Brookwood Community makes Texas proud
Former Houston news anchor Steve Smith opened the Brookwood Community’s biennial benefit lunch by sharing one of founder Yvonne Tuttle
Streit’s favorite sayings, “God founded Brookwood; I just work for him.”
In 1985, the first resident enrolled at Streit’s God-centered educational, residential and entrepreneurial facility for adults with special needs. Thirty-one years later, more than 100 “citizens” live on the 475-acre campus, which includes eight group homes, a worship center, health clinic, greenhouses, the Café at Brookwood and an inn; 110 additional adults participate in the organization’s day program.
On Tuesday, the not-forprofit’s “Brookwood Proud, Texas Proud”-themed event garnered a record-breaking $1.5 million at the Omni Houston Hotel after the Robert and
Janice McNair Foundation matched the $750,000 already raised. With co-chairs Melinda
Stubbs and Stephanie Tucker standing beside her, Nancy
Beasley reminded 700 lunchgoers that 92 percent of the funds go toward the community’s supplemental and operational fees in addition to scholarships. Citizens such as Melinda’s own son, Charlie
Stubbs, who delivered the invocation, and the Brookwood Bell Choir, were on hand to illustrate how providing specialneeds adults with vocational opportunities and a sense of purpose enhances their quality of life.
Special guest speaker Gov. Greg Abbott spoke openly about the accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. According to Abbott, the experience was unexpectedly liberating.
“I had just moved to Houston and was jogging with my friend
Fred Frost, who’s in the audience, after studying for the bar exam, when a tree came crashing down, paralyzing me,” he said, summarizing the premise of his soon-to-be released book, “Broken, But Not Unbound.”
“I was never able to walk again. And I know what some of you must be thinking: ‘How slow had that guy been running?’ ”
Abbott explained that the accident galvanized his relation- ship with God.
Although the governor’s literary debut isn’t until later this month, attendees queued up to have Streit sign her coauthored work, “Everybody’s Got a Seed to Sow: The Brookwood Story.” All proceeds benefit the community’s citizens and outreach programs.