2019 Colors of the Year, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 29, 2018

Rainbow of hues to choose By Lisa Ferguson Special to Your Home December 28, 2018 - 3:05 pm Are you sick and tired of social media? Overwhelmed by ever-changing technology? In need of nurturing? The folks at Pantone thought that might be the case. Earlier this month the New Jersey-based company, considered the international expert on color trends, designated a “life-affirming” orange hue dubbed Living Coral as the color of the year for 2019. “Just as coral reefs are a source of sustenance and shelter to sea life, vibrant-yet-mellow … Living Coral embraces us with warmth and nourishment to provide comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment,” the company said in a statement. “In reaction to the onslaught of digital technology and social media increasingly embedding into daily life, we are seeking authentic and immersive experiences that enable connection and intimacy. Sociable and spirited, the engaging nature of … Living Coral welcomes and encourages lighthearted activity.” Daniella Villamil is pleased with Pantone’s selection. “This is a lively and cheery color that adds warmth and coziness to any room,” said the owner of Daniella Villamil Interiors in Las Vegas, who has designed residential and commercial spaces locally and in Miami and New York. Meanwhile, more than a half-dozen major paint manufacturers also chose shades to market as their 2019 colors of the year. Sara McLean, color expert and stylist for Dunn-Edwards, said she selected the company’s fire-brick red hue called Spice of Life because its earthy tone provides a “respite” from the chaos and technology that dominate the world. Villamil thinks it is “an exotic and bold color … that will definitely make a statement in any room you put it in.” Daniel Matus, principal designer, founder and CEO of Desired Space in Las Vegas, is also a Spice of Life fan. He describes it as “your grandmother’s more modern red.” His company has designed luxury residences at Turnberry Towers and multifamily units for Zappos in downtown Las Vegas. It also created interiors and branding materials for the Hot N Juicy Crawfish restaurant chain’s outlets locally and around the country. Matus said he is slightly less enamored with Cavern Clay, a terra cotta shade by Sherwin-Williams. “It definitely has that Southwest flair, for sure,” he said, but seems “a little more mature.” Sue Wadden, director of color marketing for Sherwin-Williams, lauds the hue “for bridging the gap between totally earthy and really a trend color, and it looks great on all sorts of surfaces.” Behr Paint Company has big plans for a shade called Blueprint that Erika Woelfel, vice president of color and creative services, describes as “a great universal blue” that is “softer than a navy blue, but it’s a little warmer than a denim.” Matus disagrees. “Because it’s so light, it’s not saturated” and lacks sophistication. “It’s not something I would use for adults,” he said, but possibly would include it in a children’s playroom. When it comes to blue hues, Villamil much prefers Kelly-Moore Paint’s choice of Peacock Blue. “I am in love with this color,” she said, describing it as a “lighter blue than maybe a navy blue. It’s a color that makes a statement.” Although it could prove “overpowering” as a full-room color, it would pair well as an accent hue with furniture pieces that “represent Asian cultures and faraway places.” It’s not easy being green — especially if you’re Garden Patch by Dutch Boy. “1999 called, and they want their paint color back,” Matus said. “I have no real use for this color. … It’s too juvenile. It’s very pastel-like so, unfortunately, it (has) a very dated look. It’s very passe.” Rachel Skafidas, color and design manager for Dutch Boy, said she selected the “nature-inspired” shade because it displays optimism as well as the “growing empathy” that people are feeling toward one another. “We know that the world is a little bit crazy, but … we hope that there’s better coming forward.” “It’s weird,” Villamil said of Garden Patch. “It reminds me of a doctor’s office … or maybe a kindergarten” classroom. On the other hand, Night Watch by PPG Pittsburgh Paints is a “modern green,” according to Dee Schlotter, the company’s senior color marketing manager. It evokes “the feeling of being deep in nature” and represents “the need for growth and restorativeness in our souls.” “I see nature, I see peace, I see kind of subtle hints of a calming effect to it,” Matus said. “This is great for maybe a kitchen area — somewhere there’s a lot of busyness — with white cabinets” or a master bathroom “because it’s renewing and … gives you life.” The color team at Benjamin Moore &Co. opted to tell “a neutral story” for 2019, according to Color and Design Manager Hannah Yeo, and selected a “versatile” gray called Metropolitan that she said is neither age, gender, room nor project specific. “It’s just your go-to color when you don’t want to do something risky,” Villamil said. She has previously used similar shades “as a backdrop for really beautiful, rich interiors that have a lot of statement pieces or drama because you can (put) pretty much anything against it.” Not to be outdone, Valspar Paint chose a dozen hues to promote as its colors of the year. Sue Kim, senior color designer for Sherwin-Williams Consumer Brands Group, which distributes Valspar Paints, selected a pair of those colors to discuss for this article. Martinique Dawn, a light-green hue, represents “how we’re coming back to … what’s within reach of our space, our neighborhood, our community,” she said, using locally sourced foods as an example. “It looks like (the color of) smokers’ teeth,” Matus said. “It wants to be beige, but it doesn’t. And it wants to be an off-white, but it can’t. … It just seems dirty (and) unkept.” Kim described the bright shade called Orange Slice as an “action-driven color that really encourages you to do something beyond your comfort zone.” “It’s terrible. Anybody would be crazy to paint a room this color,” Villamil said. “It looks very Ikea-ish to me. … It’s not something I would use in any of my interiors.”

Put a wreath on it, Las Vegas Review Journal, November 17, 2018

Garden-style holiday wreaths By Lisa Ferguson Special to Your Home November 20, 2018 During the half-dozen years that she served as the chief floral designer at the White House during the Obama administration, Laura Dowling and her staff crafted countless wreaths. “I created wreaths for holiday decor, to commemorate presidential birthdays and to honor fallen heroes. … In my White House work, I saw how the simple wreath form conveyed tradition, meaning and metaphor, representing so much more than a simple decorative placement,” she wrote in her book “Wreaths: With How-to Tutorials” (Stichting Kunstboak, $35), due out Nov. 30. During the holiday season, dozens of wreaths adorn the White House grounds. They hang on perimeter gates, the north and south porticos and the Truman balcony. Wreaths also play a festive role indoors at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “I always felt like it was important to draw people in and use wreaths on the windows,” Dowling said. “Each year, we would do something fun and unique. It was kind of like an art gallery. “One year, we used fruits and vegetables … to create these oversized, geometric wreaths — diamond-shaped, squares, round, oval — made out of gourds and dried (seed) pods and things that were very colorful but also very striking. I think each wreath had about 800 individual elements that were wired into it.” Prior to landing the White House job in 2009, Dowling, who holds degrees in political science and public policy, worked for The Nature Conservancy, an Arlington, Virginia-based environmental nonprofit organization that protects land and water around the globe. She went on to study the floral arts at L’Ecole des Fleurs in Paris. Following her 2015 departure from the White House, she penned a pair of books, “Floral Diplomacy: At the White House” and “A White House Christmas: Including Floral Design Tutorials,” which were published last year. “It seemed kind of a natural progression to go from ‘A White House Christmas’ … to something that kind of delves more deeply into wreaths and the design of it,” she said. Brimming with colorful photos, her latest tome features detailed instructions for making elegant wreaths largely from fresh flowers, produce and other organic materials, as well as various “unexpected” items including folded paper and even marshmallows. “You can use simple materials,” she said. “I’m really trying to encourage people to be creative and innovative and use things that are on hand.” The finished products can adorn not only doors and windows but also chair backs, gates, walls and other spaces year-round. Dowling resides in the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, where colonial history and traditions are alive and well, she said, and “making natural wreaths is still very much en vogue.” She calls wreaths “the jewelry on the door. It’s really almost the most important thing, I think, for holiday decorating. Even if you don’t have time … to (decorate) an entire house, it’s usually pretty accessible to put a wreath on the front door.” During the fall and winter holidays, “people traditionally view them as a static thing,” Dowling said. “You buy a wreath, you keep it up maybe for a month or two. … I think when you’re using fresh materials, it’s important to kind of look at them as a temporary thing.” In the introduction of “Wreaths,” she wrote, “Of all the floral art forms in the language of flowers, the wreath is arguably the most powerfully symbolic. With no beginning and no end to its circular form, the wreath represents eternity and immortality — and, according to some, is the ultimate symbol of achievement and success.” Despite that inherent symbolism, Dowling contends that wreaths are in need of “a major overhaul and upgrade.” Viewing examples online and at craft stores, “you kind of see the same old thing,” she said. “To me, the ready-made, commercial wreaths are a little bit flat, one-dimensional, maybe using expected materials.” With the wreath form, “there’s such an opportunity to introduce a personal style and create a theme, maybe even add a little bit of whimsy to the work.” In the book, Dowling compares the wreath-making process to “telling a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. It requires a compelling plot (theme), a mix of interesting characters (design elements) and a strong narrative (technique) that builds up with a crescendo and flourish to a dramatic ending (finishing touches).” Swan Lake, a wintery wreath included in a chapter titled “From the Woods,” features bunches of silver-painted eucalyptus pods and ruscus stems, white tree branches, feathers, silver wrapping paper and medium-sized marshmallows. “For this classic winter-wonderland idea, I wanted to use white-on-white with a lot of different textures and layers,” Dowling explained. A holiday-wreath staple, pine cones are the basis for several projects highlighted in the book. “I think using them natural is great, but if you want to add some color or style,” Dowling suggests gilding them with silver or gold spray paint. Rose hips, berried green ivy and stems of bright orange “pumpkin trees” are the components of a wreath dubbed Pumpkin Patch. “You can get those at the grocery store,” she said of the pint-sized fruits, which are actually a variety of ornamental eggplant that grows on stalks. With craft wire and wooden picks, she affixed them to an 18-inch grapevine wreath form and created a fanciful fall display. Connie Jo Harris is a fan of incorporating fresh materials with “permanent botanicals” (more commonly known as silk plants) in wreaths. A longtime instructor with the College of Southern Nevada’s floral design technology program, Harris is an accredited member of the American Institute of Floral Designers. She noted that even during the cooler fall and winter months, the Southern Nevada sun “is going to beat down on the fruits” and vegetables. “Something with a harder skin, like an orange or a pomegranate,” may be suitable for an outdoor wreath, she said. “You can get some really nice dried quince. That looks really beautiful.” Harris, a certified floral designer, also suggests adding succulents to designs. “They are really big in the floral industry right now. … If you can get some really good-looking faux succulents, put them in there along with some fruit.” When designing and decorating with wreaths, she said, “pick a theme and stick with it throughout your house, because (it is displayed on) the entrance to your home.

