The Savvy List’s Summer Issue recaps the stories of Spring’s successful outreach and fundraising events. With 2025 off to an amazing first half, there’s still more to come this Fall. North Texans are blessed to live in a community that exudes care, kindness and compassion year after year.
JFS Celebrates 75 Years of Service; Anticipates the Opening of A New Homebase
Since 1950, Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Greater Dallas has served as an open door to all in need. It has impacted hundreds of thousands in its mission to provide whole-person care and promote self-sufficiency and well-being.
From aiding refugees who arrived in Texas after World War II, to providing natural disaster relief, career training and primary medical care, JFS has evolved to meet the needs of the community. Rooted in Jewish values, JFS serves as an open door to all in need. It provides regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, or ability to pay. Last year, JFS’s wraparound services impacted 26,000 unduplicated individuals.
Nearly 600 supporters and community leaders gathered to celebrate this important milestone at the Hilton Anatole Hotel on May 8.
Guests enjoyed entertainment by the Jordan Kahn Orchestra. Dancing, food stations, an open bar, silent auction, and a luxury raffle all led to a hugely successful event.
The Opening of the Organization’s New 100,000-Square-Foot Home in 2026.
The funds raised at the Diamond Anniversary Gala bring JFS closer to achieving its $40 million Meeting the Moment Capital Campaign. It will culminate with the opening of the Karla and Larry Steinberg building, located in Addison. It includes an expansive food pantry, career and financial services, family violence intervention resources and behavioral and medical services. JFS is one of the few nonprofits that provides these comprehensive services under one roof.
Susser, Sam L. Susser, Sam
E. Susser
(Susser Bank, Title Sponsor)
By 2028, with the new building established, JFS has set lofty goals. It expects to serve approximately 50,000 individuals across all agency services. It also plans to increase client visits from 29,000 to 120,000. And it wll increase pounds of food distributed from 450,000 to 1.4 million.
Co-Chairs Lori and Mike Cohen, Ann and Michael Ochstein, Karla and Larry Steinberg, and Julie and Michael Zimmermann joined Honorary Co-Chairs Sharon and Eric Goldberg, Ynette and Jim Hogue, Susie and Joel Litman, Stanley Rabin, Jackie and Steve Waldman, and Donald Zale along with JFS leadership in presenting this special evening at the Hilton Anatole Dallas, celebrating 75 years of JFS’s service to the community.
KidneyTexas Celebrates its 26th Year
Runway Report is KidneyTexas’ signature fundraiser. It supports a mission to improve the lives of children and adults living with kidney disease in North Texas. All funds raised from the Runway Report event stay in North Texas. Beneficiaries include Texas Health Resources Foundation, Children’s Medical Center Foundation, Baylor Scott and White Dallas Foundation, Camp Reynal and Southwest Transplant Alliance.
This year’s Runway Report theme—The French Connection—celebrates the life-saving collaboration between French and American doctors in the fight against kidney disease. Dr. Jean Hamburger of France laid the foundation for kidney transplantation. Born and educated in Europe, Dr. Willem Kolff is credited with dialysis innovations that transformed treatment options worldwide. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1950 to join the Cleveland Clinic Foundation research staff.
Today, research teams from institutions like INSERM in France and the National Institutes of Health in the US continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.
Runway Report 2025 is scheduled for Friday, September 26, 2025 at The Ritz-Carlton Dallas. It will present a fashion show produced by Robyn Chauvin featuring the latest styles by NorthPark Center. A delicious luncheon prepared by the executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton Dallas will follow.
Actor and Activist Victor Rivas Rivers Advocates for the Essential Work of Rainbow Days at
The 28th Annual Pot of Gold Luncheon
In 1999, with a successful career and family of his own, Victor Rivas Rivers decided to break his silence about his childhood and the intervention of his community. This enabled him to turn his life around dramatically.
In telling his own story, Rivers speaks to the essential work of groups such as Rainbow Days. Its mission is to make meaningful connections with at-risk and homeless children and youth. To date, Rainbow Days has positively impacted more than 263,000 kids in the Dallas area.
His Story
Born in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, Rivers came with his family to this country at the age of two. He endured horrific child abuse and witnessed domestic violence on the level of torture at the hands of his father. At age 15, Rivers took the then unprecedented legal action against his father. We went on to live with a series of foster families. But wiith the help of his community, he went from hard-core gang member to senior class President and lettered in four sports. He attended Florida State University on a full four-year football scholarship and was mentored by Coach Bobby Bowden. A team captain and scholar-athlete, upon graduation he was drafted by the Miami Dolphins and played an offensive lineman for their 1978/79 seasons.
Following his stint with the Dolphins, and at the advice of his adopted brother, actor Steven Bauer, Rivers began taking acting classes. He was soon cast in a production of MARAT/SADE in the role of a mute prison guard. Rivers is known for such roles as Magic Mike, the prison gang warlord in the cult hit Blood In/Blood Out, Eddie Murphy’s sidekick in The Distinguished Gentleman, and Antonio Banderas’ ill-fated brother in The Mask of Zorro. He has also worked on television series like “Better Call Saul,” “Modern Family,” and “C.S.I. Miami”.
Rainbow Days
Founded in 1982, Rainbow Days helps children and youth in adversity build coping skills and resilience to create positive futures through support groups, life enrichment programs, and critical needs services. Rainbow Days is the developer of the evidence-based, nationally recognized CBSG® Program, a support group curriculum based on SEL principles. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) encompasses the process of developing the skills necessary for self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center Rolls Out The Love with a Center Table Mother’s Day Drive-Thru Food Giveaway Event
The Center Table, a food distribution program launched in May 2020, was initiated by Mark Cuban to address the challenges faced by families during the pandemic. It has continued distributing meals and household items to families in need throughout North Texas thanks to a partnership with the North Texas Food Bank and the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center. The program has provided over 75,000 meals since its inception
The Archer Foundation—Helping Other Families Facing DIPG
Funds raised at the Archer Foundation’s Spring Golf Scrambles held last April at Firewheel Golf Course in Garland and this May at Indian Creek Golf Club in Carrollton will go directly to support families whose children are diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pons Glioma, a rare, extremely aggressive tumor of the brain stem.
The Dallas-based Archer Foundation is dedicated to providing financial support for day-to-day expenses, travel to treatment or clinical trials anywhere in the country and enhancing a patient’s quality of life. It is a devastating journey for a family to walk, but with your support, the Archer Foundation is ensuring that they will never have to walk it alone.
