Mess and mud will be reduced in the areas marked with “improved surface” (click on the rendering for a larger view), which will soon be artificial turf. A dog bath outside the gates and new restroom facilities also will improve the park’s sanitation, Foster says.

What is now a waterfront with jagged rocks will be replaced with safe, sloping stairs — a “dog launch” on the first rendering, which is depicted in detail in the second.

To address the problem of parking, the gravel lot will be transformed to concrete.

The total cost of the project is $1.2 million. City of Dallas bond funds are providing $800,000, and the rest comes from donations.

The purpose of the renovation is to make the park cleaner, safer and more accessible, Foster says.

© Keri Mitchell for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Registration for the December MetroPCS White Rock Marathon opens June 1. The price is lower if you register early, before July 31, by the way. To celebrate the onset of marathon training season, the WRM folks will host a 6.4 kilometer race at the Bath House at White Rock Lake Thursday, May 31 at 7 p.m. Why 6.4 km. you may ask? It’s a beer-sponsor thing. The DWRM Kickoff 6.4 is presented by Miller 64.

The race is limited to 500 participants.

Runners and walkers will receive a technical training shirt and entrance into a post-race party, featuring Miller 64 aplenty, I assume. Wear your favorite Dallas White Rock Marathon race shirt to be entered in a drawing for a free 2012 full or half marathon entry.

You can register for $20 race day at 6 p.m. or online for $15 online.

The new White Rock Marathon course is set to be publicly viewable by June 1.

© Christina Hughes Babb for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Dr. James Murray of Abrams Royal Animal Clinic got them started by donating the Kindle Fire, and tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5. The winner will be drawn June 2nd. You can email team mom Jodi Stewart at jodi_stewart@sbcglobal.net to make a purchase.

Ryan Brockette, Catherine Bryant, Evan Stewart and Stephanie Stolte comprise the award-winning crew, making their third trip to globals. While at the University of Tennessee over Memorial Day weekend, they’ll meet teams from all 50 states and 37 countries and compete in the structural and architectural design challenge. They have created an extremely light-weight structure of only wood and glue, and they will perform a skit in which they deliver golf balls and stack weights onto the structure. The goal is to maximize the ratio of weights plus golf balls before it crushes.

Destination Imagination is an after-school activity that encourages student creativity, teamwork and problem solving. Teams are tested to think on their feet to devise original solutions by working together. Another team from FMJH, Kate Brackenridge, Brooke Elkjer and Caroline Lewis, made it to state this year.

Congratulations guys, and good luck!

© Carol Toler for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: destination imagination, fjorest meadow, raffle

Dr. Kay Waggoner, Sarah Dossou, Pelumi Wemida, Truitt Matthews

Lake Highlands High School seniors Sarah Penny and Lee Leuder were named Youth of the Year by the Lake Highlands Exchange Club Friday at the annual awards breakfast. Sarah is Homecoming Queen and Wrangler captain will attend the University of Texas in the fall. Lee is VP of both the Senior Class and National Honor Society and will go to either UT or Harvard. Both received $1,000 scholarship awards.

Sarah Dossou and Pelumi Wemida earned the club’s ACE Awards – Accepting the Challenge of Excellence. You can read Sarah’s inspirational story in this month’s Advocate here, and Pelumi has excelled since arriving in LH from Nigeria. Sarah will attend TWU and Pelumi is headed to the University of Houston. The students were selected by LHHS counselors and received $1,000 scholarships.

Dr. Kay Waggoner, Rebecca Hall, Jeff Bradford, Luke Davis, Kay Winkler, Susan Mims, Sabrina Morse

RISD Superintendent Dr. Kay Waggoner presented Teacher of the Year Awards to Wallace Elementary’s Rebecca Hall, LHHS’ Jeff Bradford, Moss Haven’s Kay Winkler, White Rock’s Susan Mims, and Aikin’s Sabrina Morse. Each was given a plaque and a $500 cash award.

Congratulations, teachers and students!

© Carol Toler for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ace award, exchange club

Hence my trepidation with this review. The sauvignon blanc ($6, purchased, widely available) is an exceedingly well-made wine, and sets a high standard not only for Meridian, but for all grocery store wine at this price. It has lots of tropical fruit (pineapple and mango) in a very forward style, which gives the impression of sweetness. But since it’s sauvignon blanc, there is plenty of citrus and California-style grassiness to balance the fruit. And, hard as it may be to believe, I think there is minerality at the back — about as common in a $6 wine as me not being able to come up with a simile here.

Drink this chilled on its own, or with almost any kind of warm weather white wine dish. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2013 Hall of Fame. Please, Meridian, don’t let me down.

© Jeff Siegel for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: $10 wine, California wine, cheap wine, inexpensive wine, Meridian, sauvignon blanc, white wine, wine of the week, wine reviews

The 5th person and the 10th person to email “I Love the Advocate” to mriney@advocatemag.com get four passes to the festival and a gift card to either On the Border or Nate’s Seafood and Steak House.

On your mark, get set, GO! …

© Meghan Riney for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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When the Wildcats traveled to Temple Friday for the second round of the playoffs, they had to remain on the bus due to dangerous lightning in the area. With all that energy confined in that small space, it wasn’t long before they cooked up a plan to film a music video. You can watch it here.

