Articles Posted in Community Service

Yesterday it was fun going to the school I adopted many years ago to help the Cowtown Marathon. Its staff had come to the Rufino Mendoza Elementary School to give running shoes and socks to many students. I always enjoy being part of this Christmas in January because the children are so excited to get their gifts.

The Marathon pours over $200,000.00 each year into its charitable beneficiary, the Children’s Activities for Life & Fitness (C.A.L.F.) Program. This one-of-a-kind plan teaches our students the value of exercise, hard work, nutrition, and citizenship.

EDITED 2/10/20  The Marathon was just named as the best youth running program in the country by Running USA at the annual conference in Las Vegas this weekend. It was given a prize of $10,000 to invest into the C.A.L.F. Program. Congratulations to its Executive Director Heidi Swartz and her hard-working staff!

The staff goes to a whopping 125 schools and community centers and delivers an incredible 5,000 pairs of shoes and socks to underprivileged children. C.A.L.F. also pays for over 5,000 race registrations. Further, it helps train these kids so they can complete their own special children-only 5K race in late February. This is one of the largest races for youths in the U.S.

Every year, I pay for any child at my school, even their parents and teachers, to enter the race.

Thank you to the Cowtown Marathon for all that you do to help our students live better lives.

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Supporting our schools

It was a privilege to donate $1,000 to an amazing group called Meals on Wheels. The non-profit provides nutritious food to disadvantaged residents. Caps off to these kind-hearted elves!

Every morning a small army of 5,000 volunteers goes to work to prepare food, staff distribution points, and deliver the meals – at their own expense. They also stay to chat, make sure that these sweet senior citizens are doing well, and perform a safety check. For many recipients, this is their only social contact of the day and they eagerly await the visits. These volunteers are doing the Lord’s work.

Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County prepares and delivers an incredible one million meals a year to local residents. They even provide food for pets.

One of the greatest things about living in Fort Worth these last 40 years and in Texas going on 50 is how wonderful people are here. OK, I wasn’t born here but I got here as fast as I could!

So it was a pleasure to stumble upon the fifth annual Dance Marathon on Saturday morning when I was going to a spin class at the TCU Recreation Center.

Over 500 students and supporters of the Cook Children’s Medical Center stayed on their feet for 12 hours, often dancing, to raise money for this nationally ranked hospital. They raised $131,723.60, a huge amount of money. And the national Children’s Miracle Network has raised an incredible $250 million since it was founded. Congratulations to everyone who spent the last year preparing for this event.

Yesterday I enjoyed going to the school I adopted many years ago to help my friends at the Cowtown Marathon give away running shoes and running socks to the children. They were excited to get them. It felt like Christmas in February.

The children’s only 5K race sponsored by the Cowtown Marathon is in two weeks. No one else has a special race just for kids. I am delighted that over 5,000 of our area’s school children will run/walk. It has been named one of the top children’s running events in the United States.

The children have been training in their after-school running club since August. They have already participated in the C.A.L. F. Run in October and will also do the Zoo Run in April.

C.A.L.F. (which stands for Children’s Activities for Life and Fitness) is the charity beneficiary of the Cowtown. It also gives over $50,000 in grants to pay for over 5,000 low-income children to enter the race.

In addition, the Cowtown Marathon’s staff and volunteers go to over 100 schools, four or five a day, distributing about 5,000 shoes and socks and fits each child individually. Bravo to them for their hard work!

That’s why I have been one of the primary sponsors of C.A.L.F. and have served on its governing council since it was formed 10 years ago.

I go to the Rufino Mendoza Elementary School on the North Side of Fort Worth to mentor the students, support them financially, and give tips to the runners that I learned as I ran a marathon in all 50 states.

These are just more reasons why Fort Worth is such a great city to live in. I moved here after going to SMU Law School in Dallas and this is my 40th year as a resident – with 38 of them overlooking the the course of the marathon (my first one, another reason Cowtown is special to me) on the Trinity River.

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Berenson Injury Law has assisted federal workers who are working without pay by donating 2,500 meals to the Tarrant Area Food Bank.

Yesterday, Mr. Berenson met with Stephen Raeside, the Senior Director of Development, to deliver a check and tour the facilities.

The Food Bank serves 50,000 individuals each week — and that was before the government shutdown.