Send Me On Vacation helping breast cancer survivors heal, Las Vegas Review Journal, Oct. 3`, 2018

Great escape helps women heal By Lisa Ferguson Special to Las Vegas Review-Journal October 31, 2018 - 8:00 am Cathy Backus has never been diagnosed with breast cancer, but she knows well the physical and emotional toll that the disease often takes on those who have. “When you’re hit with breast cancer out of the blue … you’re completely shell-shocked and you go into this fight-or-flight mode and you just (try to) survive. You’re just trying to get to the next step of the process,” she said. Backus, a longtime Summerlin resident and travel industry executive, founded Send Me on Vacation in 2012. The nonprofit organization, based in Las Vegas, organizes, funds, awards and leads trips to exotic locales around the globe that are designed to help breast cancer survivors “rejuvenate and heal their minds, bodies and spirits” following treatment for the disease. According to research published in a 2016 issue of the medical journal Psycho-Oncology, 82 percent of women with early-stage breast cancer exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after being diagnosed and before beginning treatment. Backus, 64, witnessed firsthand the positive impact that a vacation can have when she traveled in 2006 to a Mexican beach resort with her best friend, Pam Horwitz, a two-time breast cancer survivor. “(Horwitz) came back renewed, revitalized,” said Backus. “She said, ‘I feel like the waves took all of the anxiety and fear and stress out to sea with them, and as I was sitting in sun, it felt like I was baking goodness and warmth back into me after all of the cold chemo.’” Backus returned from that trip determined to help other breast cancer survivors enjoy similar experiences. She and her husband, Las Vegas attorney Leland “Gene” Backus, went to work establishing Send Me on Vacation. (Horwitz now serves on the organization’s board and chairs its survivor committee.) While hospitals and cancer care centers typically offer “wonderful programs” for breast cancer patients, Cathy Backus said, resources for survivors can be scant. Patients often suffer from dramatic physical transformations that can result from breast cancer surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. “It’s a terrible cycle,” she said. “At the end, they’re left so destroyed.” However, when survivors “change their lives, they change the lives of everyone” around them, Backus said. In the past six years, Send Me on Vacation has sent about 500 women on getaways. Backus attends and personally oversees each trip, which usually includes 20 survivors. Using her travel industry connections, she has gotten hotel accommodations, cruise ship staterooms and airfares donated for the trips, which cost about $1,000 per person. Most of the funds are raised through events that Send Me on Vacation hosts in eight countries around the world. Beginning next year, Backus said, it will rely more on private and corporate donations to raise the majority of the $100,000 required yearly to cover the costs of its five annual trips. The organization is affiliated with hospitals, cancer care centers and international nonprofit organizations, which refer survivors to it. Vacation recipients are selected via an application process (accessible at www.sendmeonvacation.org) that has women pen an essay about why they believe such a trip will help them heal. Survivors were previously required to have experienced financial hardship as well. However, that requirement was dropped last year to make the program accessible to more women. “We’ve never turned down anyone who qualified (for a trip),” Backus said. Three years ago, Send Me on Vacation began offering its signature getaway, called A Mermaid’s Journey, that features a multiday, guided meditation workshop and concludes with a “phototherapy shoot,” which has participants styled from head to toe as a mermaid. “They release all of that pent-up anger and fear” via meditation, Backus explained. “And then they use the archetype of a mermaid to find their inner beauty, strength and grace.” A former Las Vegas resident, Heidi Lamprecht and her family relocated to Washington state in 2013. Two years later, at age 34, the mother of two was diagnosed with stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma. She underwent a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and 30 rounds of radiation treatments and also battled PTSD. Lamprecht, who learned about Send Me on Vacation while researching online for survivor support systems, participated in A Mermaid’s Journey when she traveled with the organization in 2016 to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The weeklong trip “was fantastic,” said Lamprecht, who especially enjoyed meeting fellow survivors. “I never had to explain myself,” she said. “We were all there and we all knew we needed something, so we had that as a sort of camaraderie.” Earlier this year, she traveled to Cancun, Mexico, through Send Me on Vacation’s Mermaids and Angels empowerment and mentoring program, which pairs new vacation recipients with past participants. “I realized just how much of a tribe I needed to create in order for me to keep moving forward and healing,” Lamprecht said. “Being able to go on vacations and help other women do the same thing is what helps me get up in the morning.”

Summerlin mom beating metastatic breast cancer, Las Vegas Review Journal, Oct. 10, 2018

Summerlin mother continues to beat the odds By Lisa Ferguson Special to Las Vegas Review-Journal October 10, 2018 Only recently has Maura Bivens been able to envision being part of her family’s future. “I think it’s just this year that I’ve started picturing sending my kids to college,” said the 49-year-old Summerlin mother of three. She’s come a long way since December 2009, when she learned the stage 2 triple-negative breast cancer with which she’d been diagnosed in late 2007 and treated for the following year had returned as stage 4 after metastasizing to her lungs. Like that of most metastatic breast cancer patients, Bivens’ prognosis wasn’t good. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for the disease is only about 22 percent. Saturday is National Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day. On its website, the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network, a New York-based advocacy organization, reports the disease is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women under age 40. Meanwhile, because Bivens’ triple-negative cancer pathology lacks receptors for estrogen and progesterone as well as the HER2 protein, it does not respond to hormonal therapies and medications including tamoxifen and Herceptin. Things seemed especially bleak, she said, once she learned only 10 percent of women with triple-negative metastatic breast cancer survive more than a year following their diagnosis. “I really believed that timeline,” she said. “I knew my days were numbered, so every single event had to be meaningful,” especially time spent with her husband, Mark, a service manager at Lexus of Las Vegas, daughter Zoe, and sons Jackson and Hunter. “It was exhausting,” she said, “but I felt like I didn’t have time to throw away.” Eight years later, Bivens has somehow bucked the odds. Although she is still considered medically to have stage 4 cancer, her body currently shows no evidence of the disease. Doctors “never expected to eradicate my cancer,” she said. “All they were trying to do was buy me more time.” Bivens’ former oncologist, Dr. Heather Allen of Comprehensive Cancer Centers, said that during her nearly four decades of practicing medicine in Las Vegas, she never had another triple-negative metastatic breast cancer patient survive as many years as Bivens has after diagnosis. “There are some things in this life that we simply cannot explain scientifically,” said Allen, who retired this year. “I think the reason that we say to people that we don’t expect to cure this disease once it becomes metastasized is that the statistics would say that we don’t do that. … But every now and then we see a patient that just doesn’t follow the statistics, and that’s just a miracle.” In 2010 and 2011, Bivens underwent a pair of CyberKnife radiosurgeries at Comprehensive Cancer Centers’ radiation oncology office at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center. The procedures delivered targeted doses of radiation that destroyed cancerous nodules in her lungs. In the years since, she has received no additional cancer treatments nor taken any preventative medications. “I was told now that it (had) metastasized, it would be a marathon, not a sprint,” she said. Rather than dwell on her grim prognosis, Bivens opted to focus simply on living life. Prior to her 2007 diagnosis, Bivens had earned a brown belt in the sport. Now a third-degree black belt, she and her children (who also are black belts) are regulars at Victory Martial Arts studio on West Charleston Boulevard. She plans to celebrate her 50th birthday in February by testing for a fourth-degree black belt. Cancer is “so uncertain,” she explained. “At some point, Mark and I looked at each other and said, ‘Oh my gosh, we might be retired someday together, and we should save for that,’ because at the time we didn’t think we would. … Living like you’re dying is the dumbest thing ever.”

New youth services librarian, Celina Record, April 2018

Celina's new youth services librarian plans to enhance programming Lisa Ferguson, Star Local Media Contributor Apr 5, 2018 As a child growing up in Plano and Allen, Lauren Graves made frequent visits to local public libraries. “I remember pulling out the picture books. I just wanted to draw whatever was in the books,” she recalled. “That was my big thing – reading as well, but mostly attempting to mimic the illustrations and their (artistic) styles.” In February, Graves – who graduated in 2014 from SMU with a bachelor’s degree in art history, and two years later earned her master’s in library science from UNT - was hired as youth services librarian at Celina Public Library. She is the first city of Celina employee ever to hold the recently created position. “It is a big undertaking to kind of shape this (role),” Graves said, “but I think that also provides an exciting and unique opportunity to create something new.” Among her duties is developing and overseeing the library’s programming for children and teens, including its annual Summer Reading Program which is scheduled to begin June 1. It is anticipated that this year’s program will be larger than in previous summers, and will feature several reading, music and science-related events geared toward youngsters age infant through 12 years old at the library. +1 Lauren Graves Youth Services Librarian Lauren Graves, center, speaks to a child, right, as Director of Library Services Linda Shaw, left, dressed as Cat in the Hat, looks on during Celina Public Library’s Dr. Suess birthday celebration earlier this month. PHOTO COURTESY OF CELINA PUBLIC LIBRARY “Summer reading is really important,” Graves said. “We want kids to keep the skills that they’ve gathered throughout the school year and continue growing those skills to prevent summer learning loss, so when they go back to school they’re still prepared and ready to roll.” Linda Shaw, director of library services for Celina, said Graves “really embraces the community-building nature of the library” and boasts a “positive attitude toward serving and being a part of the library team.” Most recently Graves, 25, worked as an access service librarian at Reed Library on the campus of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where she managed the access services department that oversaw the circulation desk, and helped craft library policies and procedures while assisting students. One of the best aspects of that job, she said, was forming relationships and connections with patrons. She looks forward to doing the same at Celina Public Library. Public libraries are “absolutely vital” to communities, Graves said, because they typically “provide more than just books. Public libraries provide a community space and resources that some children might not have access to otherwise,” such as internet access needed to complete homework and other assignments. “Some of them might not have that at home, but we are able to provide that.” Also, “Public libraries play a role in teaching digital literacy, which is essential in the Information Age, along with information literacy,” she said. The library can be “a space of support, and I think that’s crucial,” Graves explained. “There aren’t many places one can go in society today where one can use the resources, attend services and consume materials, but not have to purchase anything.” Given Celina’s fast-growing population, its public library “is serving a really great role in the community right now, and I think there’s a lot of opportunity” to expand its programming, services and profile in the community, she said. Plans for a children’s book club are in the works, and Yoga Story Time sessions for preschoolers through early elementary-aged kids are set to begin in June. Graves, who since 2011 has been a certified yoga instructor through the nonprofit Yoga Alliance association, has previously taught it to children during sessions at the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas. “It’s always super fun to do it in the park, and it’d be fun to do it out on (Celina’s) square,” she said. Future youth programming at Celina Public Library “will really depend on what the community wants,” Graves said, “so I’m putting feelers out and seeing what people are interested in. I want to provide activities … that people are excited about, that the kids are excited about.”

