Community

The “YMCA connection,” a quarter-mile path between the Santa Fe Trail and what is now the Arboretum Village, is scheduled to be completed by May of next year. The city is paying $2.45 million, from 2006 and 2012 bond funds, for that project and a 2-mile extension of the SoPac Trail between Mockingbird and Royal. Dallas County is paying for the other half of those $4.9 million projects and is responsible for designing and building them. Construction on the SoPac Trail extension is expected to begin October 2015 and to be completed a year later. When it is complete in a couple of years, the trail eventually will connect to the Katy Trail.

In November, Dallas business leaders played at Bent Tree Country Club to help homeless families through the East Dallas-based organization Interfaith Housing Coalition. Interfaith is the only Dallas agency that works exclusively to serve working poor families who find themselves homeless. Interfaith provides transitional housing and transformative programs in order to take them off the streets and help transition them into new lives of hope. More than 26 Dallas-area businesses joined in on Interfaith’s effort, led by board chair Brian Hegi of Prophet Equity and developmental chair Tyler Beeson of US Trust.

People

After 7 years serving the uninsured and underinsured in Dallas, Healing Hands Ministries has hired a new medical director. Dr. Chris Berry has years of experience working in “safety net” clinics in Dallas. He lives in Lakewood with his wife and two children.

In early December Casa Linda Estates Neighborhood Association (CLENA) lit up its neighborhood with luminaries as part of a fundraiser. The fundraiser, dubbed Casa Linda Lights, benefited East Dallas firefighter Jeff Patterson, who was seriously injured in a house fire in early May. Patterson received 3rd degree burns on 45 percent of his body and was in ICU for 110 days before being released for rehab. He returned home to his family in September, but he has undergone 23 surgeries and will probably go through a couple more, says Casa Linda Estates neighbor Veronica Long. While Patterson was hospitalized, his wife was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemo, radiation treatments and surgery. She is now cancer-free. Casa Linda Lights raised money through the purchase of luminaries. CLENA sent out flyers to Casa Linda Estates, asking neighbors to sponsor the project by buying a set of 10 luminaries. What didn’t go toward material went directly to the Patterson family.

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Rehab guest

Top-notch teachers

Make-up party

Three East Dallas neighbors and Lakewood Elementary parents

— Yvonne Hager, Sergio Ortega and Natasha Khan own LURE Salon on McKinney Avenue, where they hosted a hair and makeup party for the Lakewood moms who were on their way to the Pearls and Prohibition Auction Party for the 38th annual Lakewood Home Festival. Lakewood mom Erin Harrison participated.

Six neighborhood teachers were honored recently at the East Dallas Chamber of Commerce’s annual education luncheon. Chamber chairwoman Darlene Ellison (from left) helped honor Jeannot (“Johnny”) Jonte Boucher, Mata Montessori; Katie Wendorf, St. Thomas Aquinas; Dana Czapski, Gaston Middle School; Jamie Thorne, Lakehill Preparatory School; Madeline Schnurr, St. Thomas Aquinas; Denise Tucker, Woodrow Wilson High School; and DISD school board member Dan Micciche. (Photo courtesy of Gigi Ekstrom with Lakehill.) SUBMIT