Organizers were a bit concerned about the 2024 Crystal Charity Ball bus tour of its beneficiaries on Thursday, February 15. The problem was there were more committee members signing up than there was room. Luckily, at the last minute, a couple of ladies had to cancel, allowing for all to have a seat.
Sponsored by Joan Eleazer and Layne Pitzer/Briggs Freeman| Sotheby’s, the tour started right on schedule at 8:30 a.m. in the Turtle Creek Village parking lot with CCB Bus Tour “Guide” Melissa Macatee explaining the day’s game plan. The downside was there would be few if any children at any of the sites. The good news was that thanks to having five-year CCB Bus Driver Vincent Williams at the wheel and a well-planned schedule, they would finish up the run of the day by 1:30 p.m.
HHM Health
CCB Foundation Chair Candace Winslow told how faith-based HHM Health’s mobile Pediatric clinic would use it $1,099,045 CCB grant for the purchase and outfitting of a mobile pediatric clinic designed to provide high-quality and holistic healthcare for infants, children and teenagers in South Dallas. It will be parked in the parking lots of schools, community center and churches in South Dallas for easy accessibility.
The grant is projected to serve approximately 2,300 children between the ages of 0 and 18 annually.
Traffick911
Following Candace’s presentation, Traffick911 Executive Director Lindsey Speed took her place at the front of the bus to describe how the $607,912 grant would be used for its “Voice and Choice Survivor Empowerment Program” to help free youth from sex trafficking by creating trusted relationships.
Established in 2009, Traffick911 is the only agency in Dallas County that provides 24/7 crisis response for child sex trafficking victims. It prides itself on also “dispatching a Traffick911 advocate, who arrives onsite to be with the victim within 60 minutes.”
The grant will support two full-time advocates to create a trust-based relationship with trafficked children in Dallas County that will include outings, support groups and backpacks with essentials and a teddy bear.
Approximately 622 child sex trafficking victims between the ages of 9 and 18 will be served.
Following Lindsey’s presentation, the bus departed for its first stop of the day.
The Center For Integrative Counseling and Psychology
Arriving at The Center For Integrative Counseling and Psychology facility just west of the North Dallas Tollway off Lemmon, committee members departed the bus and took a brief tour of the center including a playroom for therapy. It was in a large gathering room that President/CEO Dr. Brad Schwall and his staff provided deflated balloons to committee member to participate in the experience of understanding and dealing with emotional needs.
Thanks to a commitment of $1,029,051, The Center will be able over a three-year period to “expand critically needed services for youngsters” in West Dallas and extended services in South Dallas. By collaborating with non-profits in these communities, the Center will not only be able to work with existing non-profits to “mobilize a comprehensive mental health initiative ranging from prevention to intervention for children and teens,” but it will also renovate a new play therapy room at the Center’s central office.
Approximately 850 children will benefit from the grant.
After the committee members re-boarded the bus, it headed to its next stop while 2024 CCB New Members Liaisons Katherine Coker and Susan Glassmoyer introduced the new members (Katy Bock, Andrea Cheek, Isabell Novakov Higginbotham, Christa Sanford, Megan Steinbach, Caroline Snell Wagner and Nikki Webb) with the help of pieces of trivia.
Parkland Health Foundation
Since the Parkland Health Foundation’s new Richland Health Center was in the earliest stages of construction, it was decided that the presentation would take place at the 2.8M-square-foot New Parkland’s main campus at the northeast corner of Harry Hines and Medical District Drive.
As Parkland Health Foundation Development Officer Beth Ellis and Parkland Health Foundation Chief Advancement VP Daniel Sullivan boarded the bus and thanked the committee for its support of the Richland Health Center, Vincent was directed to follow a security car along a route throughout the campus. To the surprise of the committee, the sidewalks were lined with cheering staff members holding signs showing their appreciation of the CCB efforts.