Celina Public Library book club, Celina Record, April 2018

What’s the word? Conversation is key at library book club meetings Lisa Ferguson, Star Local Media Contributor Apr 22, 2018 Robin Hoerner has a thing for book clubs. Currently, the retired school teacher is a member of eight of them. After moving from Plano to Celina last summer, she added Celina Public Library’s book club to the list of those whose meetings she regularly attends. Its members typically discuss plot points, characters and other topics related to the fiction, non-fiction and bestselling books they select and collectively read. “I like the people,” Hoerner said of the library’s club, which meets monthly. “I love this little town, and the smell of this little library when you walk in,” an intoxicating scent (for bibliophiles, at least) which she described as being that of books. Several fellow members laughed and nodded in agreement with Hoerner’s description during the club’s March meeting at Celina Public Library. Gathered around a couple of small tables, they spent more than an hour sharing their thoughts on “The Great Alone,” a bestselling novel by Kristin Hannah about a troubled Vietnam War veteran who moves his family to Alaska and lives off the grid. Leya Grubbs, a Celina mother of three children, said she looks forward to the club’s meetings. “I love how everybody is entitled to their opinion, and you just say what you want to say, and nobody judges you because those are your thoughts about the book and how you processed it,” she said. “I really like the conversation and everybody’s different perspectives.” Celina Public Library’s book club held its first meeting in September 2016, which was attended by just a few people. Since then, attendance has swelled to nearly a dozen. New members are welcomed at meetings, which are held at 10:30 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month. The book club “brings people of our community together,” said Linda Shaw, director of library services for the city of Celina. “The monthly discussions build friendships, connections and respect as individual insights are shared in a welcoming environment. … I’ve even noticed the meeting seems to be lasting longer each month as conversations continue beyond the walls of the library.” “We have definitely come into a groove,” said Teri Williams who, along with Celina resident and library Advisory Board member Jennifer Blanco, has been a member of the book club since it began. Williams, who also attends meetings of Gunter Library’s Book Club, founded and helms the Celina-based Bobcat Book Club, which meets monthly at Celina Star Café. “I’ve never been a one-book person,” she said, explaining that she typically tackles two or three tomes at a time. “I like to highlight (passages) … and I take notes to every book club (meeting).” Each month, members of Celina Public Library’s book club submit suggestions for titles to read. Selections are made through a random drawing held during meetings. At the May 17 meeting, book club members will talk about “When Breath Becomes Air,” an autobiographical bestseller about late neurosurgeon-turned-author Paul Kalanithi’s battle with cancer; followed on June 21 by “The Female Persuasion,” a novel by Meg Wolitzer. “I would tell people who are thinking about joining a book club to open your mind,” Williams said, and avoid limiting themselves to certain literary genres. “You’re going to read books you’re not going to like, but if you’re in a good book club, boy, that makes for a fun discussion.”

Creating a dry garden, Las Vegas Review Journal, March 2018

By Lisa Ferguson Special to Your Home March 24, 2018 Maureen Gilmer wants drought-tolerant gardens to be beautiful. Over the past decade, “everything has become so masculinized in the landscape of America, and the emphasis now is on hardscape instead of plants as a more suitable environment for human beings to live within,” said Southern California-based Gilmer, who authors a nationally syndicated newspaper column called “Yardsmart” and has penned 20 gardening books. Home gardeners have been sidetracked by environmental issues, terminology and trends, she said. “I’m a total environmentalist, but I think we’ve gone off the deep end when it comes to residential landscaping. It’s gone so far (that) the general public is confused. … You can’t help the environment unless you know what you’re doing.” Gilmer’s latest tome, “The Colorful Dry Garden: Over 100 Flowers and Vibrant Plants for Drought, Desert &Dry Times” (Sasquatch Books), was published in January. It includes guidelines for transitioning yards to an “arid palette,” as well as hundreds of photos and detailed descriptions of flowering plants and trees that provide the punches of color she and other floral fans crave. “We’ve got drought, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have riotous color, huge flowers (and) all the wildlife they bring,” said Gilmer, whose career in horticulture and landscape architecture spans more than three decades. SPONSORED CONTENT Shaving & Grooming Made Simple by Dollar Shave Club While she agrees that planting in support of pollinators and conserving water — especially in the chronically parched Southwest — is important, Gilmer said both can pose challenges for home gardeners who prefer colorful plants in their yards. “I want them to start gardening the way they want to, not the way other people tell them to. I want your garden to be an expression of you, not some kind of global consciousness.” Many of the trees and plants highlighted in “The Colorful Dry Garden” are likely already familiar to residents of Southern Nevada, where drought-tolerant landscaping is the norm. Chitalpa trees are a staple in the Las Vegas Valley. A hybrid of the American desert willow and the southern catalpa, they can withstand both cold and hot temperatures while producing pretty purple-striped, curly white blossoms. Gilmer, who also writes a weekly self-titled gardening column for the Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs, California, is a big fan of hybrid desert willows. “They’ve got these huge flowers that look like orchids. Some of them are the most incredible shades of magenta red ever, and they bloom all season” before dropping their leaves in late fall, she said. In the spring, “when everything else is slowing down … these little guys kick in with the heat and go, go, go all summer long.” Brandi Eide, a botanical gardens supervisor at the Springs Preserve, also favors desert willows. Although the tree’s persistent seed pods can leave them looking “a little scrappy” at times, for the most part, “they’re incredibly stunning,” she said. “There are things that you can plant year-round that will give you color, whether through flowering or foliage,” Eide said. “You can get a lot of bang for your buck with many plants that are drought tolerant. It might not be something that people think about unless they’re immersed in the plant world, but there are a ton of options.” Fairy dusters (also known as Calliandra eriophylla) are a prime example. The perennial shrub blooms “with these puffy pink or red flowers throughout the warm months, sometimes several times a year. Those are really nice,” she said. The blooms also serve as a food source for hummingbirds and butterflies. Better known as yellow bells, Tecoma stans are native to sandy, dry washes and rocky slopes. They can grow up to 25 feet tall, while hybrid versions range from 3 to 12 feet, and they bloom in a variety of colors, including reds and oranges. Their trumpet-shaped, clustered flowers, which burst forth in late spring and bloom through the winter-holiday season, are a favorite of hummingbirds and mason bees. “They’re going to give you consistent color through the warm months,” said Eide, who also enjoys viewing the yellow-chartreuse flowers produced during winter by gopher plants (Euphorbia rigida), a type of sun-loving, evergreen perennial with low watering requirements. The Idahoensis tree (also known as the Idaho locust), which can reach a height of up to 50 feet, is a hybrid that holds a special place in Gilmer’s heart. Its wisteria-like, rosy-pink blossoms make it “very traditional looking. It’s not Southwestern looking,” despite the fact that it thrives in the heat. “This Robinia (species) can do 100 (degrees) standing on its head. I’ve seen it in really hot climates.” When it comes to plants and shrubs, desert marigolds “look really great” planted among rocks, Gilmer said. She also likes pink muhly grass, which adapts well to sandy, gravely soil; as well as gaura, a perennial that boasts quarter-sized blooms. “That’s one of my new super favorite plants,” she said of the latter. “They’re so animated and light and transparent. That’s what I really love about them.” Gilmer wishes more home gardeners would give the western redbud a try. The tall-growing shrub works well as an accent plant. “It gets a smoky color in the fall, and it’s got these heart-shaped leaves that are so delicate.” The same goes for firecracker plants. The Mexico native’s tube-shaped blooms also attract hummingbirds. “These are fabulous (when grown) in pots because they dip and sag off the edges with these bright coral-colored flowers,” she said. A wide assortment of drought-tolerant plants is available for purchase at the Springs Preserve’s annual spring plant sale, scheduled from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Ironically, Gilmer said, the most important feature of a so-called dry garden is proper irrigation. “A lot of people do their own irrigation, and it results in problems with plants not getting enough (water),” she explained, especially in areas such as Southern Nevada, where caliche-laden soil has an extremely low absorption rate. “If there is drainage, slow-drip (irrigation) is the way to go.” Eide said people often mistakenly believe plants need extra water to compensate for the dry, desert climate. “The goal really is to water deeply and infrequently, so you can encourage those roots to grow down below the hot layers of soil,” where the moisture persists and temperatures aren’t as extreme. “So when we do have those hot, dry summers, (plants) actually can thrive a little bit more easily without the constant application of water.” When transitioning from a traditional garden to a dry one, Gilmer advises taking things slowly. “Do it one plant at a time. … This is an act of love,” she said, and plant choices should come “from the heart. They should be intuitive, be it the flower shape, color, form, season. Once they’re in, you almost hardly have to do anything to them.” Besides enjoy them, that is. “I just want people to walk into their yard and just be blown away at the color and the beauty,” Gilmer said. “If we can get people in love with flowers again, we can really improve the state of gardening in America.”

Celina Library celebrates Dr. Seuss, Celina Record, February 2018

A party for the books: Library celebrates literary great Dr. Seuss Lisa Ferguson, Star Local Media contributor Feb 28, 2018 Celina Public Library will host its fifth annual birthday celebration in honor of legendary children’s author Dr. Seuss at 11 a.m. Saturday at the library, 142 N Ohio St. The party, which has for years served as the library’s largest annual children’s event, will feature a storytelling session, games, character appearances, a craft and light refreshments themed after several of Seuss’ best-known books. It is open to youngsters age infant through grade five and their grownups. Admission is free. Seuss, whose full name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, would have turned 114 years old today. According to biographical information featured on the National Education Association’s website, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author devised the idea for his first children’s book, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” in 1936. The book reportedly was rejected more than two dozen times before finally being published. The library event also coincides with the kick off today of NEA’s annual Read Across America program, which promotes reading motivation and awareness among children. For the celebration, Director of Library Services Linda Shaw plans to reprise her role as the beloved Cat in the Hat character. Having graduated from Baylor University with a degree in music performance, Shaw said she enjoys donning Cat’s trademark red-and-white-striped hat as well as dramatic face makeup to portray the frenetic feline each year. “He’s outrageous. He does what he wants to do. He’s just full of attitude and exuberance and joy in the way he sees the world,” she said of the character. “The Cat in the Hat” is Shaw’s favorite of the 44 children’s tomes that Seuss penned and illustrated prior to his 1991 death. “I like how (Cat) comes in and it’s a rainy day and … just takes over. He wheels in a big box and out come (twin characters) Thing 1 and Thing 2, and the kids’ responses are great,” she said. “There’s a little bit of a message in there about just how much do you obey your parents, and the question of what would you do if the Cat came into your house. It’s just an absolutely fun book to read.” A sizeable selection of Seuss books are displayed year round near the library’s entrance. “Kids go right to them,” Shaw explained of their popularity with young readers. Also, “We have as many of the books as I could get in Spanish because they check out as frequently as those in English.” Seuss’ books “are designed to build reading skills in kids with the rhyming and the silliness of them,” she said. “I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy reading them. He’s even written books that are essentially meant for adults” to appreciate. Youth Services Librarian Lauren Graves said she is partial to 1990’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”, the final Seuss book published during the author’s lifetime. “It’s inspiring,” she said of the story, which has helped earn the book a reputations as a stalwart gift for graduates of all ages. “Life is weird, and things happen. I feel like (the theme) just kind of encompasses that.” Children who attend the library celebration will receive a gift bag filled with reading-related items to take home. “Because when you go to a birthday party,” Shaw said, “usually you leave with a goodie bag.”

