas Fashion Show And Luncheon
Copyright © 2010-2021 My Sweet Charity · Website Design by Shauna Callaghan