2008 BRANCH SCHOOL GALA
Historic Branch School Gala Raises Record $98,790 – Celebrating 30 Years of Inspiring Young Minds to Take Wing
What a landmark anniversary it was! 235 guests enjoyed a lively evening offering dinner, music, and dancing, as well as silent and live auction bidding at beautiful nearby Lakeside Country Club. It was also an opportunity to honor Ann Hightower. * Ann is our volunteer Outdoor Classroom teacher and Branch School Trustee, who is a retired ExxonMobil chemical engineer and woman of distinction in the Houston community.
Successful Evening Highlights
Parents, friends, grandparents, alumni, and corporate sponsors gathered to enjoy a celebration of 30 years of educational excellence and to raise funds that directly benefit TBS students. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of a $50,000 check to Head of School, Emily Smith by Edwin J. Jennings III (see photo). This generous donation is dedicated to the upgrading of the school playground track and fall zones. Another $23,000 raised will be put towards new playground equipment. An additional $10,000 raised during the evening was contributed to the 2007-2008 Annual Fund. Due to the most gracious gift from benefactor Edwin Jennings and proceeds from the evening our Branch School students will be enjoying an updated playground very soon. Renovations are now in progress! Lloyd Joyce, who is grandparent to two Branch School students, kept the evening moving with a spirited and humorous live auction. Grand total between the live and silent auctions raised approximately $17,000.
Gala Committee
The dedicated gala committee consisting of Betsy West, Robyn Joyce, Jenni Granero, Mary Jones, Brigette Perkins, Carolyn White, and Jane Williams worked tirelessly for months in preparation for the event. By all accounts this event was a success and an opportunity for The Branch School community past and present to connect.
Development Manager Cheryl Crandall says, “It was a delight to work with parents who devoted themselves to helping with every detail of the event. Everyone had a great time that evening, and that’s just as important as how much money was raised.”
Sincere appreciation goes to all who contributed with in-kind gifts including Left Right Studio for the exquisite art design for signage, save-the-date postcard, and the invitations featuring 30 Years of Inspiring Young Minds to Take Wing. Another major thank you goes to Tony B and the Genious for providing Reggae/Calypso/Solka sounds for the evening. Many guests took pleasure from the dancing to the Caribbean sounds!
Honorary Chair: “I thought the event was fun and fabulous and brought everybody together including alums. The best of the evening was the auctioneer. He was so entertaining and a hoot! He was the highlight of my evening. It ended the evening on a high note.”
Gala Chair Betsy West says: “We are most grateful for the various donors who donated their time and talent to this fundraising cause. I also had a talented and dedicated team of parents to work with preparing for this event. We are very excited that we were able to raise so much for the playground”.
Quotes from event guests:
Quote from past board member: “It was obvious how much love and care went into the planning and execution of the gala as well as the generosity shown to the school. I thought the food was flawless. I loved the music and just could not help but want to get up and dance.”
Staff member:
“It was certainly one of the best attended events that I’ve seen for The Branch School.”
Teacher quote: “I loved having our event at such a beautiful location… with many of our old and new friends….”
Note from friend of the school: “This (note) really is addressed to all of you who provided so many of us with a wonderful Gala evening. I was so pleased to be a part of it.
Thank you all for the dedication of all who worked to make not only the evening but the 30 years a success!”
*Additional information on Ann Hightower that richly qualifies her for working with our students and broadening their math, science, and environmental education skills:
- Retired ExxonMobil Chemical Engineer,
- Master Gardener
- Recipient of 2006 YMCA “Woman Volunteer in Community Service” Award
- Branch School Trustee and Outdoor Classroom Instructor
- Member of the Society of the Women Engineers Liaison to Girl Scouts and Counselor to Rice Student Section
- Houston Audubon Society- active member
- Native Plant Society –active member
- Urban Harvest – Member of School and Youth Committee
- Greater Houston Interfaith Ministries
- Rice Faculty Women
- Hospitality Apartments in Houston
- President of Property Owners Association
- Church Trustee
- Sunday School teacher for 30 years
OUR NEW POND
Thanks to the generosity of the Cacioppo Foundation, we have a beautiful new pond that is just starting to fill up with native wildlife.
Dug with volunteer labor over August and early September, it’s about 7 feet at its widest and 14 feet long. It includes two habitat areas—an open-water pond about 7 feet by 11 feet, and a bog. The bog is designed to clean the water just as wetlands do in nature: a pump at the far end of the pond recirculates water to the bottom of the bog where it flows gently out through perforated pipe (see gallery for photo) and up through gravel and past plant roots to return to the pond over a gentle waterfall the width of the pond. The two habitats will attract a wider variety of species than an open pond alone would, and the bog will help maintain water clarity so students can observe pond “happenings” more easily.
We are continuing to landscape the area surrounding the pond to make it more hospitable to its new citizens. The first pond plants were purchased at the Native Plant Society of Texas’s Wildscape Workshop for their value to dragonflies, and we have already seen four species of dragonfly visiting.
Our Outdoor Classroom will be studying dragonflies along with a variety of other Texas native pond and wetland creatures this fall as our introduction to these new habitats. Our older students have begun a field investigation of toad habitats, and will be installing their original designs of “toad abodes” in our wildscape at the end of the month. They will monitor them through October, to determine what features prove most attractive.
Stay tuned for more developments, including a “pond-cam” link to the website, showing what’s happening around the pond.
Take a look at our Monthly Calendar or the
Year at a Glance to see what is happening at The Branch School.
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