Wednesday, August 15, 2018, marked our 27th annual Back-to-School Celebration, which helped provide nearly 600 local children and youth living in motels, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and other transitional living sites with the backpacks, supplies, clothing and confidence they need to head back to school confident and prepared for success!
This year’s event was presented by the MoneyGram Foundation and featured appearances from FC Dallas players and free vision screenings from Prevent Blindness Texas. The celebration was hosted at Dallas Market Center’s Market Hall, and special words of appreciation go to Dimiti Collins and Gary Gabriel for providing such a wonderful space for us!
This year’s event would not have been possible without the support of many generous donors! First, we’d like to thank the MoneyGram Foundation for presenting the main event. Our gratitude also goes out to the Elsie & Marvin Dekelboum Family Foundation and the Women of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church for their generosity and continued support of the children we serve. We are also grateful for The Dallas Market Center for partnering with us for nearly 25 years to host this event and Kevin Orzen from Global Experience Specialists for providing tables for the event.
Additionally, HUGE kudos go to all the individual and corporate donors who donated backpacks and school supplies for the children! In particular, we’d like to thank Markel Corporation, Dallas Women’s Foundation, Aimbridge Hospitality, ORIX Foundation, Bank of America, Texas Instruments and Brennan’s Heart for their exceptional generosity.
This year’s event was extra special for the children thanks to the generosity of KIDBOX Delivering Good! Each child got to go shopping for their very own new after-school outfit and a little something for their baby siblings, too. The children LOVED getting to make their own independent choice of what to wear, and we are so grateful to KIDBOX Delivering Good for making this special experience possible for hundreds of children living in transition.
Finally, we are grateful to have the support of so many wonderful volunteer groups who helped make our 27th annual Back-to-School Celebration smooth, successful and special for the children we serve! We’d like to thank the following volunteer groups and individuals for their time and generosity: Attorneys Serving the Community’s Beth Bedell and Jessica O’Neill, BVA Group and Stephen Jaquess, Citi, DLA Piper, Heart of Texas Therapy Dogs, Holy Smokers Men’s Group, Markel Corporation, MoneyGram Foundation, National Charity League (Preston Bluebonnet, Plano, Golden Corridor and Turtle Creek chapters), ORIX Foundation, Southwest Airlines, Team Networking, USI, Young Men’s Service League (Plano, Highland Park and North Dallas chapters), Rainbow Days Board of Directors, and many more!