Local Literacy Nonprofit — and the Astros! —Turns the Page at Record-Breaking Bash

Local Literacy Nonprofit — and the Astros! —Turns the Page at Record-Breaking Bash

Deviyani Misra-Godwin and Paul LeBlanc

LITERACY NOW, A Houston nonprofit dedicated to empowering children through reading, hosted its most successful fundraiser ever at the St. Regis Hotel.


Its 14th annual “Magnums Make a Difference” gala, which included a four-course meal along with silent and live auctions, brought in more than half a million dollars, which will go directly to helping students in HISD and Aldine ISD, where thousands of K-2nd grade students currently need reading intervention that the districts cannot provide.

The evening honored Bhakti Khatri-Horton and Monsterville Horton IV, longstanding Literacy Now board members who pioneered the gala 13 years ago, and also recognized third-grade student April, who appeared with Literacy Now CEO Jacque Daughtry on the Kelly Clarkson Show this spring to show off how far she’s come in her reading progress.

The hundreds of attendees stuck around to catch the end of the Astros’ World Series game 6 — and then the celebrations continued into the night.

Steve Kesten, Lynee Larson and Bret Pardue

Jacque Daughtry and third-grader April

Lokesh Chugh and Jusleen Karve

Monsterville Horton IV and Bhakti Khatri-Horton

Jacque Daughtry, Dylan and Monsterville Horton IV

People + Places
HOUSTON WAS DEALING with crisis levels of pet homelessness before Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on the city. But this week, Houston PetSet coordinated with The Babinski Foundation, an animal shelter in Minnesota, to provide relief across multiple channels.
Keep Reading Show less
People + Places

Jack Vielhauer, Cher Baker, Lindsay Yates, Sarah Smith, Aaron Matthews, Mario Gudmundsson

SEVERE WEATHER — NO, not the Derecho or Hurricane Beryl, but one of the other storms that have battered Houston this season — did its best to derail CityBook’s second annual “Cool 100” party. But hundreds of H-Town’s most notable VIPs and influencers braved the elements and made the event a smash.

Keep Reading Show less