Sisters' Clothing line, Park Cities People, February 2018

Family Trips Inspire Sisters’ Clothing Line by Lisa Ferguson February 28, 2018 Christian Elizabeth & Co. offers dainty pastel-hued dresses, rompers, and short suits. (Photo: Emily Duck) A pair of Bluffview-bred sisters aren’t kidding around when it comes to the line of children’s clothing they have designed and recently launched. Christian Elizabeth & Co. is the brainchild of siblings Emily Duck and Kathryn Anderson, both alums of The Episcopal School of Dallas and graduates of SMU. The company’s name is a combination of the women’s respective middle monikers. Its Spring/Summer 2018 collection features what the two describe as “traditional” styles for girls and boys, sizes 3 months through 4T (toddler). Its dainty pastel-hued dresses, rompers, and short suits sport detailed hand-embroidered designs. They range in price from $74-$82 at christianelizabethco.com. Stella Back Bow Swing Set. (Photo: Emily Duck) The clothes are also available at Babies on the Boulevard, a Fort Worth boutique, as well as Bambinos in San Antonio, and the Under the Azalea shop in Huntsville, Alabama. Christian Elizabeth & Co.’s New York-inspired Fall/Winter 2018 collection, represented by Katwalk Kids, was displayed during January’s Dallas Apparel & Accessories Market at the Dallas World Trade Center. The wholesale-industry event was attended by retailers from throughout the country. “With social media these days, we’ve been able to connect with a lot of moms out there who … just love traditional clothing and are willing to pay a little bit more of a premium to get those styles and the hand embroidery,” said 22-year-old Anderson, who resides in the Turtle Creek neighborhood. The Spring/Summer pieces are inspired by family vacations the women took as children to the Florida coast and Colorado mountains with their father, Dallas land developer Charlie Anderson, and mother Shawn Anderson. Best Fishing Sun Suit. (Photo: Emily Duck) Sailboats, starfish, and seashells adorn clothing in the line dubbed Seaside, while cowboy hats, horseshoes, and even fly-fishing lures dot items from the Aspen line. “We spend a ton of time there, and growing up we’d spend all summer and every Christmas” in the small ski town, said Duck, a 29-year-old Lake Highlands mother of two young children. “We recognized that so many Southern families spend the summer in the mountains to escape the heat, and we felt like that was the perfect niche to tap into for this collection because we’ve seen so many cute little kids (there) that clearly are from the South in their little traditional outfits.” The company’s clothes are similar in style to the duds the women said they wore as youngsters. Their shared passion for fashion has blossomed over the years. “We always were really close,” Duck recalled. “I think the age difference actually brought us closer together. We were never competitive or anything, and we were always really each other’s best friend.” Working with her sister “has been fun,” Anderson said. “I feel like we get along really well, and we can always be really honest with each other.”

In a Heartbeat, Forney Living magazine, February 2018

IN A HEARTBEAT BY LISA FERGUSON FORNEY WOMAN CREDITS FIREFIGHTER HUSBAND AND OTHERS FOR SAVING HER LIFE. The fact that Michelle Ray is alive today is nothing short of miraculous. In October, the longtime Forney resident experienced an episode of sudden cardiac arrest, during which she had no heartbeat and did not breathe on her own for more than 15 minutes. Were it not for the quick actions of Forney firefighter—including her husband, David Ray, a lieutenant at Station No. 2—emergency medical technicians and others, she likely would not have survived. That day Michelle and David, who own Hook and Ladder Gutter Company, were working on a gutter-installation job with their employee, fellow Forney firefighter Josh Hillis, at a home in the Winners Circle Estates subdivision. Michelle felt a pain in the middle of her chest and alerted the men she was going to sit down and rest in their company trailer. A few minutes later, she said, David looked up from his work to ask how she was feeling. “Before I could answer him, I was gone,” she said. “I fell straight out of the trailer and onto the ground.” Within seconds David, Hillis, and the homeowner, retired Dallas firefighter Don Cowan, began performing CPR on 53-year-old Michelle. “They did all the compressions, and David did all the breathing,” she explained. Following a 9-1-1 call, Forney Fire Department and Care Flite ambulance crews arrived on the scene and began advanced life-saving measures which included administering medications and oxygen, and shocking her heart with a defibrillator. Forney Fire Department Chief Rick Townsend said the call was “a major concern” for firefighters, not only because most of the first responders that day knew the Rays personally, but also because typically on active CPR situations, “It’s very rare that you revive somebody. We were just very blessed that this came out the way that it did.” Michelle was transported to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Sunnyvale where it was determined a blood clot had lodged in her heart, causing it to stop. During the first few days of her weeklong stay, Forney firefighters were stationed around the clock in the waiting room. She was also visited by members of the Garland Fire Department, for which the couple’s son, Cody Ray, works as a rookie firefighter. “The hospital [staff] wanted to know who the celebrity was,” David joked. “It was just little Michelle.” That firefighters showed such strong support for the couple doesn’t surprise him. “It’s a very close-knit family. You lean on these guys to protect you every single day so that you can go home to your family.” Last December, during an end-of-the-year banquet, several members of the Forney Fire Department who responded to the CPR call involving Michelle were presented Lifesaving Awards, which is one of the department’s highest employee honors. Among them were firefighters from Station No. 1, as well as David Ray and Josh Hillis. Meanwhile, Cowan and the Care Flite ambulance crew were awarded Lifesaving Certificates of Appreciation. “It was just a great group effort by everyone involved,” Townsend said. No one is more grateful than Michelle for the efforts of all involved that day. “We’re very blessed, and we definitely feel like it was a miracle,” she said. “It was a lot of hard work from everybody, doing what they needed to do and knowing the right things to do to take care of me. Between God and the fire department, I am here.”

Mayoral Memories, Our Celina Magazine, February 2018

MAYORAL MEMORIES: LOOKING AT THE PUBLIC, PRIVATE LIVES OF THOSE WHO HAVE LED CELINA By: Lisa Ferguson February 23, 2018 ourcelina Celina Main Street City of Celina When he’s not presiding over city council meetings or otherwise working to lead Celina toward its anticipated future as the second largest city in Collin County, Mayor Sean Terry is a fixture at local businesses, eateries and community events. It’s not unusual to spot him shaking hands with Celina residents at the supermarket or in the downtown square, and answering queries about where our burgeoning burg is headed. Terry’s modern mayoral duties likely are similar to those undertaken by Celina’s previous mayors, each of whom faced their own unique sets of challenges and opportunities while shepherding the city over the last hundred-plus years. Read on to learn more about the lives and times of four of Celina’s former mayors. (Due to incomplete and missing records, the dates of each mayor’s terms in office could not be verified for this article. Howard Lee Bounds (1868-1928) – Born and raised in Celina, Bounds is credited as being the city’s first mayor. A little person and the son of pioneer-settler parents, he was a charter member of the local Christian church and for years led a men’s Sunday school class. In 1900, records show that he was a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Old Celina. According to church records featured in the book “The People of Old Celina Cemetery,” by author Gayle Maxson, “His body was dwarfed, but he had a big heart and a clear head and no citizen of the county had more friends.” Celina was established as a “corporate village” in April 1909. During the first meeting of the city council, Bounds reportedly was installed as mayor and the city’s government was organized. One of the council’s first items of business, according to early city meeting records, was “keeping the city in a sanitary condition” and “providing for working streets.” Bounds died in a Forth Worth hospital on Aug. 1, 1928. Funeral services were held at Celina’s Methodist church, and he was laid to rest at Old Celina Cemetery. Upon his passing, Celina Record newspaper Editor C.C. Andrews wrote: “The familiar form of Lee Bounds will be missed from our streets and the church, the services at which he rarely missed. … There will be sincere grief in this congregation as well as all over this section of the county at his departure.” Bounds was preceded in death by his wife, Claudia Drake Bounds, who was also a little person. James Edgar Ousley (1885-1931) – Also a Celina native, Ousley reportedly served multiple terms as the city’s mayor during the early part of last century. According to records included in the book “Cottage Hill Cemetery, Collin County, Texas,” also authored by Maxson, he was the son of Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Ousley, and attended local public schools before heading to the former Grayson College in Whitewright. For years he was a member of Celina’s Methodist church as well as the Masonic Lodge. During Ousley’s administration, Celina was said to have experienced one of its most progressive eras. The city welcomed natural gas service, as well as round-the-clock electricity service through Texas Power & Light. It’s water system was built, and streets were re-graveled. In records featured in the book, Mayor Ousley is described as having been “broad minded. He would contend for what he believed to be right but held no malice against those who opposed him. … What he did as mayor was open and above board.” Ousley was married to Edna Rooney Graham and the couple had two children. He battled cancer and reportedly sought treatment in New York with a surgeon from the Mayo Clinic. He died on April 21, 1931, while sitting in a chair at his family’s Celina home where he was said to have spent his final hours with family and friends. William Edward “Will” Seitz (1873-1948) – Seitz is probably best remembered locally as a proprietor of the former Patrick & Seitz Hardware store, which opened in 1923. For years the business was housed in a building on Celina’s downtown square, the site of which is now the patio area at Papa Gallo’s Mexican Grill. It was also the scene of a 1932 heist by notorious bank robber Clyde Barrow and a couple of cohorts who stole guns and ammunition during a crime-filled night the trio spent in Celina. A Celina Record article penned around the time of the hardware store’s 25th year in business read: “The Patrick & Seitz Hardware store has been of great service to the farmers and people in general here, furnishing them with anything in the way of hardware or implements close at hand. They carry a large stock of durable and dependable hardware of every kind.” According to 1900 census records, Seitz was a farmer born in Arkansas (although other records list his birthplace as Denton County). He married his first wife, Lissia Elizabeth McGee, in 1898. The Celina Record reported that Seitz arrived in Celina in 1911 and later became its mayor. A prominent member of the local Methodist church, for several years Seitz also was director of First State Bank. For a time, he was chairman of the board of trustees for the Hubbard estate, proceeds from which benefitted the former Alla School that merged with Celina ISD in 1958. Following his wife’s death in 1944, Seitz wed Mary Perry. He died four years later, on Jan. 15, 1948, at age 74 of a heart attack. His funeral was held at First Methodist Church, and he was laid to rest at Old Celina Cemetery. Grover Cleveland Sheets (1884-1975) – Virginia-born Sheets reportedly moved from Plano to Celina in 1912 and established his blacksmith shop on North Louisiana Street, in the building now occupied by Carmela Winery. According to a 1971 Celina Record article: “The shop, which has operated continuously since that date, has metamorphosed into a wondrous place of iron and steel, hardware, nuts and bolts and plumbing supplies and fixtures and you name it. The proprietor of the shop still works at anvil and forge, though he is at times a bit incapacitated by a stiffness in his joints.” Sheets reportedly also lost several fingers due to a planer-machine accident at the business. “Don’t talk to me about the ‘good old days,’” he said in a 1962 interview with the newspaper. “I don’t think the old days compare at all with times now. Why, we used to saw out wagon and cultivator tongues from a piece of 3×12 oak with a hand saw. And if you think that’s not work, you ought to try it. We didn’t have electric lights or power, and we had to do everything the real hard way.” Records indicate that Sheets served as Celina’s mayor from 1947 to 1952. He was also a Celina City Council member for 16 years; spent 50 years as a member of the Masons; was a member of the board of trustees of Collin Memorial Hospital in McKinney; and served a dozen years on the county’s Red Cross board prior to his death on Jan. 8, 1975, at age 91. He is buried at Cottage Hill Cemetery beside his wife, Winnie Larue Sheets.

