As the overwhelming crowd of women and men filled the lanes leading to the Omni Dallas Hotel on Friday, September 8, they had their game plans in place. As part of the New Friends New Life fundraiser luncheon, their eyes were totally fixed on Academy Award-winner/Texas home boy Matthew McConaughey.
Known for his chiseled good looks and Texas accent talk, he was probably the big draw for most of the crowd. They would soon learn that he was packing a secret weapon — his way better half wife Camila Alves McConaughey.
Before the couple would appear, though, there was a VIP gathering taking place sans the hunk and the beauty. In the meantime the numbers grew in the Dallas Ballroom lobby. Some were checking out the produce from the New Friends New Life and Bonton Farms project, Liberty Street Garden.
But once the ballroom doors opened, the two groups poured in including VIP-ers and others like Honorary Co-Chairs Robin and Norm Bagwell, Michael Meadows with his son Matthew Meadows, Catherine Recht, Caren Kline, Chris Kleinert, Gail and Gerald Turner, Aubrey and Josh Kingcade, Laura Clegg, Aileen Pratt, Lana Andrews, Gene Jones, Anita Arnold, Linda Custard, Jeanne Whitman Bobbit, Kathy Crow, Heather Washburne and Elisa Summers.
After a welcome by Co-Chairs JoJo Fleiss and Lisa Rocchio and the invocation by Concord Church Pastor Bryan Carter, NFNL Chief Development Officer Priya Murphy presented the 2024 ProtectHER Awards to Young Men’s Service League President/CEO/Founder Pam Rosener and Southwest Airlines Community Outreach Director Laura Nieto. Priya was followed by NFNL Executive Director Bianca Davis, who reported that 400 teens are being sold in Dallas every night, 79% of female trafficking victims have previously suffered domestic violence and the average age of girls entering the sex trade was 15.
Alas, she reported that despite the luncheon being sold out, it was still $134,000 away from its $1M goal.
Then NBC5 Meredith Land was joined on stage by Camila and Matthew.
Over the next 30 minutes, one person admitted the chat was like none other they had ever experienced. They described the couple as both very informed, articulate and remarkably respectful of each other.
Still another guest didn’t hold back, saying, “I felt like we were with friends in a living room for a honest and intimate discussion.”
Highlights of the conversation included:
- The decision to move back to Texas resulted from a visit to Matthew’s mother at her home at a Del Webb community. The couple pulled up to a stoplight. Camila looked at Matthew, who was driving, and said, “You want to move back to Austin.” And without blinking, he said, “Yes, I do.” Before the light turned green, he added, “Okay, let’s do it.” He admitted that he was a bit amazed that she sensed how he felt without his saying anything.
- Camila explained that the transition of moving to Texas “wasn’t hard for me.” In addition to Matthew’s family being here, “I was born and raised in Brazil, but my family, my background was very similar to the way that Texans go about their lives.”
- just keep livin’ Foundation — When they started working with schools 12 years ago, their goal was to “to prevent problems” before they started. The nonprofit began working with Title 1 high schools, where the dropout rate was 50% and most students were eligible for food programs. Now including about 50 high schools and sites across the U.S., the after-school curriculum is based on four pillars: fitness, nutrition, wellness and community service. The experience has taught the McConaugheys that “you can create an impact and you can make a difference.”
- Matthew’s memoir “Greenlights” — After keeping journals for 40 years, Matthew didn’t “really have the courage” to review them. Instead, he asked Camila if she would read them after his death to see if there was something in them worth sharing. Matthew said, she was “like, ‘No way. You do that. I’m not doing that’… She put it on me, and I’m glad she did.” The idea of the book is that all red lights eventually do turn green. But the yellow light is the one that’s most like life and that [gives us a] choice. Do we slow down, give that crisis some credit and make it a red light? Or do we put the “damn pedal to the metal” and blow through it and not give the crisis credit, because it doesn’t deserve credit?”
- Camila’s community-based website — When they as a family set up camp in a town for Matthew’s work, Camila connects with the local women. “In a matter of two or three weeks, I’ll have the community saying, ‘Hey, this is where you go for this.’ ‘This where you go for that.’ ‘This is the doctor.’ As women — and I don’t mean to exclude men, because you men are amazing, too, and have a lot of knowledge as well — we have so much wisdom and knowledge that we’ve learned through the years, through our experiences.” She started doing webinars with the mission to “share wisdom with each other, and we learn from each other.”
- Camila’s take on Texas women — “You guys are the best … [Texas women] really show up and they really stand like by their word. The word is very important to the women here in Texas. When they say, ‘I’m going to do this,’ they actually do it.”
- Matthew on the Uvalde tragedy — Raised four block from the school where the shooting took place, he was in a recording studio with no cell reception that day. “I got out and my phone blew up. One of the messages from Camila was in London and she said in the last message, ‘I’m on a plane,’ so she was already in the air flying from London.” Their decision was to show up, listen and consider what they could do. They decided to take their children along “because we thought it was just necessary, a necessary hardship, that they needed to look in the eyes as a learning tool just how the world can be — one of the realities of life. … We went in with a purpose to help. We didn’t know how.”
- Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — As a result of their listening, the McConaugheys became advocates and more for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which provides billions of dollars for schools and communities to make them safer, with new resources to keep guns out of the wrong hands and for violence prevention, mental health and school safety. They thought it was a done deal, only to learn that “zero had been awarded” at one point, because the 50-page grant proposal was “difficult and intimidating” to complete. The McConaugheys started the Greenlights Grant Initiatives “to help schools write good grants,” with the goal of getting more successful grants written.
- Camila on human trafficking — When she moved to the U.S., she didn’t have “to worry about [human trafficking]. I don’t have to look over my shoulder. And then fast-forward to now. I’ve been having to have these conversations with my kids for the last few years about it. It’s a really sad situation to see, and to see that Texas is No. 2 in the country. Something really has to be done to change that.”
- Matthew on human trafficking — “If you can look at our younger men like brothers and our young women like sisters, and just look out for each other a little bit better, because it’s going to take a keen eye on people like us in the room [instead of just depending] on law enforcement. We’ve just got to keep a keener eye, I think. … It’s right here in our backyard. It’s an ugly scar. There’s not two sides to this story.”
As Meredith began to thank the couple and close down the discussion, Camila raised her arms to silence the applause. She explained that while they were backstage, she and Matthew had heard that the luncheon was just $140,000 away from its goal. Without hesitation, the McConaugheys both rose to their feet to champion a paddle raise that they would match to the tune of $100,000.Meredith wisely stayed seated, allowing the couple to rally the $1,000 to $25,000 donations.
As the luncheon seemed to close down, VIP guests headed to The Katy Trail Room, where a very private meet-and-greet with the McConaugheys was to take place for about 50 people.
But from the lineup leading out of the ballroom, it appeared that the number was more than double that.