Region 10 Education Service Center will host its annual Babies' Day Out Nov. 11.
Do you have an child who is visually impaired? Region 10 Education Service Center will host its annual Babies’ Day Out from 10:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Nov. 11 at 904 Abrams Road in Richardson.
Special Needs Insider Kristie Smith has the details for the event.
Since 1999, Carla Meadows' neighbor, John Staley and his family have been known to go all out with their Halloween decorations. Their decorations feature custom-made tombstones, a corn maze, live, terrifying and mystical costume characters, sound effects, giant inflatables, scary music and a fog machine. (Photo submitted by Carla Meadows)
As a kid, I looked forward to Halloween not because of the candy, but the opportunity it afforded me to be whatever I wanted to be (OK, the candy was definitely a benefit).
Most of the time my characters were fashioned from old dance costumes (in a family with three girls in dance classes, there was a treasure trove of things to choose from).
With Halloween days away, Richardson Insiders share what traditions the holiday brings in their family/neighborhood.
From the time Katie Patterson's kids were infants until they were about 10 years old, she took them to the Arapaho Pumpkin Patch at Arapaho United Methodist Church to take pictures and pick out pumpkins. (Photo submitted by Katie Patterson)
”From the time my kids were infants until they were about 10 years old, we took them to the Arapaho Pumpkin Patch at Arapaho United Methodist Church (Coit and Arapaho roads) to take pictures and pick out pumpkins. The pumpkin patch has a great assortment of pumpkins and it’s an easy and fun background for Halloween pictures of your kids. It’s so fun looking back at these pictures to see what they were “in to” at each age.
As part of our family pumpkin carving night, we divide the well-rinsed pumpkin seeds into two piles. We salt one pile and toss the other pile in cinnamon sugar. Then, each goes on aluminum foil on a baking sheet and into the oven. They’re a fun snack for the rest of the week!”
Carl Youngberg (right) displays a past Halloween decoration. (Photo submitted by Carl Youngberg)
“Waterview Drive has one of the largest trick-or-treat groups in the city. More than 800 youngsters filled our street last year and a neighbor recently wrote that she was expecting a 1,000 this year. We close off the cul-de-sacs for safety and the police give us extra attention. It is truly a night for the kids. They come in droves with their parents and they are always grateful for the generosity of Waterview residents. A fun time for all.”
When the University of Texas at Dallas announced in July a $17 million endowed gift to establish the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, it raised questions about how the university would try to leave its mark on the study of art in the 21st century.
Some of those questions remain unanswered because they are still recruiting professors and grad students for the research.
But to help understand the kind of advanced data analysis the institute was founded to promote, I recently visited with Dr. Maximilian Schich, associate professor of arts and technology at UTD.
You may recognize some of Schich’s work. The video above was released by Nature when the magazine published some of his research on migration patterns of more than 150,000 notable individuals. The video was widely shared on social media and has been viewed more than 850,000 times on YouTube in the last two months.
Schich plans to use similar techniques to answer new questions in the field of art history. You can read more about them in my story this week.
Richardson/Lake Highlands/Far North Dallas editor Daniel Houston can be reached at 214-977-8024.
Jill Schilp lives in Richardson with her husband, George and her golden retriever, Junior.
When I was growing up, I wanted three things beside me: a book, a dog and a journal. Today I have all three.
I write about the human-animal bond, mental health, second chances and second acts. I find these everywhere in Richardson. My family and I moved to Richardson in the 70s. I have been working, reading, writing and talking to dogs here ever since.
A master level registered nurse, my background in psychiatric nursing informs my writing about the benefits of animals on the mental health and well being of humans. My rescued golden retriever, Junior, and I are a Pet Partners registered therapy dog team and a registered Reading Education Assistance Dog team (R.E.A.D.).
I speak and write about humane education, animal-assisted therapy and the mental health benefits of the human-animal connection. I am the Volunteer Coordinator for A New Leash on Life Therapy Dog Group and a member of The Dog Writers Association of America and the Association of Professional Humane Educators. I also volunteer with several Dallas-Fort Worth area animal rescues.
I am newly retired, so I am still figuring out my second act. Now I wish I could write like Hemingway, move like Jagger and had legs like Tina Turner.
I see humor everywhere. I inhale peanut butter and ice cream, especially when all this second act self improvement overwhelms me. While I am busy learning all the right moves and working on getting my Tina Turner legs, I observe life here in Richardson and write about people, places and second chances.
So instead of moving like Jagger, and having legs like Tina, I will tell you stories of the people, places and animals of Richardson, their connections, second acts and second chances.
Pass the peanut butter.
Glenn Roberts of Fountain Hills, Ariz., with his 25th anniversary Mazda MX-5 Miata and Mac Hughes, district sales manager.
Glenn Roberts flew in from the Phoenix suburb of Fountain Hills, Ariz., to Richardson to buy a car recently. Really.
Roberts special-ordered a 2015 Mazda MX-5 Miata 25th anniversary model, one of only 100 available. He arrived by plane at Love Field in Dallas and was picked up shuttle from Town North Mazda in Richardson.
