Kingwood couple displaced by Harvey chairs record-breaking luncheon
It’s tradition for the Harbor Light Choir to open the Salvation Army’s annual “Doing the Most Good” luncheon in song. This year, however, 9-year old Rebecca Villanueva gave the all-male group a run for its money with her jaw-dropping performance of “The StarSpangled Banner.”
“No disrespect to our honored speaker, but we could probably say a prayer and just go home, amen?” quipped luncheon and master of ceremonies Jeffrey B. Early.
Not only did the fundraiser continue, it thrived. Advisory board chair Joe Cleary announced that supporters raised a record $570,000 benefiting Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. He also commended Twila
Carter, executive director of the Astros Foundation, for partnering with the Salvation Army to provide more than 50,000 meals over a 20-day period during Hurricane Harvey.
Last, Cleary thanked Camden Living for offering seven-and-a-half weeks’ worth of residential accommodations to area command volunteers downtown. Before passing the puck over to honorees Sally and
William Slick Jr., Cleary shared that the Earlys had been displaced from their Kingwood home yet still managed to wrangle record funds.
“Joe just did a very dangerous thing, handing me a microphone,” said William Slick, who has served on the Greater Houston Advisory Board since 1973. “In the beginning, there were more blue suits, officer uniforms, than other people in the audience. So that just says how far we’ve come.” Keynote speaker Maj. Dan “Noonan” Rooney, U.S. Air Force pilot and PGA golf professional, closed the program with a high-tech, perfectly sequenced PowerPoint presentation.
Since 2007, his nonprofit organization, Folds of Honor, has awarded $130 million in educational scholarships to children and spouses of fallen or disabled service members.
“At 12 years old, I told my father that I wanted to become a pro golfer and fight pilot,” Rooney recalled. How did he do it? “Through CAVU, a military aviation term that means “ceiling and visibility unlimited.”
In civilian terms, it translates to: The sky’s the limit.