A Clasp Act, Frisco Style Magazine, March 2018

A “Clasp” Act By Lisa Ferguson - March 1, 2018 I am the epitome of the American dream,” Natalie Mills says while discussing her plans to take the nation’s fashion jewelry industry by storm. “No dream is too big, as long as you are willing to work for it.” As a native of South Africa, who, in 2016, relocated with her family to Plano, she largely credits a combination of street smarts and good old-fashioned gumption for propelling her to household-name status back home with Crystal Creations by Natalie Mills, the jewelry company she founded in 2012. In February, she officially launched the company stateside under the new brand name “Natalie Mills.” She designs its thousands of glittering pieces, including bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings and watches that range in price from $30-$350 and are available at nataliemills.com. “Anything my name is attached to is my baby,” she says. “It is all in your soul, and your soul has to go through to what you touch. That is the only way you are going to deliver excellence — if you have that pride and passion within.” Some of the pieces, including the elegant Plexiglass Aytan bracelet from the Natalie Mills Floating Crystal collection, feature Swarovski® crystals. The transparent quality lends to her idea “that there is beauty within, as well. It is not just on the surface. This is a literal transcending of that. It is art. It is exquisite,” Ms. Mills shares. Ms. Mills is known in South Africa as the “Southern Glam Girl.” She shares, “I am very true to my brand. I am very true to the design and the feel of the pieces.” Ms. Mills, 38, says deals have already been made with national U.S. retailers to begin selling her jewelry. Her company also plans to open its own upscale stand-alone boutiques and eventually will expand its line to include chic handbags it also sells in South Africa. Ms. Mills’ love of jewelry and her desire to become an entrepreneur first surfaced during childhood. Her family, including her parents, who had their own business, vacationed at South African beaches. She collected seashells to take home, string together and sell as jewelry pieces to neighbors. “So, I was a designer and an entrepreneur from the get go,” she says. After completing school, Ms. Mills, who did not attend college, says she emailed the CEO of one of the largest marketing and advertising agencies in the country to ask for a job. In the years since, she has held executive-level positions with various firms and was the editor of a magazine. She worked alongside high-ranking corporate executives and traveled the world before founding her first business at age 25. “It is all street smarts,” she says of her career’s rise. “It is all a result of learning and absorbing from the best.” She also shares, “I really had a passion for bling. I had a passion for shine.” However, when shopping for fashion jewelry, she says, “We would go to the stores and the quality of the pieces was really not good. That is when I saw the gap in the market. Some people cannot afford the really expensive stuff, but the cheaper stuff does not last. When I saw that gap, I launched Crystal Creations.” After designing her take on uber-trendy Shamballa-style beaded bracelets, Ms. Mills secured a contract that put her bracelets on shelves at a major South African department store. “I wanted people to go in and say, ‘I want the Crystal Creations bracelet.’ So, I really developed that brand,” she explains. By harnessing the power of social media, she was able to build the company into “a really formidable brand.” Her wares can now be purchased at numerous South African retailers, as well as at her company’s own beautifully-appointed boutiques there. Natalie Mills’ target audience is the “affluent, aspiring” Tiffany & Co.® client. “The kind of customer who will get to shop at Tiffany’s one day. She cannot afford it yet, but she still wants something beautiful, made with quality, that is not going to cost a fortune.” Ms. Mills is adamant that her jewelry pieces remain accessible. “I want people to feel beautiful and I want to use my gift to make women gorgeous. I wanted my brand to be associated with causes I am passionate about,” she says. This is why, for each Natalie Mills purchase that is made, her company donates a healthy meal to an at-risk or orphaned child in South Africa. She says she is finalizing details that will allow the company to support similar charitable programs in the U.S. Given the challenging economic conditions and high-crime rates that exist in South Africa, Ms. Mills says the time was right to expand her company to the U.S. “I had to make a decision about where to invest my time. In the States, you have a lower unemployment rate and a much higher minimum wage. I feel the products are going to be a lot more accessible to a lot more people,” she explains. She and her husband, Jacques Bronkhorst, who works locally in the real estate industry, and the couple’s young daughter, Tuscany, decided to settle in North Texas based on the region’s current business boom. “There is something about Texans — their hospitality, the way they want to help you and the networking they do for you. It has been phenomenal,” she shares. However, juggling a jewelry empire between two continents is not easy. “Especially because there is a seven-hour time difference,” Ms. Mills says. She also owns a thriving South African real estate business that employees hundreds of people, so, she says, “I find it a lot more challenging than I anticipated.” She credits her team of staffers back home for keeping operations there moving forward. “A good business person knows that when they are establishing any kind of venture, it needs to kind of go into cruise control. I am blessed that I have been able to put my leadership abilities and my work abilities into my team that I left behind so they can continue to build the company. If you are an entrepreneur, you can be an entrepreneur anywhere in the world. If you have something special, then you have something special everywhere in the world.” In recent months, Ms. Mills says she has connected with and sought professional advice from former executives of several of the world’s largest jewelry and watch manufacturers who are helping her pattern it all together and make Natalie Mills an even more effective company. Her business strategy is to align herself with the best to try to become the best. She claims several industry bigwigs have speculated that hers likely will be the next big jewelry brand. Ms. Mills says one executive told her that few times in his life has he met somebody who has the business ability and skill to create a truly successful, sizeable business. Ms. Mills says, “When you hear that and you have made a big career leap, you know you have made the right choice.” From South Africa to North Texas, Ms. Mills has certainly made her mark in the jewelry industry. Time will tell what dreams will become a reality for her next!

Decorating children's space, Las Vegas Review Journal

https://www.reviewjournal.com/life/home-and-garden/70s-are-back-in-childrens-decor/ ’70s are back in children’s decor By Lisa Ferguson Special to Your Home January 13, 2018 - 8:05 am When it comes to pushing the interior design envelope, few spaces in most homes are better suited to receive bright and bold colors, patterns, furniture and accessories than a child’s bedroom. “(Kids) might be in this room for a certain number of hours each day, but their imagination should be able to travel freely” while they are there, said Justina Blakeney, whose bohemian-style, hand-drawn designs are the hallmark of her lifestyle brand, Jungalow. Los Angeles-based Blakeney maintains a wildly popular decorating blog on her website Jungalow.com and boasts a sizable social media following. She has authored a pair of books that provide inspiring ideas and tips for achieving her signature boho-chic style at home, including “The New Bohemians Handbook: Come Home to Good Vibes” (Abrams Books), which was published last fall. Her ever-growing product line is varied — from sofas and chairs to rugs and planters, and even wrapping paper and yoga wear — and is sold online as well as in stores, including Target, Living Spaces and West Elm. Add Pottery Barn Kids to that list. In December, the company began peddling a line of Blakeney-designed bedding, furniture, accessories and gift items for children age newborn through preteen. Pieces range in price from less than $20 for a pillowcase to nearly $1,400 for a twin-size bed. The line includes the same sort of mix-and-match, botanical-heavy prints as the wares she creates for adults, but with a more kid-friendly feel. “My style is so whimsical and colorful, and I incorporate a lot of animals and plants and stuff already. I almost didn’t have to change my style at all,” the 38-year-old Blakeney said recently. For the Pottery Barn Kids line, “it was more about putting things together in a slightly different way, with kids in mind.” Even if youngsters don’t always understand or appreciate the white-hot bohemian aesthetic. “I definitely don’t think they get it in the same way that (adults) get it,” she said. Rather, kids “innately have a personal style, and I think things get sort of formulated more concretely as they grow,” she explained. “But I think that untamedness and that wild side and that unbridled creativity is already there in children.” Blakeney said she hopes the items and spaces she designs for little ones “help to enhance and inspire that creativity.” Her outer space-themed Astronomad collection for Pottery Barn Kids bursts with primary-colored planets and rainbows. Coordinating wallpaper is laden with scads of stars and pairs perfectly with a massive moonscape-textured, wall-mounted lamp that is also available. “It’s that sense of wonder and … exploring the Earth and beyond that I tried to capture,” she said. Meanwhile, Magic Disco Caravan has “sort of this nomadic, Burning Man festival vibe, which I think transcends all ages,” she said. “It’s that feeling of, like, we’re all out in the desert … and we’re dancing, and there’s an infinite amount of stars, and just this feeling of a big party where everyone gets to tap into who they truly are.” Both the Jungalino Nursery and Jungalino Room collections include white quilts adorned with teal palm fronds and sheets printed with fanciful tigers and elephants. The hand-drawn characters featured in an accompanying wall mural are directly inspired by stories about the Glump Glump Forest, a mythical land concocted by Blakeney and her 5-year-old daughter, Ida, who also helped to name pieces for the Pottery Barn Kids line. “I feel like more than a stripe or polka dot could ever do, having these characters that aren’t known characters … really can inspire kids to come up with their own ideas and their own stories,” Blakeney said. “It is really what I hope people get out of this collection.” When decorating a child’s room, parents shouldn’t be afraid to mix things up. “This is a time where you can really have fun and experiment and go a little wild with your kids’ rooms, so I say go for it,” she said. “They’re only little for such a short amount of time.” Blakeney also advises parents to purchase quality furniture and bedding pieces. “When it comes to stuff for kids, they grow out of things so quickly, so you get tempted to buy cheaper stuff or things that won’t last as long,” she said. The items in her collections are designed “to kind of grow with the child, so there’s a non-throw-away element” to them, which also makes them suitable for handing down to other family members. With kids, comfort is key. Blakeney said she thought a lot about the tactile elements of children’s rooms while designing the collection. “The rugs are really plushy, because I know my daughter likes to dig her fingers in and roll around and do gymnastics and be a little wild on the rugs and floors. I think things that have fun textures are really important.” Also, don’t overlook the benefits of fun lighting, she said. “Things that glow in the dark or things that sparkle do create that sense of wonder … and also can help with bedtime” rituals. Jannicke Ramso, owner of the full-service Las Vegas design firm Tiny Little Pads, agrees. Lighting “is so important, but kids don’t realize it,” she said. Parents may wish to equip fixtures in children’s rooms with dimmer switches. “If you’re playing, you need a lot of light. If you’re napping, you barely need light. And at night, it all changes.” Ramso designs high-end nurseries as well as bedrooms, playhouses and play spaces for infants through preteens. (As part of her company’s services, she also plans parties and other events for youngsters.) Before beginning an interior design project, she tries to meet with parents and kids in person or via FaceTime or Skype to learn more about them and gather their suggestions for the space. “Designing is creativity, and that’s what kids are all about. They are so inspirational,” Ramso said. “You just have to present it to them in the right way — that we are creating something — and get their ideas.” It is important for a child’s room to reflect “the uniqueness of the kid, whatever that is,” she explained. “What are they into? What do they like? What makes them happy?” A child’s bedroom design “is a part of how they grow up and how they’re influenced — how they keep it tidy, how they keep it messy,” Ramso said. “All of these things reflect their personality and their changing world as they grow.” Ramso’s background is in hospitality design. A firm for which she previously worked designed award-winning interiors at Strip casinos, including the Encore, as well as nightclubs, bars, restaurants, retail spaces and spas locally and around the world. A mother of two children (her third child is due this spring), she said the muted colors and the butterfly-adorned upholstered wall that were in her eldest daughter’s nursery were inspired by Encore designs. For the room’s chandeliered ceiling, she created a multicolored, faux-carousel canopy that paid homage to the Parasol Down lounge at Wynn Las Vegas. The ceiling of a child’s room is “a blank canvas” that often goes overlooked, Ramso said. “Babies and kids spend a lot of time in bed. It’s another outlet for something fun and to be creative.” She also enjoys mixing modern pieces with vintage accessories in nurseries and children’s rooms. “That goes back to the (child’s) uniqueness. … It’s not just about going out to stores and buying brand-new everything,” Ramso said. “We all have a story. A baby doesn’t have a story yet, but there are always pieces that have been in the family, and there is a story behind them. I always like to incorporate that into a design.” ADVERTISING

