STAY IN THE LOOP

The 2024 HOC Grant Awards Celebration held on June 27th was a big success, and not only for the grant recipients. Overheard comments from some of the 37 guests (not made up by the writer of this article) include: "Wow!" "Fabulous food!" "Knocked it out of the park!" "So much positive energy and laughter!" "Truly a magical evening!" "The best HOC party I've been to in a while – or ever!"

Congratulations to all ten neighborhood association recipients, and many thanks to our VP of Grants, Cynthia Michaels (shown handing out the awards above – if you want to see more photos of the event – including the food – click here).

Curious about the results? Out of 34 grant applications submitted and reviewed, 30 were approved. All ten neighborhoods that applied will receive grant funds, totaling $24,042! Here's the neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdown:

• Beckley Club Estates: $554
• Brettonwoods: $1,154
• Elmwood: $469
• El Tivoli: $1,098
• Kiestwood: $811
• Stevens Park Estates: $1,680
• Stevens Park Village: $5,787
• West Kessler: $1,177
• Winnetka Heights: $3,000
• Wynnewood North: $8,312

We look forward to seeing all the improvements and attending all the events funded by HOC grants in the coming months. We also look forward to your grant applications for 2025, so start thinking and planning now. How can we help you?

Once again, Heritage Oak Cliff participated in Oak Cliff Earth Day at Lake Cliff Park. The April 21st event gave us all another opportunity to celebrate our green spaces and the environment, as well as think about the part we play in taking care of our planet moving forward.

Thank you to Cynthia Michaels for pulling all this together. Thanks, also, to our dedicated team of HOC volunteers for manning (and womanning) the HOC booth: Barbara Macleod, Ryan Stepp, Cirzy Gonzalez, George Roberts, Janice Coffee, Terry Thomas and others. We sold a lot of cups, shirts and books. We also met and talked with lots of newer and younger neighbors, all of whom were very interested in their neighborhood and the role of HOC. Plus, one lucky booth visitor will win our raffle for a free year of membership.

We also enjoyed seeing representatives from many of the HOC neighborhoods. Happy Earth Day, everyone!

The March 14th book event featuring Gregory M. Hasty and his book Oak Cliff and the Missing Pieces was a cover-to-cover success. More than 25 people attended the Kessler Community Church reading, discussion and fundraiser. They bought 16 autographed books, the proceeds of which went to Mercy Street, For Oak Cliff and Good Street Baptist Church.

The crowd was very involved in Mr. Hasty's fascinating presentation, asked a lot of questions and learned some surprising things about the area, including it's origin story beginning in the 1800s and the fact that Dallas once had the largest KKK membership in the nation. "Hearing about the people who started the different areas of Oak Cliff and what they all went through was the highlight for me," said one attendee.

"Thank you, Cynthia (Michaels) and David (Preziosi), for organizing this wonderful event," said the author.

And thank you to all who attended and participated. If you're curious about the book, you can buy it on Amazon here.

Stay tuned for more book events down the road. 

On December 11, close to 60 people attended the beautiful 2023 Heritage Oak Cliff Holiday Celebration at 445 Events. We had raffle winners and service award winners, but at this event, everyone was a winner. The room was decorated in sophisticated black and gold (including a black and gold Christmas tree), the hors d’oeuvres were d’licious, the company was fantastic and everyone enjoyed our special just-for-the-occasion beverage, The Cliff (vodka, cranberry juice and elderflower liqueur). Thank you, Trudy Newton, VP of Membership, for making this a celebration worth celebrating.

Congratulations to everyone reading this article for a successful HOC year; you make our community great. And a special congratulations to our service award winners: David Preziosi and Donovan Westover are our 2023 Neighborhood Champions, and Mike Matthews is our 2023 Fundraising Champion.

If you’d like to see more photos from the event, check out the photo album here (photos by 2nd2Nunn Photography).

What a success!!

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for the Fall Home Tour and a big thank you to all of our amazing homeowners who opened their doors to us and all of the wonderful house sponsors, advertisers, and partners of the event!

We look forward to using the proceeds of the tour next year in the form of grants to help neighborhoods across Oak Cliff!