I went to a terrific and inspiring event yesterday - a Texans Together luncheon where they honored former Houston City Council Member Ada Edwards with their first Texas Traditions award. Bill White made introductory remarks, focusing on Edwards' vast community service and her credo that if we all do a little, we can get big things accomplished. Cissy Farenthold was the featured speaker, and she recapped some of her great adventures in community activism. Ada was a delight. She accepted the award with great humility and kept insisting the event was not about her, but about Texans Together and their important work in the community, helping citizens in greatest need.
I learned that Houston has the second most apartment dwellers and renters in the country, just behind Detroit. Ada asked us to pause and think about what that meant in terms of organizing communities and in terms of civic engagement.
Texans Together is doing important work in one big apartment complex in Alief with over 1000 residents. They run a program called The Mint, and it has several components, for children and adults. I've been out to The Mint to observe and find out more about their after school program. I couldn't have been more impressed. Kids ages 5-12 have a safe place to go after school, staffed with caring and highly competent program managers. They get a snack, tutoring, and time on computers donated by Alief ISD. The kids were happy, respectful and engaged. All of us who work in Houston area schools are concerned about what happens to the kids once they leave the school building everyday, and for the summer. Texans Together offers a real solution, and one that needs to be replicated all over town.
One of the residents of the apartment complex, Iris Alicea, is organizing a summer program for the children, and fundraising for that was a big component of Ada Edward's talk today. I think she convinced just about everyone to donate before they left (and if not, Iris spoke as well, and did a terrific job advocating for the summer program.) It's pretty clear that if Ada Edwards is passionate about something and she has a chance to tell you about it, watch out, because you are going to want to get involved!
Lots of movers and shakers were in attendance. Besides the speakers, I got to visit with Gordon Quan, Council Member Steve Costello, Council Member Wanda Adams, Council Member Sue Lovell, Sue Schechter, Mini Timmaraju, State Representative Carol Alvarado, State Representative Scott Hochberg, State Representative Kristi Thibaut, Muffie Moroney, Keith Wade (looking like a movie star in the Ada Edwards retrospective video!), and many others. My dear friends from Clear Lake, Suzy Allison and Parvin Richardson were there, as well as my special guest, Judy Jennings who is running for the State Board of Education in District 10.
Texans Together, Ada Edwards, Cissy Farenthold and Iris Alicea made me want to do more - much more - to better our community. I hope you will take the time to learn more about their efforts, and consider donating to their cause!
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