Law firms’ billing hours came to a grinding halt on Friday, June 20. The reason? Around a thousand attorneys, especially of the female variety, took a long, productive lunch at the Hilton Anatole for Attorneys Serving the Community’s 28th Annual ASC Luncheon.
It started for VIP’s,’ and practically everyone was, in the Peacock Room where featured speaker/award-winning actress Viola Davis posed for photos with guests. With her longer than a stretch limousine false eyelashes, she genuinely greeted each and moved the line along quickly, so no one was disappointed.
At 11:30 the doors to the Chantilly Ballroom opened and the crowd started moving in. Former WFAA anchor Gloria Campos sat on stage at the head table reviewing her notes. Since her “retirement” from the anchor desk, she’s become the go-to-gal for emceeing lunches. But on this day, she was hobbling a bit. Seems that she had tried out some new shoes while checking out the newly opened Continental pedestrian bridge. The shoes had a reputation for being comfy. Wrong! They resulted in a painful blister perfectly positioned at the Achilles heel. Gloria reported that as soon as the luncheon was over, she saw a flip-flop weekend in her future. In the meantime, a bandage cushioned her wound and the shoe.
Speaking of ladies of retirement, Sr. Margaret Ann Moser looked spectacular. But like Gloria, her retirement has not resulted in staying home watching “Golden Girls.” She’s still working with Ursuline 20 hours a week. BTW, construction is underway on Ursuline’s new athletic field that was named the Sister Margaret Ann Moser, O.S.U. Athletic Field earlier this year. Completion is scheduled for this fall.
By 11:55 Viola took her place at the head table. Someone in the growing crowd in the room applauded. Since the luncheon was benefiting Foundation for the Education of Young Women specifically the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, FEYW CEO Lynn McBee was one of the guests at the head table. She was just back from the AFI salute for Jane Fonda. “I was over statted. They had me next to Meryl Streep.” Was the Academy Award winning actress a diva? “No, one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people. So were Morgan Freeman and Sally Fields.” A few of the others were “more distant.” But Lynn was officially mum on who they were.
At 12:13 Gloria recognized various judges in the audience and caught the audience up on her life after WFAA — she had sat next to 43 at a Rangers game, was grand marshal at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, prom queen at Promise House, etc.
At 12:16 ASC Co-Chair Dena DeNooyer Stroh explained what the 400-member group’s purpose and how it’s raised more than $3.9M over the years for area nonprofits. She then told this year’s recipient, Irma Lerma Rangel School.
ASC Co-Chair Kelli Hinson joined Dena in presenting American Airlines with the “Friend of the Community Award” to AA Chief Integration Officer Beverly Goulet.
Honorary Chair/ASC Founding Member Kim Askew admitted that when ASC started, she never envisioned such growth. She was especially pleased that the day’s luncheon was benefiting the Irma Rangel School and “expected many of them (Irma Rangel students) to be sitting in this room one day or rooms like it.”
At 12:29 p.m. Lynn McBee how the school came about and recognized longtime Principal Vivian Taylor. Following a video on Irma Rangel, Gloria introduced a recent school graduate — Karla Guadalupe Garcia Ricos. If the adult speakers up to this point had been excellent, Karla blew them all out of the water. With a killer smile, positive attitude and no notes, she told of how Irma Rangel had been a life-changing experience. She was the first high-school graduate in her family. Her parents emigrated from Mexico and her mother often reminded the almost 18-year-old that if they had stayed in Mexico, Karla would probably “have been someone’s housekeeper and I would probably have two children by now.” Instead she was the first high school graduate in her family and had received a dozen scholarships to attend college.
Then she dropped an ironic note. When her father left Mexico at the age of 16 with nothing and no family, his first job was working at the power plant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then revealed, “Now 33 years later, through his sacrifice, through my mother’s, through my family, through the FEYW, through all the support and nourishment that I received, I will be coming back not as a laborer but a student.”
After that, she left no doubt that a presidential run in 2040.
At 12:52 p.m. Viola told how she was raised in abject poverty. At the age of five, she was told that the way out was education. Her father beat her mother constantly and Viola knew that she didn’t want to be her mother. As a child, she squelched her shame, insecurity and fear by overachieving. To prove that point, she told how by the age of 14, she received a scholarship from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Still inside she felt she was not good enough. Viola would gravitate toward competition.
Then at 28, she hit the wall. She recalled that when she was nine, her father was trying to break her mother’s legs. She ran into the bathroom and prayed to God that she by the time she counted to 10, she would disappear. When she hit 10 and was still there, she said, “I knew you didn’t exist.”
Years later at Julliard and she felt like “crap.” She won a Tony nomination and yet was depressed. Professionally and educationally, she wasn’t her mother’s daughter. But personally she was. Recognizing the situation needing fixing, she went to therapy. Two years ago when she was nominated for an Academy Award, she realized that she had a purpose — to be a voice of women of color in a male dominated industry.
That little girl, who had been so fearful in that bathroom, had overcome her fear. Then as an aside, she admitted, “I think I was low balling it when I gave God 10 seconds.”
Her advice to the room — “You’ve got to release the fear. It’s okay to be scared, but keep it moving.”
In closing, she told how she had a sister “who didn’t make it out.” Then out loud she wished an organization like this had existed for her sister.
At 1:15 Viola received a stand ovation. And who knows? She may have met a future U.S. President.