Community
The Vickery Place Centennial Home Tour sold a record 550 tickets for the event held in October. Tour organizer Debbie Simurda declined to say how much money the tour raised, but that it “did exceed our expectations.” The neighborhood association will use the money to buy street-sign toppers for the neighborhood. Their current sign toppers are more than 20 years old and bleached from the sun. The association also will make donations to Animal Rescue of Texas and James B. Bonham Elementary School, which was the original Vickery Place School, built before 1920. See photos and read our story about the home tour in our October 2011 issue.
People
Neighborhood resident Keith Price is the new head of one of the city’s biggest nonprofit homeless shelters, Austin Street Centre. Price has been involved with The Stewpot for the past few years, and he replaces the Rev. Beulah “Bubba” Dailey, who worked at Austin Street for 28 years.
Lakewood resident Bryan Wetz moved his Rising Gallery from North Henderson to downtown, and had a grand reopening last month with the exhibit “Galileo’s Garden,” comprising paintings and sculpture from Denver-based husband-and-wife Monica and Tyler Aiello. The show runs through Dec. 31. Wetz and his brother Taber Wetz operated the gallery on Henderson for almost three years before moving to 800 Jackson Street.
Volunteer
Vickery Meadow Learning Center needs volunteers to teach English to the non-English-speaking residents of Vickery Meadow, a low-income neighborhood near East Dallas. Some 20 languages are spoken among the approximately 36,000 residents of the 2.86-square-mile community. Orientation times are noon-2:30 p.m. Dec. 5, noon-2:30 p.m. Dec. 14, 9-11:30 a.m. or 6:30-9 p.m. Jan. 5, noon-2:30 p.m. Jan. 9. They are held at the west Dallas location, 1018 Gallagher. To get involved, call 214.265.5057 ext. 201 or email volunteer@vmlc.org. Read more on the blog here.
