Turtle Creek Park Conservancy’s Luminary Circle is the top drawer level of philanthropists who provide $25,000 annually to support the 14-acre park on the banks of Turtle Creek that has been a gathering place for residents since 1892. The Luminary Dinner was created to celebrate the donors’ generosity and to salute one of their own. While past honorees have included Pat and Charles McEvoy and Pam Busbee, the 2024 honoree was Louise Griffeth joined by her son Teal Griffeth.
This year’s supper at Salum was held on Wednesday, November 6, aka the day after election day. And while some might have suspected the talk of the night would have been the boasting and grousing about the results, that wasn’t the case. Nary a word was mentioned about the winning and losing candidates. Rather, the dining room was filled with conversation of how guests were trying to recover from waiting for the election results.
There were three main channels that had taken place. There were the bleary-eyed ones who had stayed up all night to learn the results. There were the types who went to sleep before midnight only to wake up around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. to check the updates. And finally there were those who didn’t care but awoke to learn the results via their bed partners or newscasts.
But the overnight ups and downs in their sleeping patterns still lingered through the following day. One guest who had had a physical scheduled at 10 a.m. was notified at 7:30 a.m. the doctor wouldn’t be in. Another said that the day had felt like a hangover. Yes, they would be back in full fettle, but they still felt like they were emerging from a coma. Still another without saying how they voted described the past 24 hours as more than playing politics. They said that the day before had been a three-ring circus.
But thanks to TCPC President/CEO Tiffany Divis and her team, the feel of the evening was the perfect escape from the anxieties of the past day. With tables labeled as Hydrangea, Magnolia, Rose, Azalea, Post Oak, etc., boasting floral arrangements serving as centerpieces, guests like Katherine and Austin Wyker, Renda Mathew and Russell Hayward, Shannon Graham, Bailey and Peter Stovall, David Davis and Michael Faircloth, Paula and Jeff Jones, Lynn and Peter Dauterman, Kim and Greg Hext and Susan and John Farris followed up the cocktail reception discovering their place cards.
For supper, Chef Abraham Salum began the dining with a baby spinach salad with roasted comice pears, toasted almonds, avocado and baby tomatoes that was followed by a choice of either roasted halibut with lemon basil pesto over angel hair pasta; grilled beef tenderloin, wild mushroom risotto, balsamic bacon demiglace and grilled asparagus; or pumpkin and ricotta ravioli with nutmeg and partisan cream and sauteed shrimp. For chocolate lovers like Luminary member Lyda Hill, dessert was a chocolate tart with banana whipped cream and candied pumpkin seeds.
For more pictures of the night, check out MySweetCharity Photo Gallery.