“He was pretty impressed with the vehicle and dealership,” said Alex Tsvang, Town North Mazda’s new car sales manager.
Tsvang said that in his 17 years he’s been with Mazda, it’s the furthest anyone has traveled to pick up a car.
The special edition car has different paint, leather and other details that make it distinct from the standard Miata, Tsvang said. It sells for about $33,000, about $3,000 more than a standard model.
Roberts started filling out paperwork to have the car shipped to Arizona, but was so impressed that he decided to drive it back, Tsvang said.
“He said, ‘Oh, man. I want to drive it now,”’ Tsvang said.
J.J. Pearce High School alumni, who graduated in the mid- to late-1970s, gathered on the school's soccer field on May 1. After their friend and fellow teammate, Rob Harper of Carrollton, died in January, members of the group began efforts to establish an award and memorial fund in his honor.(Photo by Heather Noel/neighborsgo)
Rob Harper had a passion for soccer.
From his days playing in Richardson and at J.J. Pearce High School to coaching and refereeing youth soccer in Carrollton, the game played at part throughout his life.
Rob Harper
The real-estate developer died at 52 in January from a blood clot because of complications after a skiing accident. After their friend’s death, fellow J.J. Pearce alums Tommy Jones and Brad Scott, as well as others who knew Harper on and off the field, were called to do something in honor of their friend and former teammate.
When I first talked with Jones and Scott earlier this spring they were working to establish an award in Harper’s honor at Pearce. At the time they mentioned plans to also create a memorial fund to fulfill Harper’s wish to help more kids have the opportunity to play soccer.
“We want to make a difference for kids in the North Texas area that want to play soccer,” Scott told me earlier this year. “We want to give them an avenue to play soccer, find a team and have the experience and build the relationships that we had.”
Now, the Rob Harper Memorial Fund has been established under the FC Dallas Foundation. The intent of the fund is to provide financial support to at-risk and underprivileged youth who wish to play soccer on the recreational level.
In partnership with the FC Dallas Foundation and the Friends of Rob, a sporting clay tournament Friday at Elm Fork Shooting Sports in Dallas will be the first major fundraiser for the memorial fund.
Jones said given this is the first time for the event, he didn’t know quite what to expect.
“When we set out to do this we weren’t sure how much money we were going to raise, but it looks like we are going to be raising at least $35,000,” Jones said.
Money from the fund will be dispersed by the FC Dallas Foundation, but Jones said he has requested funds are first focused on soccer associations in Richardson and Carrollton.
“That’s where he had his involvement both as a player growing up, as a coach, as a referee and just a parent watching his kids,” Jones said.
The plan is to make the sporting clay tournament an annual event. Jones said there may also be other events in the future that will raise money for the memorial fund.
“We are really focused on this event, but we will come up with something probably quarterly,” Jones said.
TEXAS SHOOTOUT
When: 9 a.m. Friday
Where: Elm Fork Shooting Sports, 10751 Luna Road in Dallas
Cost: $150 per a shooter
More info: fcdallas.com/community/txshootout
The Mouse Tree after storms came through Richardson.(Photo by William J. 'Bill' McCalpin)
There is a creek in northwest Richardson that is so puny that it doesn’t even have a name. The creek runs about 500 yards from the Reservation’s Mimosa Park to the west branch of Cottonwood Creek. Just a few feet from where the creek crosses under North Cheyenne Drive, a tree stood anonymous and nearly invisible for 30 years. Rooted in the side bank of the creek, the tree grew first sideways, then clawed its way up to the sky. Pushing and shoving, the tree grew this way and that, so that it was gnarled and twisted, with nary a straight line to be found. It had no single leader, but multiple stems reaching upwards as they dodged and weaved through the taller, older trees that predated it.
Even for a hackberry, the tree was hideous.
Not only was the tree unpleasant to the eye, but it was covered top to bottom with sticker vine, a vine rife with thorns that was able to grow straight out of the undergrowth upward of six feet, twisting and turning and looking for a branch or trunk to latch on to. Because the hackberry was stunted, it became the favorite target of sticker vines, and for many years, the tree resembled nothing so much as a Halloween set decoration. From time to time, its own leaves were outnumbered by the leaves of the vines, and the vines covered the tree with a ghoul-like shroud.
Scionnach(Photo by William J. 'Bill' McCalpin)
Scionnach was a teenaged cat when he came to us. He had a natural ability to take down prey like mice and birds and lizards even though he lived inside 23 and a half hours a day. He kept the attic clear of rodents – important when you live on two creeks and they always find a way in – and when allowed outside under our watchful eyes, he stunned us with his ability to find prey that really should have been better adapted to the outdoors than he.
Cats are not human beings; they have no sense of the “ugly” that we so easily label people and animals and plants with. One day, Scionnach caught a mouse in the side yard. The mouse had come down a certain particular ugly hackberry tree, and Scionnach made an easy and happy score. From then on, when Scionnach was allowed outside, he would go to that tree and sit in its shadow, waiting for the tree to produce another gift for him.