Amazingly, Hudson Taylor recorded the fun on Gregg Calvin’s 4G iPhone, not a legit video camera. That’s Brandon Cook lip-synching in the center aisle.

Temple knocked Lake Highlands out in two games, but I have a question: since the song “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” was recorded more than ten years before most of them were born, have any of these kids ever heard of the band, Wham!? Any chance they have a clue who George Michael means when he sings “you make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day”?

Oh well, doesn’t matter.

© Carol Toler for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: baseball, wildcats

First suspect is a black male, approximately 20 to 30 years old. He is 5’8 to 6’2 tall and weighs 150 to160 pounds. He has been armed with a blue steel semi-automatic handgun.

The second suspect is a black male, approximately 20 to 22 years old. He is 5’8 -5’10 tall and weighs approximately 160 pounds. He may have a gold tooth and moles near his eyes. He has been armed with a silver colored semi-automatic handgun.

The suspect vehicle is gray/silver 4-door sedan. The vehicle may be a Chrysler or Chevy Impala.

The DPD has initiated extra patrol along the Katy Trail, which will include additional bicycle officers. Also, members of the Violent Crime Task Force will be deployed in the area.

Police have decided to withhold some details as the investigation progresses.

“This is an active investigation and the detectives have leads,” a report states. “The police department must continually balance the need to inform the public against releasing information that could jeopardize the investigation and potential suspect identification. Future apprehension could be made more difficult and dangerous if suspects are alerted to the details of the police investigation.”

Whether you are on the Katy Trail, White Rock Trail, walking to your neighborhood grocery store or home from a night out at the bar, stay alert, police warn.

Anyone out walking should be always practice the following common safety tips, police say:

Always be aware of your surroundings and people who may be approaching you.

Listen to your instincts. If you feel something is not right, make your way to a safe location and call the police.

Travel with friends.

Avoid becoming so distracted that you are unaware of what is happening around you (in other words, lose the headphones).

Don’t display valuables in a manner that make you an appealing target for a would-be criminal (hide your iPhone).

Finally, people traveling along the Katy Trail should always be aware of the call boxes locations along the trail. 

© Christina Hughes Babb for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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They served up good, healthy sandwiches, salads, breakfasts, juices, beers and so forth but now they are selling, based on the restaurant’s Facebook status:

“DALLAS BICYCLE CAFE for sale, if interested email to Armando@dallasbicyclecafe.com or aguer75@aol.com”

To a concerned commenter they responded that the cafe would remain open for now.

I have messaged the owner and will keep you posted.

© Christina Hughes Babb for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Charity Wallace (center), Senior Advisor to Mrs. Laura Bush, with assistant Jenny Lynn Buntin (left) and LH's Paula Davis.

Charity Wallace has logged a million miles and traveled to 60 countries as part of George W. Bush’s presidential staff. She’s served as Deputy Chief of Protocol (Nancy Brinker was Chief) and Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush. She spent Friday heaping praise upon Healing Hands Ministries.

“What you do in this community is of great significance,” she told the sell-out crowd at the second annual Tablescapes Luncheon. “Each day you show God’s goodness and faithfulness.”

Wallace shared her inspirational story, “From Fear to Faith,” beginning with her days as a young graduate of Pepperdine University. After two years performing in musical theatre, she volunteered in Bush’s presidential campaign. She made herself useful to the candidate’s advance team, and was in the thick of the Florida recount intrigue in Palm Beach. She helped plan the inauguration, including the family prayer service, and landed a plum job in the White House with the 43rd president.

Wallace says her fascination with politics began even before she hit junior high. As president of her California elementary school, she wrote Ronald Reagan a letter in Washington. It began, “From one President to another…”

Wallace has now signed on to serve as Director for the Women’s Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. This worldwide outreach to lift women up keeps her working closely with Laura Bush who, Wallace says, still maintains an incredible public events schedule.

“In 2004, her events schedule was unbelievable, but I just figured that was because it was a re-election year. Then, in 2005 she had 300 events, in 2006 she had 350 and in 2007 she had 400.”

The work of the Women’s Initiative is based on the precepts that when a woman is educated, her children are more likely to be educated, healthy and successful, and a woman’s network is the best indicator of her success. Women in developing countries are brought to the U.S., nurtured in groups, equipped with training and delivered home ready to bring long-term stability and prosperity to their families and communities.

Not bad for a First Lady who finally has her wish of living in Dallas, or – as she calls it – Afterlife in the Promised Land.

In addition to Wallace, attendees heard from LaSonya Zackery, whose family made one of the 10,000 patient visits to Healing Hands’ medical and dental clinics.

“Janna was convinced that I was meant to sit next to her at church,” Zackery said, explaining that Healing Hands Founder and Executive Director Janna Gardner met her and personally urged to visit the clinic and seek care. “I’m so thankful for Healing Hands. It’s truly a blessing for people who have low income, no insurance and no place to go.”

“We try to stay out of the way and prayed up,” said Janna Gardner, who shared that Healing Hands was founded after God whispered about the need in her ear.

“God wasn’t whispering in your ear, Janna,” quipped Paula Davis, a member of the Friends of Healing Hands Auxiliary. “He was yelling, and we’re so glad you were listening.”

You can see my photo slideshow here.

© Carol Toler for Advocate Magazine, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: charity wallace, George W Bush, healing hands, janna gardner, laura bush, paula davis, tablescapes