Outdoors-Loving Houstonians Toast the City’s Park System, Raise $600,000

Katy Anderson
Outdoors-Loving Houstonians Toast the City’s Park System, Raise $600,000

Event co-chairs Norma and Beto Cardenas

NOW THAT THE storms have rolled through and the weather is blissfully fall-like, this week will be the perfect time to enjoy one of Houston's many parks. An event last week celebrated how parks bring Houstonians together — especially when Covid is in our midst.


The Houston Parks Board's annual lunch took place under a tent on the Avenida de las Americas Plaza, overlooking Discovery Green. The nonprofit has spearheaded initiatives to improve air quality and the bayou system, and Board Chairman Barron Wallace spoke on the group's upcoming projects.

In an interview moderated by Texas Monthly editor Mimi Swartz, the luncheon's featured speaker, Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix, discussed how spending time outdoors positively impacts peoples' emotional, mental and physical health.

The afternoon raised nearly $600,000 to further the Houston Park Board's efforts.

Phoebe and Bobby Tudor

Alisa Weldon, Laura Spanjian and Karla Cisneros

Debbie Elliot Griffith, Susan Bono and Ann Whitlock

Marie Louise and David Kinder

Lina Hidalgo

Lindsey Brown and Chris Shepherd

Janice Weaver and Shannon Buggs

Michael Moore and Kathryn Moore

Susan Christian, Kenneth Allen and Sis Johnson

Mimi Swartz, Florence Williams and Beth White

Parties
Meet Brian Boyter, New High-End Residential Broker with an Unique Background

BRIAN BOYTER IS a Houston native with an interesting background in real estate. After an impressive 16-year tenure managing commercial transactions in a Fortune 500 Real Estate Investment Trust, he recently made the shift to high-end residential brokerage. The experience left him uniquely suited to thrive in the sometimes-emotional world of buying or selling a home.

Keep Reading Show less

What year was your organization launched? Founded in Houston in 1947, as the Cerebral Palsy Treatment Center, the organization provided services to individuals with disabilities living in Houston and Harris County. In 1989, the organization changed its name and greatly expanded its services to meet the needs of its clientele. Today as Easter Seals Greater Houston, the organization provides multiple outstanding service programs to children, adults, veterans, and service members with all types of disabilities and their families in Harris and sixteen surrounding counties.

Keep Reading Show less

John Kuykendall, Showroom Manager, Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove

How did you get to where you are today? Growing up I had envisioned myself as a news anchor, living in NY and enthusiastically saying into the camera “Good Morning America!”. To this day, I am still a news/political junkie. My mother owned fur salons so specialty retail, luxury retail was in my blood through the family business. Eventually, mom shuttered the stores and I was recruited to a large specialty retailer. Over the next 30 years, I was in commissioned sales on the sales floor, became a department manager, worked my way up to buyer and store manager. Although I never became a newscaster, I did live in NYC for a few years. But Texas is home and with aging grandparents, I felt the pull to come back to my roots. A headhunter approached me. I never envisioned myself in the high-end appliance market, but there are so many similarities. Clients want a memorable experience; whether shopping for diamonds and fur or remodeling their kitchen.

Keep Reading Show less