Agent efforts deliver fresh fruits, vegetables to city food ‘desert’
Peggie Kohnert of Keller Williams Metropolitan said her office celebrated its annual corporate “Red Day” event by volunteering for the Houston Health Foundation Community Nutrition program at the Denver Harbor Multi Service Center.
“We added four 25-foot garden beds, three fruit trees, extended the fence line by 30 feet, and bought two new bird baths and a cement bench to go around one of the trees in the garden area,” she said. The group also painted the wrought-iron fence, which encloses the covered patio and painted a mural to be displayed on the exterior wall overlooking the garden area.
The 105 volunteers donated over 735 hours, and bought all the material for the project, including paying for professional installation of a new chain-link fence.
“With the help of Keller Williams Metropolitan, the Denver Harbor Community Garden will increase its harvest by 600-700 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. This will make Denver Harbor one of the most abundant gardens in one of the city’s most desperate food deserts,” Kohert said. Lyn Sullivan, senior vice president and escrow officer at Title Houston Holdings, is also a professional photographer whose work is shown and collected in the United States and France. Her annual trip to Paris this year coincided with the days immediately following the terrorist attack on the offices of the satrical magazine Charlie Hebdo there.
“I’ve been to Paris many times and I know the sounds of the city,” Sullivan said. “After the attack, an eerie silence settled over everything and everyone. People were shell-shocked. No one acted normally. When something like that happens, you don’t know what to do, but you feel that you must do something. So when everyone poured out on to the streets, I grabbed my camera and joined them.”
Sullivan focused on the spontaneous written messages on various surfaces all over the city.
“Many of the messages I saw were pleas for tolerance and acceptance of diversity, but most said simply, ‘Je suis Charlie’ — I am Charlie; or ‘L’amour plus fort que la haine’ — love is stronger than hate. I found the solidarity incredibly comforting and hopeful,” she said.
The images are the focus of an exhibit opening on June 26 called N’oubliez Jamais (Never Forget). The show will continue through Sept. 30 at Alliance Française de Houston, 427 Lovett Blvd. Between the periods of a recent professional soccer match between the Houston Dynamos and New York Red Bulls, Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty associate Stephen Warrell put together a group of friends to play “bubble soccer.” Don’t let the airy name fool you, as the giant, round plastic “uniforms” are to challenge coordination and keep the players bouncing off of each other and the ground.
The first couple times the Dynamos tried the fan participation event, the players were too cautious. Warrell was asked to put together a team that wasn’t afraid to hit each other. Once he had the teams together, he said, there was plenty of banter going into the game about who would crush who. But once the action started it was Warrell who took the majority of the hits.
The game only lasted two minutes, which is a lot longer than it seems when you are carrying a huge bubble in 90-degree heat and not being able to see clearly around it, Warrell said.
“And it’s a lot harder when you are picking yourself off the ground every five seconds after a former college football player has flattened you,” he said. John Daugherty, Realtors sales associate Belinda Schmidt and her husband Scott recently attended the St. Agnes Gala and fundraiser at the Royal Sonesta Hotel. Schmidt is very active in the school her daughter Jane attends. In fact, she is a mentor mom for a number of years and this year is co-chairing Fish Week in September. This is a big event that includes activities and a parade for the seniors pick little sisters from the freshman class. This year will be bittersweet, as Jane will be a senior in the fall. JDR’s Jack Swonson was an invited guest at the Volunteer Houston Service Awards Luncheon at The Bayou Civic Center. Neil Bush was guest speaker. Swonson was the guest of chairwoman Lisa Jakel. Volunteer Houston has been connecting people with their passion in service to the community for 31 years. Swonson is an active volunteer in the community and currently services on two Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo committees (international and tours) as well is an active member, usher and religious education teacher at St. Martin’s Church. Ed Wolff and Beth Wolff of Beth Wolff Realtors attended the Baylor Partnership lecture/luncheon at the Junior League of Houston. The lecture was entitled “The Brain Matters Update and Breakthroughs in Neurology Research.”
Judi Griggs is a writer who lives in Houston in the winter and Buffalo in the summer — because the reverse would be ridiculous. Contact her at realnewshouston@gmail.com or through judigriggs. com.