Last month, Vogel celebrated Design & Dine our fall event which hosted the 11th Annual Furniture 4 Kids design contest. For the past three years, Vogel had the pleasure of working with two great companies that founded the Furniture 4 Kids event. GL Seaman and OFS Brands are the two companies that founded the design competition and in doing so, have raised money for local nonprofits in the Dallas area.
Vogel is very appreciative of the time and efforts by both GL Seaman and OFS Brands to make each year a successful event. Special thanks to this year’s presenting sponsor, Clarus Glassboards.
As with all good competitions, the design competition was fierce. The challenge was to take a children’s set of table and chairs and create a beautiful, but functional, design incorporating this year’s theme of “Farm-to-Table”. This year’s talented design teams joined from the following companies: Benson Hlavaty, bkm Total Office of Texas, CallisonRTKL, Gensler, Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford, IA, Insite, Jacobs, lauckgroup, Page, and REES.
This year’s winners are:
- Best Thematic Design – Benson Hlavaty
- Craftsmanship Award – Rees
- Children’s Choice – Interior Architects
- People’s Choice – CallisonRTKL
- Children’s Champion – Gensler
- Best of Furniture 4 Kids! – Callison RTKL
This year’s event was unique in that it combines the best of the architecture and designer worlds in Dallas and amazing restaurants to raise money for a cause. The past three year’s, the event has raised money for our organization and the homeless children we serve.
This year’s event featured our Ambassadors of Hope Awards ceremony, in which Vogel honors the people, groups and companies that have helped us throughout the past year. Thanks to these generous groups and individuals, Vogel is able to continue to serve the youngest victims of homelessness and help break the cycle of poverty.
This year’s Ambassadors of Hope Award Winners are listed, along with their amazing contributions below.
30 years ago, two dynamic women founded and led the Dallas Jewish Coalition for the Homeless which became Vogel – they were Doris Budner and Thelma Vogel. Our first award is in honor of Doris Budner – the Doris Budner award is given to a person who has shown a special commitment through their leadership to advance the Vogel mission.
In all organizations, there is that one person – that holds the history of the organization in their brains – not as a means of holding on to the past, but instead to insure that the heart of the organization remains alive and well in all decisions that affect the vision and mission of the organization. For Vogel – that person is Alice Barnett. Alice Barnett has been involved on the board of Vogel since 1995. She served as Board President from 2002-2004 and as InterimDirector of Vogel in 2010. Through her years of leadership on the Vogel board she has served as Program Chair, Advocacy Chair, as well as a member of the Arts Event Executive committee, the 25th Anniversary committee, the Governance committee, the Strategy committee, and the nominating committee. Alice and her husband Bill have also been major donors to the organization for many years. Alice is the solid foundation of ensuring that Vogel’s mission stays firm as we navigate challenges, needed changes, and future growth opportunities. Alice has also been a tremendous asset to us as she brings her ”past lawyer” expertise to her ability to review contracts, analyze statistical reports, and draft policies! Thank you Alice for being a true Vogel champion.
Thelma Vogel was known by her friends as someone you could not say no to – she was a master at bringing people together to support Vogel. Our second award is in her honor – the Thelma Vogel Award – given to an organization for their vision and collaborative efforts in advancing services to homeless children and families.
The Weil Dodgeball planning team has held 5 dodgeball tournaments for Vogel. Beginning in 2012, they have reached out to corporations and groups across the DFW metroplex and involved them in Dodging for a Cause – with the results of raising $275,000 for the programs of Vogel. The event has been so successful it is now held in the American Airlines center. Because of their leadership, Vogel and our mission has been introduced to hundreds of companies in Dallas, and the event has been featured on WFAA Channel 8.
We are pleased to present the 2017 Thelma Vogel award to the Weil Dodgeball Planning team, represented (the evening of the event) by David Gail and Jonathan Macke. https://www.weil.com/locations/dallas
driversselect has supported Vogel for the past 2 years in a very creative way. If you walk into the driversselect showroom on Central Expressway – you won’t see cars as you would expect – you will see lots of the color orange and the faces of the children of Vogel hanging from huge banners. During the sales process each buyer is asked to make a $10 donation to support Vogel which is then matched by the corporation. To date they have raised approximately $75,000 to help support our mission.
We are pleased to present the Corporate Champion award to driversselect for their creativity, employee engagement, and generosity. The award is being accepted this evening by Ramon Mayo.
The Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District (formerly Convention and Visitor’s Bureau) has supported Vogel over the past 3 years as a founding sponsor of our Day 1 Dallas event – a children and families fair on New Year’s Day which we premiered in 2016. Launching a new event in Dallas is a major undertaking – but from the beginning vision meetings, they were on-board as a founding sponsor. This event has grown over the past 3 years – and we anticipate welcoming 30,000 people this year to come out and play on New Year’s Day and enjoy fireworks, food, and fun.
The 2017 Media Partner award is given to The Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District for believing in us from the beginning, providing financial support, and raising awareness of Day 1 Dallas. The award is presented to Gary Sanchez, Director of Public Affairs.
During the 2016-17 program year, 826 individuals volunteered at Vogel. However, one of these volunteers became so committed that some of our staff believe she is actually an employee rather than a volunteer.
Sydney Jordan is 21 years old and has been volunteering over the past year for a total of approximately 400 hours. She is well known by all the children and the teachers – and is a vital extra pair of hands in our classrooms. She has also recently made the decision to work toward a Child Development Associate credential and become an early childhood educator. We are very proud of her and are pleased to present the 2017 Volunteer Award to Sydney Jordan.
The holiday’s are a special time at Vogel. It is a time when the generosity of the Dallas community is manifested in a room FULL of toys, games, clothing – to create a holiday wonderland of gifts for the families that we serve. The North Texas Young President’s Organization has been our holiday elves brigade for the last 2 years and we are looking forward to having them support the 2017 Holiday store. The group has provided thousands of new toys, new clothes, and bye bye bag materials, while decorating the store and the building for the holidays. They also helped outfit our playground gardens and sand area, in addition to building shelving for additional storage.
The 2017 Kids Helping Kids Award is given to the North Texas Chapter of YPO, because they include their children and families in this project each year. In the last two years, the children of the YPO members have raised funds on their own to support the mission of Vogel as well as help their parents with the holiday store activities. Lynn and Carlos Vaz accepted the award for the group.
Vogel is fortunate to have a professional and supportive 42 member governing board that are all committed to our mission and vision. Mary Lee Broder is a shining example of this commitment, professionalism, and unwavering support to Vogel’s children and families. Mary Lee has been a board member since 2011, and currently serves on the Board Cabinet as Chair of the Development committee.
She has also served as a member of the Arts Event Executive committee, the Ambassador of Hope Awards luncheon committee, the Vogel Auxiliary, the 25th Anniversary committee, and the Vogel cookbook committee. She has been instrumental in the selection of talent and logistical details for the Vogel Arts event – now in its 27th year as our major fundraiser. As a board member she is professional, organized, responsive, and whatever she takes on she gets it done. Vogel thrilled to award the 2017 Board Excellence award to Mary Lee Broder.
It truly takes a village to move our mission forward and we are so fortunate to have community groups that are involved in supporting Vogel. The Yale Club of Dallas has chosen a project for Vogel for their annual Day of Service for each of the last 3 years. These annual service days have included over 250 volunteers, for a total of 600 volunteer hours. Each day as our children leave, they pick up a Bye Bye bag to take home which contains a drink and non-perishable snacks. These bye-bye bags are an important part of the children’s day – as many ride the bus or walk home – and dinner will be a few hours away.
The Yale Service Club has created over 2, 500 bye-bye bags for our children in the past 3 years. Numerous members of the club have also become regular volunteers who visit the facility to help interact with our infant, toddler, and preschool children. Others have gotten their scout group involved to assist in mulching our gardens and adding sand to our playground. We are pleased to present the 2017 Community Partner Award to the Yale Club of Dallas. Amy Peck accepted the award for the group.
To see all of the pictures for the evening, please visit (and like) our facebook page: www.facebook.com/vogelalcove.
To learn more about how you, or your company can get involved, please click here to email us for more opportunities to engage with our mission.
Thanks to all of our sponsors for a great evening!
Sponsors of Design & Dine 2017
Title Sponsor
- Clarus Glassboards
Inspiration Sponsors
- Bain & Company
- driversselect
- G.L. Seaman & Company
- OFS Brands
- Travis and Jackie Pittman
- Stockdale Investment Group
Innovation Sponsors
- Constellation Energy
- Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP
- Integra Seating / Hi5 Furniture
- Lisa and Bob Segert
- McKool Smith
- Oliver Wyman
- Renascent Constructors
- SLR Medical Consulting
- UNIVERA
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
- WellBridge Healthcare
Imagination Sponsors
- Alice and Bill Barnett
- Suzie Bovine and Alan Yonack
- Mary Lee and Michael Broder
- Danika & Company, LLC
- Global Furniture Group
- Rita Sue and Alan Gold
- Susan and Laurence Hirsch
- Kerri and Rick Lacher / Houlihan Lokey