Far North Dallas resident Betty Robbins (right) interacts with potential customers Sunday while standing next to one of her biographical paintings, a staple of her work, at the Cottonwood Art Festival. (Staff photo by Daniel Houston/neighborsgo)
Out of the 240 artists selected for last weekend’s Cottonwood Art Festival in Richardson, only 19 call the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area home.
Festival director Serri Ayers told neighborsgo editor Daniel Houston recently that the focus is on quality and the objective is to bring “the best art in the country,” to Richardson.
If you are an aspiring artist who hopes to secure a spot in the next installment of Cottonwood, here are some things jurors consider (read more about Cottonwood Art Festival in the full feature here)…
Consistency of style and authenticity is evaluated by examining high-resolution images of submissions from each artist.
Reproductions of artworks must be limited edition, signed and numbered.
No preferential treatment is given to local artists in the selection process.
Britt Berrett, clinical professor at UTD's Jindal School of Management, will be one of two keynote speakers at the AccessAbility Summit on Monday.
Michael Thomas, a Special Needs Insider blogger and non-profit executive for My Possibilities, recently wrote about the University of Texas at Dallas’ first annual AccessAbility Summit.
This event, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, is free and open to the public, and will include a panel of representatives from different disability groups. (You can read the full post here)
Here are four objectives Monday’s summit will cover:
1. Identifying areas of focus for improvement in 2014-2015
2. Incorporating individuals with disabilities in the UT Dallas emergency planning process in order to ensure those needs are addressed during an emergency response
3. Discussing and identifying how public transit and other forms of transportation can facilitate travel for people with disabilities around campus and the community
4. And identifying the universal design approach for UT Dallas faculty to support all students.
ArtStop Children’s Area at Richardson's biannual Cottonwood Art Festival includes activities ranging from necklace making to canvas painting. (Photo by Sarah Pricer)
Cottonwood Art Festival is a fun, family event, and as I’ve previously written, we go as much for the food as we do for the art. There’s another aspect worth mentioning though, the main reason the art fest has become a biannual tradition for our family.
Enter ArtStop Children’s Area, a fenced-off section of the park dedicated to encouraging the artistic whims of the younger set. According to Cottonwood Art Festival’s website, “ArtStop creates a hands-on world of art with life-sized paint brushes and dozens of activities irresistible to any child.” Call me a cynic, but in my mind, “irresistible to any child” reads “we’re offering expensive and useless junk for which your children will inevitably beg.” Fear not, wary parents. ArtStop for kids is fantastic, as long as you have time to suffer the lines.
The awesome: It’s affordable. Cost is $1 per a ticket, and projects range from two to four tickets per craft. There are free activities like chalkboards and necklace making for the little ones to enjoy, and the ticketed projects are really neat.
Kids can also create pottery on real pottery wheels at ArtStop. (Photo by Sarah Pricer)
While some of the activities (hat making and tile painting) are geared toward the younger set, there are also cool things designed to appeal to the older kids, too. These include creating pottery on real pottery wheels, canvas painting, and the ever-popular “fancy fun fingers,” a kid-friendly way of saying “we’ll make you stand in line for an hour and a half in order to alternately stick your hand in ice water and hot wax.” Kiddos go nuts for this stuff, and it’s pretty cool to have your little one’s hands frozen in time. The entrance is between the restrooms (y’all know why this is a plus — when kids gotta go, they gotta go!), and the music area. This is mostly a good thing, depending on your music preferences. The scheduled artists are listed online, so you can plan your visit to ArtStop accordingly.
The less-awesome: Have I mentioned the lines? They’re not for the faint — or the disgruntled — of heart. Maybe going early can help ensure shorter wait times, but even with just the two kids, “early” really isn’t in our repertoire, so I can’t speak to that tactic.
That said (because I’m an optimist), the good thing about the wait time is that it provides ample opportunity to make new friends. For example, my husband and two other dads bonded over college football, my husband relaying plays as quickly as ESPN.com updated its mobile site. My daughter also made a friend in the line, and so strong was their bond by the time it was their turn, they had made it to “BFF status” and decided to do their “fun fingers” linked together. In fact, they made two fun fingers wax creations, so each could take one home. Our apologies to the 20 people waiting in line behind us. We did not know that a) this was their plan, or b) it would take 17 tries to make it work without breaking.
Even if ArtStop is the only stop you get to make at Cottonwood Art Festival, it’s certainly a worthy one. We might not get to see much of the rest of the festival, but we always end up with some beautiful, original, handmade art, which is kind of the point, right? And if you really can’t handle the long lines waiting for mini-genius to occur, as one disgruntled dad grudgingly admitted with a sweeping toast, “at least it’s close to the beer.”
Sarah Pricer grew up in the Dallas area and spent time in the Marine Corps after high school. She earned a BA in political science and minor in human rights from Southern Methodist University. Though she’s new to blogging, she has always enjoyed writing.
