Who Are You Calling Tacky?! At Festive Function, YoPros Stuff Backpacks Instead of Stockings

Daniel Ortiz and Michelle Watson
Who Are You Calling Tacky?! At Festive Function, YoPros Stuff Backpacks Instead of Stockings

Jeff Carnrite and Joselyn Tego

NEARLY 2,000 BOOKS were bundled up and distributed to local kiddos, thanks to the young-professional supporters of the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation.


Forty guests donned their tackiest sweaters to a festive event at the Children’s Museum, where they stuffed backpacks with books, school supplies and sensory toys, all of which were purchased using the funds from the organization’s Storybook Gala. The next day, they distributed the backpacks at San Francisco Nativity Academy of Houston and Small Steps Nurturing Center, where they found dozens of kids eager to continue their learning through reading, writing and critical thinking.

Members of the Foundation’s young professional group are proud to carry out its mission of breaking the intergenerational cycle of low literacy in Houston.

Alexa Bode and Grace Gosnell

Victoria Villarreal and Allie Jarreau

Eleni McGee and Lindsey Hennigan

Stephanie Marcos

Saqqara Campbell and Jennifer Thompson

Cameron Nazminia

Kevin Aguilar, Ashley Monic, Elyssa Buntzell, Cameron Crenwelge, Eleni McGee, and Grace Gosnell

Pre-K student at San Francisco Nativity Academy looking through his new book

San Francisco Nativity Academy students holding up their new books

Students with their new books

A next-gen artificial heart from BiVACOR has successfully been implanted in a patient at Texas Heart Institute. The patient survived more than a week, until a donor heart was found for a transplant.

THE PIONEERING CARDIOVASCULAR inventors and surgeons at The Texas Heart Institute (THI) in the Texas Medical Center have made another huge leap forward in the treatment of heart disease, officially announcing yesterday what they’re calling a “monumental advancement."

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People + Places

Rachel Gardner with her flower necklaces and, at left, Calla Lilly necklace

ON SATURDAY JULY 27, Foltz Gallery presents Endless Summer, a lively, playful exhibit of works by a multi-generational group of 28 emerging and established Texas-based artists. Taking its name from the 1974 Beach Boys double-album, which compiled the group’s early 1960s hit singles, the show is a visual “mixtape” of colorful paintings, prints, photographs, wall-based installations, ceramics and sculptures, installed lovingly throughout Foltz’s spacious and sunlit galleries. Among the works in Endless Summer are several examples of handmade “sculptural jewelry” by artist Rachel Gardner — a series of wearable wildflowers and fruits, including olives and strawberries.

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Art + Entertainment