Country-Music Stars Shine at Holiday Fundraiser in River Oaks

Wilson Parish
Country-Music Stars Shine at Holiday Fundraiser in River Oaks

Michael Humphries, Cameron Patterson, John Patterson and Jarrod Brown

A MUSICAL EVENING at River Oaks Country Club raised $600,000 for Nashville-based nonprofit Mission Lazarus, which funds transformational development work in Honduras and Haiti.


The “Songs on a Mission” gala, an annual event since 2017, kicked off with cocktails in the foyer, where guests browsed a selection of silent auction items before heading into the ballroom for dinner. Emcee Bryan Simpson, a singer-songwriter, introduced himself along with the other musical guests, Zach Crowell and Ben Johnson, who together have written hits sung by Dierks Bentley, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton and many others. They performed their chart-toppers for the enthralled crowd of 200.

After the jam sesh, the live auction kept the energy high, with prizes like a Caribbean yacht trip and a resort weekend at Horseshoe Bay; the raffle and door prizes contributed greatly to the evening’s total till as well.

Zach Crowell, Bryan Simpson and Ben Johnson

Andi and Chad St. Jean

Traci Morrow, Tiffany Morrow and Kim Jenkins

Bret and Angela Strong

Shari and Ed Wood

Bryan Simpson, Zach Crowell and Ben Johnson on stage

Robert and Stacy Beasley

Gabi and Jarrod Brown

Herb and Alice Burtrum

Rex and Pam Lindberg

Justin and Casey Pollard

Niki Smith and Terri Tarwater

Mia and Jeff Calvert

Lindsey and Carson Tomalin

Mercedes and Ben Ahiabor

Mark and Rhonda Norville, Jeanae King and Mike Aldridge

Parties

Helen Winchell, Marti Grizzle, Brittany Franklin, Jensen Wessendorff

HUNDREDS OF TREE-LOVING Houstonians savored and celebrated the good life at the La Dolce Vita-themed, 30th-annual Root Ball benefiting Trees for Houston.

Keep Reading Show less
Parties

Leah Lax

A PANICKED MOTHER traveling by foot from El Salvador to reach the U.S.-Mexico border rubs crushed garlic cloves on her skin to ward off the cottonmouth snakes crawling over her legs. A group of half-starved teenage Vietnamese refugees on a boat they hoped would ferry them to safety huddle together as pirates board and steal all their possessions. At a UN Refugee Office, a father of six and a member of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (a minority ethnic group based in southern Nigeria) whose leadership had been executed by a corrupt Nigerian government, is granted emergency refugee status. The interviewer reaches into her pocket and hands him money to smuggle his family out of Nigeria.

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment