Dallas Habitat for Humanity and SMU students and faculty have raised money to build a permanent home in East Dallas for SMU’s Inter-Community Experience Program.
The program is a partnership between SMU, Habitat for Humanity and Munger Place United Methodist Church that provides tutoring and other community services to children in the Garrett Park East Neighborhood.
The new home will allow eight SMU students to live in East Dallas at 5601 Bryan Parkway while participating in the program, says Deborah Durham, with Dallas Habitat for Humanity.
The home will give children in the neighborhood a safe-house and an opportunity for more services. And it will give the SMU students exposure to living in an inner-city neighborhood, Durham says.
Construction of the home is expected to be completed later this spring, and the first students will move in this summer. Durham says the students will pay a dorm fee to live in the house, just as if they were living on campus.
To be eligible to live in the home, students take an urban studies course through the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. They commit to tutoring six to 10 hours a week and to planning Sunday afternoon enrichment activities for neighborhood children.
Funding for the home came from a $25,000 grant from the Exxon Corporation; $5,000 from Half Price Books; $4,500 grants from the Communities Foundation of Texas and the board of Dallas Habitat; and two $1,000 donations from the Scurlock Foundation and the SMU Student Senate. SMU students, faculty and staff raised an additional $11,500.
See Dallas Blooming
The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden will host its 10th annual Dallas Blooms, its spring festival of flowers, from March 5-April 10.
The celebration will feature a five-foot-tall birthday cake made out of flowers, says Jill Magnuson with the Arboretum. The Arboretum also has one of the nation’s largest azalea collections.
Weekend activities for children include landscape painting, bird-feeder making, a garden hunt and tree giveaways. A pictorial history of the Arboretum will be displayed in the DeGolyer House, which is also open for tours.
Other event highlights are musical entertainment and the Texas State Daffodil Show March 12-13; brunch March 20; and brunch and Dallas’ largest Easter Egg Hunt April 3.
The Arboretum is at 8525 Garland Road on White Rock Lake and is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $3 for children.
For information or to make reservations for brunch, call 327-8263.
Thinking About Our Neighborhood Businesses
The Greater East Dallas Chamber of Commerce has formed a new committee, the Development/Strategic Planning Committee, also known as the “East Dallas Think Tank.”
The 15-member committee will look at the chamber’s mission statement and revamp it to better represent the needs of neighborhood businesses, says committee chairman Sherryl Wesson.
The group also will establish short- and long-term goals for the chamber based on surveys and evaluations from neighborhood businesses, Wesson says.
Businesses and the community can expect to see results of the “Think Tank’s” work by year-end, Wesson says.
For information or to join the group, call the chamber at 368-6000.
Chinese Cooking Lessons Offered in Neighborhood
Lakewood resident Cammie Vitale will host two Chinese cooking classes this month.
On March 8 from 7-10 p.m. Vitale will teach students techniques in Szechwan/Hunan style cooking. On March 15 from 7-10 p.m. Vitale will host a wok workshop.
The classes cost $35 and include dinner, which the students cook. Participation is essential for the classes, Vitale says.
During the lesson, Vitale will discuss what type of wok to buy and will teach students how to cook “wok style” in a regular skillet.
Vitale has been teaching cooking for 13 years. She studied Chinese cooking under Titus Chan when she lived in Hawaii in the early ’70s. She also specializes in Italian cuisine.
For information, call 821-1506.
Carolyn Dennis Tapped to Lead Shepherd Center
Lakewood resident Carolyn Dennis was recently named executive director of the Greater Lakewood Shepherd Center, a neighborhood group for senior citizens.
Dennis has a masters in theology from SMU and chaired the Missions Committee and Administrative Council of Grace United Methodist Church. She also started a ministry training program at Gaston Episcopal Hospital.
She replaces Sylvia Sanders, who founded the organization in 1985 and resigned last year.
New Program for Homeless Men
Reconciliation Outreach has opened Caring for the Needy, a men’s residential center in East Dallas. The center opened in October and provides Christian training for men with drug problems and a shelter for homeless men, says Dorothy Moore, who works with the organization.
So far, the organization has worked with about 30 men, but Moore says the group hopes to expand into a larger facility to serve more clients. The offices are located at 1617 N. Haskell, and the shelter is in the neighborhood.
The program is partly funded by a program called Helping Hands, which acts as an employee leasing agency for participants in Caring for the Needy, Moore says. Funds raised from Helping Hands help pay for center costs and provides participants with a paycheck.
For information on the program or to hire workers through Helping Hands, call Mathew or Willy at 821-9192.
News & Notes
MARDIGRAS MADNESS: The Lakewood Service League’s 12th annual Auction Party will be held at the Southland Hotel on April 9 at 7:30 p.m. Items donated by Dallas merchants will be auctioned to fund the League’s service projects. For ticket information, call Carol Hensley at 826-0700.
DANCERS NEEDED: The Greater Lakewood Shepherd Center needs people who line dance or who want to learn to line dance. The group practices Tuesday from 1:30-3 p.m. at St. Paul Evangelical & Reformed Church, 6464 Lovers. For information, call Norma at 328-1284.
PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION: Neighborhood resident Gwen Marie Eisenstein was recently honored by the College of the State Bar of Texas, an organization created by the Supreme Court of Texas to recognize State Bar members who continue their legal education.
HISTORICAL FILM: White Rock Lake will be featured in a documentary on Dallas’ history to be broadcast March 3 at 7 p.m. on KERA-TV, Ch. 13. The show will feature interviews with residents and historical photographs.
CORRECTION: In the February Advocate, it was reported in the cover story East Dallas Blues that police patrolled an apartment complex at the intersection of Matilda and Hubert. The complex is located at the intersection of Matilda and Hudson.
