community

Lake Highlands’ Madeline Apartment owners Joe Killinger and George Pino created the Rent Rite Directory to help better screen prospective residents. The comprehensive database offers free incident reports designed to alert landlords to write-offs, criminal activity, skips (people who take the first month free and then bail) and proxy renters (those who sign leases on behalf of tenants that would not otherwise be qualified to rent due to criminal history) and a moderately priced tenant screening service (includes credit and criminal history reports).

Through the Project Samaria initiative, members of Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Preston Hollow donated shoes to more than 100 students at Wallace Elementary in Lake Highlands. The students are Burmese refugees who live below the poverty line. Watch a video of the shoe drive here.

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Vickery Meadow Learning Center is expanding to West Dallas and needs 24 additional volunteers for afternoon classes at the campus at 1018 Gallagher. Opportunities also are available at the Vickery Meadow location, 6329 Ridgecrest. VMLC is a nonprofit that provides literacy classes to non-English speaking adults in the low-income neighborhood bound by Royal Lane, Central Expressway, Northwest Highway, and Abrams/Skillman. This month’s volunteer orientations are 9-11:30 a.m. or 6:30-9 p.m. Jan. 5, and noon-2:30 p.m. Jan. 9. For more information, call 214.265.5057 or visit vmlc.org.

development

The long-vacated Walmart building at Walnut Hill and Audelia has been razed to make way for new homes this spring as part of the White Rock Place Addition project. The development includes 17 single-family homes, and construction could be complete by April.

education

Case Gray of Forest Meadow Junior High received the MetroPCS Trailblazer Award for his exceptional work integrating technology into the classroom. The eighth-grade social studies teacher received a $5,000 award and an additional $5,000 to use in his classroom.


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