2025 Beacon Of Hope Luncheon guests celebrated a family’s rise from the devastating loss of a child, a son, a brother by the name of Grant Halliburton, who had inspired them to help prevent others from going through a similar ordeal. Taking place at the Omni Dallas Hotel on Tuesday, March 25, the event saw all ages gathered to better understand how to cope and handle life-changing issues that could impact themselves, their friends, their families and generations to come.
As guests gathered for the pre-luncheon Grant Halliburton Foundation fundraiser in the Trinity Ballroom’s lobby, VIP types got a chance to have a meet-and-greet photo with the day’s keynote speaker, former Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants outfielder Drew Robinson and his canine companion, Ellie.

Needless to say, well-behaved Ellie was a hands-on magnet. Instead of being blase about all the attention, she still sparkled with each encounter. Talk about a trouper!
But Ellie wasn’t the only four-legged pooch showing their stuff with tails wagging. The PatriotPaws had its service dogs eager to make new friends, along with rows of silent auction items for reception guests who sipped champagne topped with raspberries with DJ Lucy Wrubel providing the background music.
Just as popular as the dogs were a group of gals immediately surrounding “Voice of the Texas Rangers” Eric Nadel, who would not only be in an onstage conversation with Drew, but later would be center stage for his fundraising birthday for the Foundation on Thursday, May 29, at the Longhorn Ballroom for the Grant Halliburton Foundation.

In the crowd that included Kristi and Bill Francis, Bianca Davis and Susan Glassmoyer, there was Reed Roberts, who was just back from Europe after 15 days in Paris and Milan.
After the doors to the ballroom opened and the guests took their seats, the Plano West High School choir sang and emcee Jenny Anchondo got the program underway with Father Paul Klitze providing the invocation.
It was recalled how Luncheon Founding Chair Barb Farmer had had the vision of raising money to protect youths. Luncheon Co-Chairs Chris and Brent Bolding thanked all who had been instrumental in making the event happen and introduced Foundation Co-Founders Alan Halliburton and Amy McCloskey for the presentation of the Beacon Award to Foundation Co-Founder/Chairman Emeritus/Grant’s mother Vanita Halliburton, with the guests giving Vanita a standing ovation. In accepting the award, she shone the spotlight on her son: ‘”He once spent his entire savings, $65, on groceries for a friend’s single mom who had cancer, financial troubles and family issues. He didn’t tell anyone he was going to do it, but he just did it. Another time he jumped off the school bus to retrieve a boy’s crutch that some pranksters had thrown out the window. Then he ran between houses from street to street to catch up with the bus, hop back on and return the crutch to its owner as the kids on the bus cheered.”

Following Foundation President Kevin Hall addressing the group, extolling Vanita and the efforts of the staff and volunteers, a video was shown about the Boldings’ daughter Eleanor, who was a transgender child who died at the age of 17 in 2021.

Following the video, Chris and Brent were back at the podium reading the names of young people who had died.
After a call for cash, Jenny returned to the podium followed by Eric, who was joined by Drew and Ellie in a sit-down conversation. In 2020, some in the audience knew, Drew had tried to commit suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, but survived. The onstage conversation had the following highlights:
- Drew and Ellie have been together for the past five years.
- “I didn’t have the strength and guts to ask for help,” Drew said.
- “I was going to therapy before my attempt. I still didn’t tell my therapist. I didn’t tell my dad. I didn’t tell my family.”
- “I wasn’t thinking of myself. I was trying to think how to make it easier for my family, like how to sell my things.”
- Last thought before he pulled the trigger: “There wasn’t any kind of cinematic type build-up with last moments. It was actually the opposite. It was a very calm, almost empty thinking kind of moment to where I just did it, and then when it happened, I didn’t jump from nothingness to confusion. I had no idea how I was still there. How I was in pain until about hours later and the shock wore off. Too, the last thoughts were really just nothing. But that was the culmination of a lot of planning and letter writing and unfortunate drinking throughout the [Covid] quarantine time when the world got shut down.”
- Hours after shooting himself, he “called 911 myself.”
- Afterwards, despite losing his right eye, he “healed and committed to professional help.”
- He laughed, remembering how he considered trying out as a one-eyed pitcher.
- Teammates were curious about what happened. Management recognized that his talking with teammates was his future as a mental health coach.
- What he’s doing to continue his mental health: regular therapy, exercise and meditation.
- “Six years ago, I would have been ashamed to say I was getting therapy.”
- “Your mind is your servant, not master. I just wasn’t actively thinking my way and assessing myself in a way that I am capable of doing. So that my mind was constantly perfectionist. I was telling myself, even when I was doing well at baseball: Dude, enough. It’s not as good as the best player. You know, just constantly feeding this self hatred belief in myself or low insecurity belief in myself. It sounds like common sense, but I say it’s like I think we all fall in the trap sometimes that we’re actually not in control of our mind.”