Spirited HMH Lunch Celebrates Human Rights and Holocaust Education

Priscilla Dickson
Spirited HMH Lunch Celebrates Human Rights and Holocaust Education

David W. Leebron and Y. Ping Sun, Barbara J. Herz and Khambrel Marshall

DURING A MOVING program at the Hilton Americas hotel, more than 800 supporters of the Holocaust Museum Houston (HMH) honored Y. Ping Sun and David Leebron’s marked contributions to the organization and to the city over the course of their two decades here.

The Guardian of the Human Spirit luncheon annually celebrates individuals and institutions who work to make the world a better place. This year’s event — attended by a true who’s-who of Houston society, including Lynn Wyatt, Nancy and Jack Dinerstein, Beth Wolff, Jim Crownover, Mayor Sylvester Turner, Annise Parker, and several consul generals — brought in nearly $700,000. ABC News anchor Juju Chang, who has reported on injustice and racial equity for decades, joined virtually to give a keynote address.

Previous recipients of the Guardian of the Human Spirit Award include Lester and Sue Smith, Barbara and Gerald Hines, the Astros Foundation and H-E-B, among others.

Cynthia and Bucky Allshouse

Laura McWilliams and Barbara Vilutis

Brian Caress and Jessica Strehlow

Anne Chao, Stephanie Tsuru and Jane DiPaolo

Jeri and Marc Shapiro

Lynn Wyatt and Mady Kades

Richard Loewenstern and Kelly J. Zúñiga

Charles Hurwitz, Silvia Garcia and Frank Liu

Soner Tarim and Nancy Li-Tarim


Parties

Helen Winchell, Marti Grizzle, Brittany Franklin, Jensen Wessendorff

HUNDREDS OF TREE-LOVING Houstonians savored and celebrated the good life at the La Dolce Vita-themed, 30th-annual Root Ball benefiting Trees for Houston.

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Parties

Leah Lax

A PANICKED MOTHER traveling by foot from El Salvador to reach the U.S.-Mexico border rubs crushed garlic cloves on her skin to ward off the cottonmouth snakes crawling over her legs. A group of half-starved teenage Vietnamese refugees on a boat they hoped would ferry them to safety huddle together as pirates board and steal all their possessions. At a UN Refugee Office, a father of six and a member of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (a minority ethnic group based in southern Nigeria) whose leadership had been executed by a corrupt Nigerian government, is granted emergency refugee status. The interviewer reaches into her pocket and hands him money to smuggle his family out of Nigeria.

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