Learning Through Letters - Preston Hollow People

Learning Through Letters by Lisa Ferguson · April 2, 2017 Second-grade pen pals from Walnut Hill Elementary and Lamplighter School get to know each other in person after exchanging monthly hand-written letters. Less than 3 miles separate Walnut Hill Elementary School and The Lamplighter School, but it’s far enough to keep students from knowing each other if not for an old-fashioned exercise in communication. Since last fall, dozens of second-grade students from both schools have been communicating with one another via handwritten letters that they exchange monthly to learn more about their daily lives and interests. The pen pal exercise is one facet of ongoing literacy-building efforts happening at the campuses, courtesy of United 2 Learn, an action network of the Commit! 2 Dallas Partnership, which works to create educational and leadership opportunities for local students. Walnut Hill, a century-old Dallas ISD public school, and Lamplighter, a private school, have both participated in the Commit! partnership for several years, through which Lamplighter has donated books and money to Walnut Hill, explained Vicki Raney, assistant head of academics at Lamplighter. “We had been giving them things, but it was sort of a one-way relationship,” she said. Second-graders last year had also exchanged pen pal letters, but on an infrequent basis. Letter writing is a good way to teach youngsters how to write “for purpose,” Raney said. “Second grade is really the time to learn the format [of a personal letter] — the date and ‘Dear So and So,’ and the closing.” While it may be more convenient these days to send a quick email or text, she said having students craft missives in longhand “really increases their literacy skills” by encouraging them to “design what they want to say.” Walnut Hill Elementary Principal R. Chase McLaurin called letter writing a lost art. “It’s something that’s unique for the kids to actually experience that.” Last fall, school administrators at both campuses decided to ramp up the students’ interactions. In October, Lamplighter invited Walnut Hill’s second-graders to its campus to attend an assembly featuring Matt de la Peña, author of the Newbery Medal-winning children’s book Last Stop on Market Street. The students “sat and read the book, and they talked, and we had some literacy activities,” Raney recalled. It was the first opportunity they’d had to meet their pen pals, with whom they’d been randomly matched. “You couldn’t tell the difference between the kids. Private school [or] public school — they all looked alike,” she said. “They all had fun. They were all reading.” Since students have been able to put faces to their pen pals’ names, their letters have lengthened and developed in content in recent months. “We want them to kind of think outside the box,” explained Lamplighter teacher Lakeshia Peters, “not just to ask, `What did you do this weekend?’ but to get to know this person — how many children are in their family, what does a family vacation look like for them. … We know that’s different for everybody.” McLaurin said, “The writing that they’re sending back and forth to one another has remarkably improved because they … have a real relationship to talk about.” In January, Lamplighter’s second-graders boarded DART buses and rode to Walnut Hill, where they participated in additional literacy activities and received a campus tour. “Even though we’re just another school, to them this was exciting,” McLaurin said. “This is a place they had never been before.” That same month, the second-grade teachers from both schools met at Lamplighter to kick off a partnership of their own that includes an ongoing exchange of curriculum ideas and learning strategies for the students. After learning that cursive writing is taught at Lamplighter, longtime Walnut Hill teacher Diane James said she and her colleagues may soon add it to their own lesson plans. “I think it’s good to share ideas and hear what other [educators] are doing,” she said. Abigail Williams, executive director of United 2 Learn, said the partnership between Lamplighter and Walnut Hill is a shining example of why the organization was founded. “We all have something to learn from each other, to gain from each other,” she said, “and we all need to be invested in public education in our city, in our community.” Raney said she and McLaurin are “just thrilled” about what has transpired between their schools, students, and teachers, and plan to further expand their interaction with additional field trips and, of course, more letter writing. “These kids know each other,” she said, “and we want to continue the relationship these kids have.”

Williams Elementary School Sounding Better to Students - Preston Hollow People

Williams Elementary School Sounding Better to Students by Lisa Ferguson · April 23, 2017 The halls at Sudie L. Williams Elementary School echo with the familiar sounds of teachers explaining lessons and students answering queries. However, it is only because of the school’s unique Oral Deaf Education program that dozens of students on campus are able to hear those questions at all. Williams has long served students with auditory impairments in kindergarten through fifth grade. It is the only school in Dallas ISD that utilizes additional teachers and special technology to improve students’ access to grade-specific curriculum and instruction. Students with a range of issues, including physical deformities that affect their ability to hear, travel to Williams daily from throughout the district and as far away as Farmers Branch and Carrolton to attend the school. “We service a special population, because we have the special tools to do so, but all kids are special,” said Principal Michael Jackson. Beginning last year, a greater emphasis has been placed on including auditory-impaired students in more general education programs at the school, rather than routinely pulling them from classes to receive specialized instruction in reading, he said. Each classroom at Williams is helmed by a pair of teachers — a general education and a special education instructor — who teach in tandem. They also don personal frequency modulation systems that use radio waves to deliver speech signals to students who wear hearing aids and cochlear implants. The technology, which syncs with the students’ hearing devices, provides students better access to sound and allows them to use their listening and speaking skills rather than sign language when interacting with each other and their teachers. As a result, most of the school’s 40 auditory-impaired students are able to participate in a typical classroom setting alongside their 200-plus hearing classmates. “We really do try to urge an inclusive environment, so the kids are getting on-grade-level instruction just like their peers are,” Jackson said. It can be difficult for some students who experienced a delay in being identified as having auditory issues early in their lives or academic careers to adjust. “They have had to make it the best way that they could with the tools that they had, so they read lips, and they’ll come up with ways to make it,” he explained. Now, he said, it’s up to the teachers at Williams to use “diverse instructional strategies in order to bring those kids into the fold of understanding.” The Oral Deaf Education program is “driven by teachers who are super passionate” about giving the students “not only access to instructional material, but also to self-advocacy,” Jackson said. For example, students are responsible for keeping track of and maintaining their own hearing devices. (Photo: Tanner Garza) (Photo: Tanner Garza) “You have to make sure that you wear it every day, check your batteries and all that,” explained fifth-grader Aaron Caracheo, who transferred to Williams last year from another school. Jackson said all of the students on campus take the Oral Deaf Education program seriously. “If a child loses a hearing aid, everybody is scrambling to find it,” he explained. “Think about the level of consciousness the students have to have. They’re not just thinking about themselves. They know that a student won’t have as much access to [instruction] because they don’t have a hearing aid.” With the help of technology, 10-year-old Carecheo said he can better hear the teacher than at his previous school, where “it was tricky. … I had to ask the teacher again and again if she could repeat” information. Special education teacher Molly Browning said Williams’ auditory-impaired students “are being pushed more. We are not pulling them out [of class]. We’re not saying, `You can’t do this.’ We’re saying, `You can do this, we’re gonna help.’ ” Jackson agrees. “We push these kids as hard as we push everybody else. There’s no differentiation in terms of what the expectations are. And they rise up to the challenge. It’s pretty awesome.”