2024 CCB Chair Cheryl Joyner, 2024 Underwriting Chair Jennifer Dix and Candace couldn’t resist jumping off the bus to show their appreciation of the group.
Plans call for the $1,000,000 grant to “establish a 3,400-square-foot pediatric health clinic at the Richland Health Center on the Dallas College-Richland Campus in northeast Dallas that is considered a medical desert.” Offering high-quality affordable pediatric care including ten exam rooms, a laboratory and separate waiting room for sick children, it is projected to serve 7,400 children annually.
Methodist Health System Foundation
After a quick trip to Methodist Dallas Medical Center, the committee departed the bus and walked through a gauntlet of Methodist staffers in the long lobby cheering like a Super Bowl celebration. At the end of the room, the members took their places in rows of chair for a presentation by Methodist Health System Foundation President Jim Johnston, Methodist Dallas Medical Center President John Phillips and Women’s And Children’s Director of Nursing Susan Bremner, who thanked the committee for the $1,148,907 grant.
As a result of the funding, “an Obstetric Emergency Department will be housed in Methodist Dallas’ newly transformed Labor and Delivery Unit” with five private patient rooms, enabling quick and efficient emergency care for pregnant women who present with high-risk pregnancies, urgent medical needs and pregnancy-related complications. The result will be a 22% reduction in preterm deliveries.
Approximately 2,400 newborns will be supported, increasing to 4,000 pregnant women and babies annually within five years.
Vogel
After the day’s cheers and shouts of appreciation, the tour headed to The Shops at RedBird. Following the traditional group photos, the committee walked from the entry through the retail center that was “a groundbreaking initiative connecting employment, resources and strategic partnerships” revitalizing Southern Dallas.
After arriving at what would be Vogel’s “Early Childhood Programming And Care” center, Vogel President/CEO Karen Hughes and Vogel Chief Development Officer Greg Brinkley took committee members through the hallways showing classrooms, waiting areas and offices that would occupy the 15,000-square-foot center.
After having worked for 37 years to stabilize homeless children and their families, an important part of the Vogel mission is to “include high-quality early childhood education, developmental and mental health services, and family support.”
Thanks to its being located in The Shops at RedBird, Vogel would make such services more accessible for families in need. To make it even easier for clients to access, the Vogel facility was located in the complex just a few feet away from a nearby entrance.
CCB’s grant of $1,500,000 will underwrite the salaries of teachers and administrators over a two-year period, resulting in 134 children from six weeks through five years annually receiving “quality childcare and education through Vogel’s nationally accredited therapeutic early childhood programming, which promotes children’s cognitive, emotional and social development.”
Dallas Holocaust And Human Rights Museum
As the bus pulled up to the final stop of the day at Dallas Holocaust And Human Rights Museum, a school bus filled with youngsters was departing. After going through security, Dallas Holocaust And Human Rights Museum President/CEO Mary Pat Higgins greeted committee members and directed them to the third level, where they briefly toured the the permanent exhibition of the Holocaust including an authentic World War II boxcar that the Nazis had used to transport men, women and children to the concentration camps.
It was also at this time that Holocaust survivor Bert Romberg talked with the group. He and his sister, Magie Furst, had been part of the Kindertransport program that sent a thousand Jewish children out of harms way to England to live with families. Watching from the side was Bert’s wife, Terry Romberg.
As the committee slowly made its way through the exhibitions displaying human rights violations through time and throughout the world, Terry and Bert followed holding hands.
The Dallas Holocaust And Human Rights Museum will be able to provide transportation, teacher curriculum support and written student materials for thousands of Title 1 and economically disadvantaged students in Dallas County free of charge over a three-year period, thanks to the CCB grant of $708,750.
As the bus returned to Turtle Creek Village ahead of schedule at 1:15 p.m., the CCB members had their work cut out for them in the months ahead to provide $7,093,665 for countless Dallas County children and the generations to follow.
* Photo credit: Melissa Macatee