ACH establishes national advisory panel on foster care ACH Child and Family Services in Fort Worth formed a national advisory panel to lead the state’s Foster Care Redesign initiative through its newly created division, Our Community Our Kids. In 2013, as part of a statewide foster care redesign effort, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services selected ACH as a contractor to oversee the delivery of foster care services in Tarrant, Palo Pinto, Parker, Johnson, Hood, Somervell and Erath counties. Oversight and accountability for foster care providers in that network are managed by Our Community Our Kids. ACH has named to the advisory panel Richard Barth, dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland; Glen Casel, president and chief executive officer of Community Based Care of Central Florida; and Carole Shauffer, senior director of the Youth Law Center in San Francisco and co-creator of the national Quality Parenting Initiative project.
Texas Rangers go to bat for kids The Texas Rangers will host a new children’s holiday event, Searching for Santa, at Globe Life Park in Arlington on Dec. 13 and Dec. 22. The event will include a buffet breakfast, games and activities, a holiday movie and the “search for Santa” at six different locations throughout the ballpark. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. both days and there will be six seating times for breakfast between 9 and 11:30. Tickets are $55 for adults and $40 for children ages 4 to 12. Children ages 3 and under are free of charge. For information and tickets visit texasrangers.com/santa. The Rangers kicked off the 2014 Cowboy Santas Toy Drive Dec. 2 in Fort Worth. Honorary Chairman and pitcher Tanner Scheppers and his wife Jessica helped unload a truck full of toys for the drive, which provides toys to children 12 and under from low-income Tarrant County families during the holiday season. Donations of new and unwrapped toys for the Cowboy Santas program will be welcomed at An Evening with the Rangers, Dec. 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Globe Life Park. Hosted by the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation, this year’s charity event will feature new manager Jeff Banister and shortstop Elvis Andrus. Guests will be treated to a multi-course holiday dinner and will receive an autographed baseball from Banister and Andrus. Tickets are $250 per couple. For tickets and information visit texasrangers.com/foundation or call 817-622-7883. Pitcher Derek Holland and the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation have teamed up for another fundraising initiative effective through the remainder of the year. Holiday Home Run for Kids will assist in generating funds for the foundation. Holland, who has been elected to the board of directors of the foundation, will match every donation made up to a final total of $10,000. Donations can be made at texasrangers.com/donate or by mail to Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation, 1000 Ballpark Way, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011. The Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America instituted a new annual Texas Rangers award in memory of Richard Durrett. Durrett covered the team for the Dallas Morning News and ESPNDallas.com for more than 10 years before suddenly passing away in June 2014. Catcher Robinson Chirinos is the inaugural winner of the Richard Durrett Hardest-Working Man Award. Chirinos will be honored at the 2015 Dr Pepper Texas Rangers Award Dinner on Jan. 23 at the Dallas Omni Hotel. Tickets can be purchased at texasrangers.com/awards.
a Wish with Wings expands Thanks to an anonymous donor, a Wish with Wings Inc. broke ground Dec. 2 on a 1,000-square-foot expansion of the Michelle Porche Hancock Wish House. The organization’s office, affectionately called the “Wish House,” is located at 3751 West Freeway in Fort Worth. The expansion project will enable the nonprofit to better serve Texas children with life-threatening conditions. Since 1982, a Wish with Wings has granted the magical wishes to more than 1,300 children in need. Southlake Construction will oversee the construction process. Schwarz Hanson Architects did the design work. Also contributing to the expansion project are True Grit, Civil Solutions Inc., Fort Worth Electric and other individuals and companies.
Speedway Children’s Charities continues tradition The tallest living Christmas tree in the Metroplex was lit Dec. 6 at Texas Motor Speedway and the festivities continued with the presentation of grants to local charities. Tarrant Area Food Bank received a $150,000 Founder’s Grant from Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter to purchase a 53-foot refrigerated tractor trailer that will help expand its mobile pantry program across 13 North Texas counties. Additional Partner Grants were awarded to PediPlace, Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth, Denton Kiwanis Children’s Clinic and Camp iHope. SCC also awarded Medical City Children’s Hospital, Children’s Health, Cook Children’s and Cook Children’s Pediatrics checks from funds raised during the charity’s Silver Dollar at the Ranch event.
Western Wishes saddles up with NCHA Seventeen-year-old Emily Crews, an avid equestrian with a rare brain cancer, will see her dream come true of riding a cutting horse Dec. 13 during the 2014 National Cutting Horse Association Futurity in Fort Worth. Through the efforts of NCHA, Quarter Horse News, Western Wishes and NCHA Hall of Fame Rider Clint Allen and the David McDavid family, Crews will ride the last horse in the first set of the NCHA Futurity Open finals. Crews learned to ride a cutting horse aboard one of the McDavid’s show horses at the family’s Weatherford ranch. A presentation outlining Crews’ journey will be presented prior to her performance along with the auctioning of a piece of art, completed by Crews. A portion of the proceeds will go to Western Wishes, celebrating its 20th anniversary, and to the Crews family to help pay for Emily’s medical expenses. For information, visit www.westernwishes.org.
Junior Achievement establishes award Five local companies – Apex Capital, BNSF, Frost Bank, Lockheed Martin and XTO Energy Inc. – were honored recently for their commitment to Junior Achievement’s three Pillars of Success: workforce readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship. The companies were presented the inaugural awards by Junior Achievement of the Chisholm Trail Inc. on Nov. 12.
A roundup of funding…Lockheed Martin AERO Club employees presented United Way of Tarrant County with a $100,000 grant for the United Way Alzheimer’s Caregiver Relief and Education project, which helps older adults with mid-stage Alzheimer’s to remain at home with the support of family caregivers…Girls Inc. of Tarrant County received a $25,000 grant from the Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation to support the leadership and mentoring program at Eastern Hills High School…The physicians of Texas Oncology made a $60,650 contribution to the Texas Oncology Foundation in honor of Texas oncology nurses and health care teams…Wounded Warrior Project presented a $150,000 grant to Recovery Resource Council to expand its ability to provide counseling, training and support to injured service members… Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford employees, medical staff physicians and volunteers donated $8,031 and almost 7,000 cans of food to Metroport Meals On Wheels…SafeHaven of Tarrant County received an $11,000 grant from the Texas Bar Foundation to fund a project that will make it easier for women fleeing abusive relationships to navigate the criminal justice system…Tarrant Area Food Bank deposited a $7,000 grant from Hunger Is, a joint campaign of The Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation, to help solve childhood hunger in the community. The Food Bank was nominated by the managers of seven Tom Thumb stores in Tarrant County to receive this grant made possible by customers who contributed during a fundraiser this spring…Child Study Center received a grant from the Masonic Home and School of Texas to fund a one-year pilot training program for parents of children with autism beginning in January. The goal of the program is to teach parents effective ways to increase desirable behavior and to decrease problem behavior…Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation donated vehicle extrication equipment worth more than $10,400 to the Lake Worth Fire Department and two thermal imaging cameras worth more than $18,900 to the Saginaw Fire Department.
Send nonprofit news to Betty Dillard at bdillard@bizpress.net