Shakespeare Camp - Preston Hollow People

Get Thee To Camp Shakespeare by Lisa Ferguson · April 29, 2017 Campers will learn stage fighting, acting, auditioning, and other skills. Sessions end with Shakespeare performances. (Courtesy Shakespeare Dallas) Not every child wants to spend summer break studying the works of William Shakespeare. But those who do often surprise Julie Osborne-Watts. “Shockingly, [it is] a lot of different kids,” said Osborne-Watts, education and outreach manager for Shakespeare Dallas, which draws youths ages 2-12 from varied backgrounds and interests to participate each year in its Camp Shakespeare program. Since 2015, the program has used some of The Bard’s most famous plays to teach theater arts to students. About 50 students are expected to attend this year’s pair of day-camp sessions, scheduled June 19-30 and July 10-14 at the Covenant School of Dallas. While some students who attend are aspiring thespians, others “have never seen a play in their life, have never acted in a play,” Osborne-Watts said. Many would-be campers learn about Camp Shakespeare when adult actors from Shakespeare Dallas’ touring productions perform at area schools as part of the nonprofit organization’s educational programming. “We talk to the kids all the time about how The Lion King is based on Hamlet, and how in tons of Disney movies you see references to Shakespeare,” she said. “We try to … let them know that Shakespeare really has impacted the society that we live in and the world that we live in.” That includes language. While adults can be intimidated by Shakespeare’s words, Osborne-Watts said children tend not to balk at them. “They haven’t learned to fear the language, so to them it’s not a scary thing. They really embrace the language. It’s easy for them to pick up and learn.” This summer, students in grades 2-6 will participate in a program called All the World’s a Stage. They’ll learn acting basics, including vocal and improvisation skills, while portraying characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In July, as part of the Midsummer Madness camp, the young children and tweens will receive instruction in the art of stage combat when they suit up in fencing gear and battle each other using foils. “It’s a really fun experience for the kids,” Osborne-Watts said, adding that stage combat is present throughout Shakespeare’s plays. “It’s a great way for those who want to continue on in performing to get a start with that.” (Courtesy Shakespeare Dallas) (Courtesy Shakespeare Dallas) Students in grades 7-12 enrolled in The Play’s the Thing camp will participate in an in-depth study of Twelfth Night as they pare down the five-act piece to just one act. “It definitely is a big undertaking,” Osborne-Watts said. Twelfth Night was selected because it touches on the hot topic of bullying, she said. “We wanted to talk about that and focus on that. It’s also a fun comedy, so that’s another way to engage students through laughter.” What Dreams May Come camp is designed for tweens and teens who want to pursue stage acting in high school and college productions, or possibly as a profession. Auditioning for theater productions “is not an easy skill,” she said. “It’s definitely a learned skill, and it’s very different than acting, so we try to help them out and give them some hands-on skills and tools that they can use.” Each Camp Shakespeare session concludes with a performance for the players’ parents at Samuell Grand Amphitheater. Besides providing an unusual summertime activity, the camp may also prove academically beneficial, Osborne-Watts said. “We try to tell parents when you give students artistic opportunities … the test scores get better, grades get better.” Acting can also help boost kids’ self-confidence while encouraging them to think creatively and reinforcing the importance of teamwork. Last summer, she said, “We had several students who, on the first day, were afraid to open their mouths. The idea of getting on a stage in front of other people was terrifying to them. By the end they were saying, ‘I want to be an actor when I grow up.’” (Courtesy Shakespeare Dallas)

Eva Brandys - Preston Hollow People

Polish Pianist Promises Personal Performance by Lisa Ferguson · May 15, 2017 As owner of Park Cities School of Music, 41-year-old Eva Brandys can’t imagine subjecting her students to the sort of rigid and rigorous practice regimen she endured as a child studying piano in communist-era Poland. She began playing at age 8 under the tutelage of a professor who often hit her hands as a form of discipline. Another “yelled and screamed and swore at me,” she recalled. “The vocabulary he was using I probably should not have heard at my age.” Brandys would practice for up to a dozen hours each day, sometimes until her fingers bled from exposure to the cold temperatures inside the aged building’s unheated classrooms. To combat the chill, she’d dangle her hands above steaming cups of tea stationed at both ends of the keyboard. “You just had to grow a thick skin,” she explained. “No one cared that you cried.” Yet Brandys credited that tough training for helping her achieve the success she enjoys today as an accomplished musician who has performed around the world, as well as her triumphs as a businesswoman. On June 4, Brandys will co-headline the Polish Crossroads Piano Concert at Sammons Center for the Arts. The homage to Polish folk music will also feature Poland native Liam Furdyna. The Dallas-based pianist will play a concerto by Frederic Chopin, as well as an original piece penned by Brandys that the two will perform together. Violinist Mark Landson, founder and director of the Open Classical performing arts organization in Dallas, will also take the stage. “It’s the music of native people,” Brandys explained. In Poland and throughout Europe, “People from the villages and from the countryside have their own type of music and melodies that are very recognizable.” Brandys grew up not far from Krakow, Poland. In 1997, years after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, she received a full scholarship to study music at Dallas Baptist University. Following graduation, she attended SMU and earned a master’s degree in music pedagogy and education. For a while she worked at Dallas/Music, a school formerly located in Snider Plaza, where she learned about the business side of music. From there, she decided to open her own performing arts schools. In 2010, Brandys founded Park Cities School of Music on Inwood Road. These days, she spends most of her time there as a music mentor for teachers and students. Nearly a year ago, she co-founded and became director of Lakewood Conservatory of Fine Arts on Gaston Avenue. Her business endeavors do not come without challenges. Teaching music to today’s technology-obsessed kids is particularly trying, she said. “Here, suddenly instead of looking at a computer screen, you’re looking at the old-fashioned sheet of music, and you have to create a sound. It’s actually something that if you don’t play the keys in a certain way, it will sound bad … so it’s really interesting how it needs to be taught.” Her primary focus at both schools, she said, is “making sure … [students] understand that making music and creating the sound is more than playing notes. It’s actually within you not to be afraid to show those emotions, not to be afraid to express yourself.” Brandys practices what she preaches. “Whenever I write something, it’s something personal — almost like a biography, but it’s in music. Instead of words, you have notes,” she explained. Late last year she released her first album, self-titled Eva, which she will perform at the Polish Crossroads concert. One of the tunes, called Far Away, was penned shortly after she arrived in North Texas. “I had just come to this country and I was extremely homesick, and [the song] was inspired by that,” she recalled. “I was imagining myself landing back in Krakow and just seeing the landscape.” Brandys’ music is “emotionally charged because it is written from the heart based on my experiences,” she said. It has even brought tears to the eyes of audience members at some of her performances. “It’s just the most touching thing ever to see that.”

How Does Sudie L. Williams’ Garden Grow? - Preston Hollow People

How Does Sudie L. Williams’ Garden Grow? by Lisa Ferguson · May 24, 2017 Students are growing lettuce, squash, corn, herbs, and other crops. (Photo: Tanner Garza) At Sudie L. Williams Elementary School, sounds of chickens clucking compete with those of children romping on the playground. A sizeable coop tucked beside the school building holds nine-egg laying hens with names such as Curly Toes, Pepper, and Cruella de Vil. The sturdy structure is part of a large educational garden, complete with several raised planter beds and a covered outdoor classroom. Students and teachers make daily visits to tend to an array of flowering plants, vegetables, and herbs grown there, and to care for the chickens as part of lessons in science, math, reading, and language arts. “They can apply almost every subject out here,” explained William Gatlin, a fifth-grade teacher at Williams who manages the garden. With help from other teachers, students, and parents, he also waters, plants, and feeds the hens on weekends and school breaks. Students “love the chickens because they can come out and talk to them,” and give their feathered friends mealworms as snacks, Gatlin said. “They’re learning responsibility. It’s teaching them to resolve issues, to work things out, to work together.” The same applies to time spent in the organic garden, which was established in 2015 with a grant from REAL School Gardens. The organization, which has offices in Washington, D.C., and Fort Worth, designs and builds educational gardens at low-income schools to boost student engagement and academic achievement. With additional funding from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, an open grass field on the Williams campus was transformed into the garden, which was largely designed by the school’s then-fourth-grade students. “They left us with onions and potatoes, and that’s what we started with,” Gatlin said of the garden’s earliest crops. These days, students also grow lettuce, cabbage, squash, corn, jalapeños, bell peppers, and a variety of herbs, including spearmint, rosemary, Mexican sage, and garlic chives. And students can sample most of the food they harvest. “It’s amazing how many of the kids will actually try [the produce] even though they know they probably won’t like it,” Gatlin said. “I’ve seen kids … who say they don’t like tomatoes, but we’re like, `Try it,’ and they’re like, `It’s not so bad.’ ” Potatoes have proven to be a particularly successful crop for the students. Last year, they donated 17 pounds of spuds to local churches. In the future, Gatlin hopes produce from the garden will make its way into meals in the school’s cafeteria. “My goal is to take what we grow and move it inside,” he said. The garden also features compost and rainwater collection bins, a tool shed, a pair of fruit trees, a wildflower garden, and a trickling pond. Because of the milkweed plants, which are critical to monarch butterflies, the space has been registered as a waystation for the winged creatures that migrate through Texas twice annually. “The kids will watch the bees work, and they’ll talk about pollination,” Gatlin said. Having learned about scientific processes indoors, “They’re able to apply it in the garden. It’s amazing how it just happens on its own.” (Photo: Tanner Garza) For many Williams students living in apartments, the school garden is as close as they get to having a backyard of their own. “This is the only chance for them to actually see where food comes from,” Gatlin explained. “When they first saw a potato pop out of the ground, they were like, `What is that?’ … It really amazes them to see their plants grow.” Principal Michael Jackson grew up in the neighborhood. “It really is a situation where kids don’t have a yard to play in,” he said. By tending the garden, “They get to see things grow, and that’s cool, because they’re our little seedlings.”

Girl hopes for better birthdays - Park Cities People

Girl Hopes for Better Birthdays by Lisa Ferguson · May 25, 2017 Diyaa Shah was taken by ambulance to Children’s Medical Center of Dallas on June 2, 2016, where she spent the night in the ICU being poked and prodded while undergoing a battery of emergency tests. It also happened to be her 11th birthday. A couple of days later, the University Park girl and her family learned she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. “I didn’t look scared, but on the inside I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have cancer,’ so I was scared,” Diyaa (pronounced Dee-ya) recalled. So began the tween’s yearlong cancer battle, which included numerous rounds of chemotherapy and several hospitalizations for related ailments, like her serious bout last fall with lung infections and acute heart failure. “She was critically sick,” explained her mother Kejal. “To be honest, we didn’t know if she was going to make it.” Since that lengthy hospital stay, Diyaa has for the most part been on the road to recovery as her cancer has gone into remission. Earlier this year she was selected to participate in the 29th annual Children’s Cancer Fund Gala (CCF), a fundraiser for pediatric oncology research and treatment programs, held in April at the Hilton Anatole Hotel. The event featured live and silent auctions, as well as a children’s fashion show. More than $1 million was raised for the organization. Diyaa and 15 other young cancer patients served as runway models during the fashion show. She was outfitted head-to-toe in fancy clothing and shoes, with professionally styled makeup and nails, before she was escorted to the catwalk by radio and television personality Amy Vanderoef. “Once I got onstage I felt more comfortable,” Diyaa said of her time in the spotlight. Executive director of development for CCF Jennifer Arthur said, “There are so many amazing children that we have an opportunity to serve, and Diyaa is definitely one of our shining stars, so we were thrilled to invite her to walk the runway.” At the event, Diyaa also rubbed elbows with Dallas Cowboys legends Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach, who served as honorary chairmen. In advance of the gala, she and Aikman were featured together on CCF billboards throughout Dallas. Meeting other children with cancer at the gala was a good experience for Diyaa, her mother said. “With childhood cancer you realize, once your child has it, it’s not that uncommon.” Kejal and her husband, Rinoo, are both doctors. Despite that, neither recognized that their daughter was ill until Diyaa’s grandfather, a New Jersey pediatrician, noticed during his visit for her birthday that she looked pale. “He realized that something was not right,” Kejal recalled. He immediately ordered blood tests for Diyaa, which revealed that she was severely anemic. Following a trip to a local emergency room, Diyaa was transferred to Children’s Medical Center’s ICU and underwent extensive blood testing and a bone marrow biopsy before being diagnosed with ALL, the most common type of childhood cancer. It has about a 90 percent cure rate. Her chemotherapy treatments began soon after and went well for a couple of months, Kejal said, until Diyaa experienced severe complications beginning in September. During a six-week hospital stay, she was put on a ventilator to breathe and took a pair of medications that maintained her blood pressure. “I was really scared. I would cry. I would want my mom and dad to be there all night, so it was hard,” Diyaa said. “We just prayed,” Kejal recalled. “And she fought it.” As a sixth-grader at McCulloch Intermediate School, Diyaa kept up with schoolwork throughout her treatment through Highland Park ISD’s Homebound Program. “I didn’t want to [have to] stay back a grade,” she said. Diyaa is looking forward to starting seventh grade in the fall at Highland Park Middle School. But before school starts, she is planning a big celebration for her 12th birthday, which this year will hopefully take place away from the hospital. “I want to have a party … with seven of my good friends,” Diyaa said, “And I also want to celebrate it with my family and go out to dinner.”

