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

Ben Racusin, Mica Piro, Bailey Blocker, Brian Reynolds

CITIZENS FOR ANIMAL Protection (CAP) brought out the big dogs for its annual Celebrity Paws gala, which this year adopted a theme of Mission: Pawsible. Event chairs Jody Merritt and Christine Johnson accomplished a fantastic mission of raising $875,000, and are pledging to round up the final amount to a million dollars, all going toward CAP's shelter, rescue and adoption efforts.

Keep Reading Show less
Parties

Masterson's frocks are made from prints fashioned from her nature photographs.

THEY SAY A picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of artist Libbie Masterson, her storied collection of global and Houston-centric photographs does the talking — on apparel and accessories, that is.

Art for Wear is Masterson’s new fashion line, in which her professional landscape photographs are printed on various fabrics and finished as wearable art, clothing and accessories. Her collection includes an artistic line of women’s dresses, light wraps, tunics, purses and various unisex bags splashed with her iconic photography. Love Houston’s South Boulevard? There’s a dress for that. Always on the move? She has a yoga mat and the backpack of your dreams!

Keep Reading Show less
Art+Culture