ZaZa Lunch Promises to 'Make a Difference' for Houston's East End

Daniel Ortiz
ZaZa Lunch Promises to 'Make a Difference' for Houston's East End

Barbara Van Postman, Phyllis Williams, Leisa Holland Nelson Bowman and Donna Chapman

THE HOTEL ZAZA ballroom hosted 250 generous supporters for the annual Making a Difference luncheon benefiting El Centro de Corazón.


Event chairs Kelli Cohen Fein and Barbara Van Postman, along with honorary chairs Leisa Holland Nelson Bowman and Leila Perrin, threw a great party for the nonprofit, which provides comprehensive healthcare services to low-income residents of Houston’s East End. El Centro sees more than 12,000 patients — most of whom live below the federal poverty level and are uninsured — each year.

Emcee Cyndy Garza Roberts kept the energy levels high as honorees Halliburton Charitable Foundation and the Honorable Ed Emmett and Gwen Emmett were announced. And El Centro CEO Marcie Mir gave remarks noting the recent passing of El Centro founder Mary Jo May, who was committed to providing accessible, affordable healthcare to those in need.

An interesting conversation between physicians Esmaeil Porsa and James McCarthy discussed how Covid changed healthcare, and the opportunities it created, too.

The event raised more than $161,000 for El Centro.

Anne Neeson and Hallie Vanderhider

Sippi Khurana and Rosemary Schatzman

Chelsea Collmer and Laurie Sanders

Lisa Gochman and Maggie Glaser

Rosemary Schatzman, Marilu Garza, Barbara Van Postman and Donna Chapman

Cyndy Garza Roberts and Gloria Zenteno

Cynthia Wolff and Beth Wolff

Diana Barrero-Burgos, Laura Jaramillo

Elizabeth Stein, Bill Baldwin and Denise Monteleone

Scott and Jennifer Allison

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