Serving Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon, Corral City, Double Oak, Flower Mound, Highland Village, Lantana and Robson Ranch
October 2015
A Passion For Keeping Her Guard Up By Dru Murray, Contributing Writer
Keeping Flower Mound’s children from harm has been both Kim Katz’s job and her passion for the last 14 years. Katz serves as a crossing guard to ensure that Flower Mound Elementary School and Forestwood Middle Kim Katz keeps kids safe School students at two Flower Mound safely traverse schools. very busy streets on their way to and from school. Her passion for her job is due to her love of the children. Her favorite part of her job as a crossing guard is “the kids, because they are so special and sweet.” Before becoming a crossing guard, Katz, herself a Flower Mound resident with two children, served Lewisville Independent School District as a substitute teacher. However, when her third-grade son, Nathaniel, a Flower Mound El-
www.CrossTimbersGazette.com
By Noelle M. Hood, Contributing Writer
A temporary banner across the gray-columned building entrance exclaims “25 Years - Come Celebrate Dance with Us.” The sign reflects the exuberance of the Ballet Conservatory’s founding dancer Kelly Kilburn-Lannin and her business partner Mary Neel, both of the Lewisville/ Flower Mound area. Ballet Conservatory, and En L’Air, its dancewear store, near I-35E at FM 407 and Cain Drive, are celebrating their silver anniversary this year. “I grew up in El Paso, a shy little girl who danced around the house,” Kilburn-Lannin said. “My mother enrolled me in Barbara Pruitt’s dance studio, and the rest of my life is, as they say, history.” Ballet replaced her shyness with self-confidence, nonverbal self-expression, memory skills, and personal organization. Later she studied with Toni Attel, then Ingeborg Heuser, a former dancer with Germany’s famed Berlin Opera. “All dancers in the ballet world can tell you their artistic genealogy,” Kilburn-Lannin said. “After high school I See BALLET on Page A22
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Photo by Helen’s Photography
Winging their way through whimsy: School Director Kelly Kilburn-Lannin surrounded by Kristina Lorelli, Lauren Hunter, Chloe Davis, Carley Denton, Madeline Nanly, Julie Fenske, Julia Tiller and Carly Greene.
Flower Mound Group’s Anti-Drug Message Going National By Lyn Rejahl Pry, Contributing Writer
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Kathy O’Keefe’s drug awareness group, Winning the Fight, has completed production on a documentary film including students from Southern Denton County.
After Brett Morgan O’Keefe died from an accidental drug overdose in March 2010, his mother decided to fight back against the shadowy monster that took her son from his world. Kathy O’Keefe founded Winning the Fight (WTF), a Flower Mound-based nonprofit geared toward drug awareness among school age kids and their parents. A tool in the group’s repertoire is an anti-drug documentary, “Not Me,” which was filmed last year on August 31, International Overdose Awareness Day, at Flower Mound High School. “We made the documentary available for local schools and other groups to view, and the decision to use the documentary as the basis for a movie was made to be able to get national distribution,” O’Keefe said. Now that film is heading to the national stage. It’s the latest effort used as part of the group’s mission to provide education through community forums and necessary professional services for families, abusers and addicts, as well See FIGHT on Page A19