Dallas mandates pet microchipping - Park Cities Peoplr

Dallas Mandates Pet Microchipping by Lisa Ferguson · August 31, 2017 Candy Evans knows firsthand the heartbreak that can result when a family pet goes missing. The longtime Preston Hollow resident remembered feeling distraught when, more than two decades ago, her dog Buffy, a golden retriever-Irish setter mix, escaped from home. “We thought she was gone” for good, Evans recalled. However, days later, she received a phone call from someone who had found the dog miles away in Carrollton and used information from its registration tags to reunite the pooch and her owner. Back then, pet identification in the form of microchips did not yet exist. In the years since, Evans has made it a point to have each dog she has owned outfitted with the devices. “I’d microchip my grandchildren if I could,” she joked. In June, Dallas City Council enacted an ordinance that mandates microchipping for all dogs and cats 4 months of age and older. About the size of a grain of rice, microchips are injected beneath animals’ skin. When scanned with a special reader, they reveal a code belonging to one of several companies that maintain national databases and store pet owners’ contact information. The city’s microchipping ordinance replaces the requirement for pet owners to register their four-legged friends annually. Those who registered or renewed a registration within the past year are not required to have their pets chipped until the registration expires. “We had low compliance with the registration. It really wasn’t doing what was intended,” said Gabrielle Vannini, spokesperson for Dallas Animal Services, which implants microchips for $15. They are also administered at private veterinary offices, which typically charge around $50. In 2016, DAS microchipped 12,113 animals that were either adopted from its shelter on North Westmoreland Road or brought to the facility by their owners to undergo the procedure. Between January and early August of this year, it chipped 9,176 animals. Besides assisting DAS in identifying animals that arrive at the shelter, Vannini said mandatory microchipping may also help alleviate the loose-dog epidemic that plagues some parts of the city, particularly South Dallas, where thousands of canines reportedly roam neighborhood streets. “There’s obviously not one thing that’s going to solve a loose-dog problem, but this is something that I think is going to really help,” she said. The ordinance will be enforced when a pet is caught by animal-control officers on city streets and is impounded. “If your dog comes in [to the shelter] and it’s not chipped, you will be cited and fined for that,” she explained, adding that penalties will be determined by a judge. North Dallas has not experienced a problem with numerous stray dogs inhabiting area streets. “I think a lot of the dogs you’re going to be seeing out there tend to be owned,” Vannini said, “so having a microchip and being able to get them back to their owner, and educate their owner on ways to keep the dog inside and not roaming, are going to be the positive effects.” Dr. Mike Escobedo of Cornerstone Animal Clinic said he has not experienced an uptick in requests for microchips since the ordinance went into effect, likely because more than 75 percent of his four-legged patients already have them. “These are responsible pet owners and they’re going to do it if we recommend it,” which doctors at the Preston Road clinic have done for years, he explained. “At our practice, we’re very lucky. We’re going into [exam] rooms and doing annuals [examinations] and talking to owners and finding out, ‘Oh, you’re already microchipped.’”

Filling in the gaps - Frisco Style magazine

Filling in the Gaps By Lisa Ferguson - October 1, 2017 The thought of a trip to the dentist’s office can send some people into a panic. Maybe it is the ominous whirring sound of the drill or the sight of sharp, pointy probes that puts them on edge. It may help ease petrified patients’ nerves to learn that dental professionals are, by and large, an empathetic lot. Many donate their time and expertise to help those in need by volunteering with charitable organizations in their communities and throughout the world. A past president of the North Texas Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Donald Nix, D.D.S. opened his practice in 1984. “I enjoy the challenges of surgery, the intricacies of surgery and doing a good job,” the longtime Frisco resident shares. “When the patient is pleased with the result and they are happy they came to you, that is very rewarding.” Also rewarding, he says, is the charitable work he has performed throughout his career, which has included traveling on a dozen medical mission trips to countries including Russia, India, Mexico, Guatemala and Panama to provide much-needed dental care to impoverished residents. “They are so overwhelmed by your generosity … they just cannot express their gratitude enough,” he shares. Earlier this year, he traveled to Jamaica to perform surgeries, accompanied by his registered nurse and wife, Cathy. While there, he mentored a group of students from the Baylor University College of Dentistry in Dallas. For more than a decade, Dr. Nix has volunteered his time with and been a major sponsor of the Smiles Charity. Founded by McKinney orthodontist, Dr. Jennifer Buchanan, the organization builds homes for wounded military veterans and their families. With Dr. Nix’s support, Smiles Charity has funded a dozen homes for deserving families. “We could not make the dream of home ownership a reality for our veterans without his help,” Dr. Buchanan shares. She added that, over the years, Dr. Nix has also donated his oral surgery skills to veterans in need. For several years, Smiles Charity partnered with Habitat for Humanity to complete the abodes. Dr. Nix swung hammers and assisted with other construction-related duties at home sites. “It is a tremendous organization,” he says. “It is just wonderful to be able to give to these veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.” As the son of one of the first orthodontists to practice in Dallas during the 1950s, John Wise, D.D.S., continued his family’s tradition when he opened his own practice, Wise Orthodontics, in Frisco in 1992. Having formerly served as president of the North Texas Dental Society, as well as the Frisco Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Wise is accustomed to giving back to the community. In 2001, he co-founded and for five years chaired the Rite to Smile Foundation, which raises funds to improve dental care access for members of underserved populations throughout the area. He also previously co-chaired the Texas chapter of Smiles Change Lives, a national foundation for orthodontists to volunteer their time and facilities and provide services at discounted rates to qualified children whose families cannot otherwise afford it. “We just want to eliminate as many barriers as we can to getting this life-changing care,” he explains, adding that he treats several pro bono patients annually through the foundation. Also in 2001, Dr. Wise joined the Texas Dental Association’s Smile Foundation and later served on the board of the organization, which operates the Mission of Mercy mobile clinic that provides free basic dental care throughout the state to people with limited resources. Two years later, he helped found the North Texas Dental Society’s Give Kids a Smile Day, an offshoot of a national program sponsored by the American Dental Association. Locally, the annual event provides more than 100 needy children with dental screenings, X-rays, cleanings and treatments that are performed by professionals who volunteer their time and services. Dr. Wise says about his view on charitable work, “A lot has been given to me, and I see the need for these things. It is really uplifting, almost a spiritual type of feeling you get by helping these people who do not expect it.” Going on a two-year church mission trip to Spain during college cemented in Jared K. Corbridge, D.D.S., the principle of service to others. “I feel like I learned to love people from all different backgrounds, situations, viewpoints — everything,” he shares. A magna cum laude graduate of Brigham Young University, he attended the University of California Los Angeles School of Dentistry before moving with his family to Dallas in 2007 to study orthodontics at Baylor’s College of Dentistry. He opened his practice four years later. Dr. Corbridge is a member of both the American Dental Association and the American Association of Orthodontists. For several years, he has volunteered his services for the North Texas Dental Society’s Give Kids a Smile Day. A few years ago, during the event, he examined a teenage patient who attended with her mother. Fluent in Spanish, as a result of his mission trip, he bonded with the bilingual teen and ended up offering her orthodontic services free of charge. “Their eyes welled up,” he recalls. “You just get the chills and you think, ‘Man, it is so cool that I get to do this.’” Corbridge Orthodontics hosts an annual food drive benefitting Frisco Family Services. Each fall, the practice sponsors a pumpkin-decorating contest, during which the doctor challenges other local dental professionals to adorn pumpkins that are donated to the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas, which tends to families of seriously ill and injured children as they undergo medical treatment. “That is a fun thing we do,” Dr. Corbridge shares. “That is how service is. They call it a sacrifice, but you definitely get the blessing from it.” After graduating in 1988 from the Institute of Health Sciences in Colombia, Margarita Correa, D.D.S., worked for more than a decade as a dentist in Medellin, the nation’s second-largest city, before relocating to the U.S. in 2000. She earned her dental surgery degree through the International Dentist Program at California’s Loma Linda University before moving to North Texas in 2007. Two years later, she opened her practice, Prisma Dental, located near Toyota Stadium. Dr. Correa, a lifelong fan of soccer, soon began treating some of the players and eventually became FC Dallas’ dentist. As a member of the Illinois-based Academy for Sports Dentistry, she also belongs to the recently-formed Association of Dentists for Professional Soccer, which works to improve the quality of treatment received by professional Major League Soccer players. In 2008, she became a founding board member of the North Texas chapter of the Hispanic Dental Association, which awards scholarships to local students and raises funds to provide dental services for members of local Hispanic communities in need. As head of the chapter’s social committee, four years ago, she created the annual Soccer Smiles Tournament. The event raises funds to help low-income families receive preventative dental care, education and treatments. About 40 children (many of them from needy families) and 40 adults competed in the 2016 tournament, which raised about $8,000. This year, the fourth annual tournament, also a great success, took place on September 23. “It is a really great event,” she says. “Even though it is a competition, it is a friendly environment.” Last year, through her practice, Dr. Correa collected items benefitting the Operation Care International organization. Earlier this year, she donated to and collected funds for victims of a devastating landslide in Mocoa, Colombia. More recently, she has accepted donations on behalf of poverty-stricken residents of Venezuela. “I always try to be in contact with the community and help who needs it,” she shares. Frisco is known for its unique residents who generally go above and beyond to better the lives of those around them. The professionals at local businesses who give it their all and give back to others make this community truly great. Next time you find yourself at the dentist, ask some questions. You never know the story your dentist or orthodontist may have to share.