Andy ZihlmAn

Girls varsity basketball head coach

Bishop Lynch High School, class of 1972

SCHOOL DAYS: Zihlman was the quarterback of the football team and ran track while a student.

“I enjoyed high school too much,” he says. “I wasn’t ready to leave high school yet.”

THE JOURNEY BACK: After graduating, Zihlman continued to help coach football part-time at Saint Paul School in Richardson. He worked with students of all ages, from kindergarten to eighthgrade.

“I just kind of took it and ran with it,” he says.

He graduated from East Texas State, which is now A&M Commerce, and continued coaching football, basketball and track part-time. When a full-time position opened up at Bishop Lynch in 1979, he returned to his alma mater.

WHAT’S CHANgED: Though he says the school has grown considerably over the last 10 years, “it’s like I never left.” During his time at Bishop Lynch, Zihlman has worked as a coach, dean of students, athletic director and even a driving instructor.

ALL iN THE fAmiLY: Zihlman’s wife, Teena, also is a Bishop Lynch 1972 graduate, and their three children graduated from the school as well. The students “know my family well,” he says.

WHAT’S THE SAmE: Zihlman enjoys being able to “practice his faith while teaching students. It’s a great blessing and great reward to work here.”

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Roma Provisions founder Samuel Bistrian describes the boots as a blend between a Burberry and a Hunter boot. The company’s adult knee-high rain boots retail for $78, and the children’s calf-high boots retail for $38. The boots are sold in several Dallas locations, including Ditto Boutique in Hillside Village, Jackson’s Home & Garden on Lemmon, and The Blue Jeans Bar in Snider Plaza. Visit romaprovisions.com for more information.

Bistrian says he saw a young girl in the freezing slush wearing only a pair of sandals. “Her ankles and feet were completely exposed to the elements,” he says. He watched as many children walked to school in knee-deep snow with terribly worn shoes.

Last year, the 28-year-old decided to address this problem head-on. His solu-

May 14, 2011 10AM-2PM tion was Roma Provisions, a hybrid company combining business with charity. The company designs and sells rain boots, and the company’s nonprofit arm, Roma for All, distributes boots to children living in poverty.

For every pair of Roma Boots sold, a new pair of boots — packaged with a coloring book and crayons in a bag that doubles as a backpack — will be given to a child living in the street.

Prior to launching Roma Provisions, Bistrian had retail experience working as a fur salesman NorthPark Center’s Neiman Marcus since 2004. While there, he had an opportunity to meet TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie. Blake explained that TOMS was focusing on Argentina and Ethiopia, and Bistrian saw a similar need for children living in cold climates in Eastern Europe.

“Providing proper footwear is just the first step to helping these children break out of the poverty cycle,” Bistrian says. “My broader plan is to empower these children by getting them back into the education system.”

He says many children don’t go to school. Instead, their parents send them out to beg on the streets.

“We have different connections throughout Romania,” Bistrian says. “So wherever we do a boot drop, we’ll be able to connect these kids with a local educational organization and say, ‘Hey we did this for these kids, but these kids need more than just a pair of rain boots. They need an education.’ ”

Roma Provisions takes its name from the Roma population of Central and Eastern Europe. Romania has the largest population of Romas, or gypsies. Many live on the streets, and Bistrian says about 80 percent of them are illiterate. The population is very persecuted, marginalized and discriminated against, he says.

Bistrian also chose the name “Roma” for his company because it is the word “amor” spelled backward. He speaks Spanish, and his wife is Columbian.

Since launching the company, Bistiran received a note from Mycoskie’s father thanking him for letting TOMS inspire him to help less fortunate children through Roma Provisions.

“It’s not a competition with Blake or TOMS. It’s more a complement to what he’s already doing,” Bistrian says.

Bistrian says customers are responding well — since its inception, the company has sold more than 500 boots.

Ditto Boutique in Hillside Village has carried Roma boots since December. Owner Jane DeNike says one of her clients is a friend of Bistrian, and he came to the store to tell her the company’s story.

“We were really glad that he chose us to carry his line in the Lakewood location,” DeNike says.

Even though it hasn’t been that rainy in Dallas, customers are buying the Roma boots, she says.

“We have a lot of people that really love the story about them,” DeNike says, adding that customers also love the boots’ colors and quality.

Roma Provisions has already donated twice as many boots as it has sold. Right around Christmas, after receiving his first shipment of rain boots, Bistrian distributed 1,000 pairs in Romania. Even though he hadn’t yet sold that many pairs, he knew the weather in Romania was already cold and that children needed the boots.

“The cause is greater to me than the business,” he says.

On Christmas Eve, Bistrian and his family loaded up a big van with rain boots and went from village to village distributing the boots to poor children.

“It was really an emotional time for me to go there and give them these gifts and see them so excited because they’ve never received a new gift life this,” he says.

Bistrian says this week in Romania was one of the most memorable weeks of his life.

“[The children’s] socks were damp with water and slush, and their feet were cold. To put a dry pair of rain boots on their feet and [see] their faces light up with excitement and gratitude, I was like, ‘Wow this is what I was created to do.’ I’m living my dream here.”

—ASHLEY HUDSON

STORY BY CHRISTINA HUGHESBABB

On a spring evening in 2010, a White Rock area couple had just settled in for a quiet evening at home when they heard a loud pop and the lights went out. In the garage, they saw flames shooting out of a breaker box.

“The fire extinguisher did nothing to help,” homeowner Karen Clardy says.

She had time to grab her purse and her dog and run to the lawn before her home was engulfed in flames.

“I just thought, ‘This isn’t happening.’ I’ve imagined before what I might try to save if my house ever caught fire. In reality, I didn’t have time for any of it,” she says.

Six fire trucks arrived within five minutes, but by then the house had suffered $190,000 worth of damage and would be unlivable for the next five months.

The source of the fire, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue reports, was the electrical panel, a Federal Pacific Electric Stab-Lok.

The Clardy fire quickly became the jumping-off point for discussion, followed by both a Dallas Morning News story and a NBC5 report about the Federal Pacific brand, which is a type of circuit breaker used in many homes built in our neighborhood in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

The panels are considered unsafe. A breaker, when overloaded, is supposed to automatically flip off, says Gus Antos, co-owner of Milestone electric company, but the FPE panels don’t always automatically turn off or “trip”. There has been at least one class action lawsuit (in New Jersey) against Federal Pacific Electric, and the company is no longer in business.

Clardy, whose misfortune was cited in both stories, says she doesn’t mind the media attention.

“I am glad people are learning about this,” she says. “If I’d have known that the panel was dangerous, I wouldn’t have thought twice about getting it replaced.”

But it’s not an easy decision for everyone. Replacement can cost as much as $2,500 or more in some cases, Antos says.

“I think of it like putting your seatbelt on. Chances are good that when you get in your car, you are not going to get in an accident, but that doesn’t stop you from buckling up, just in case. The difference is that this is a big expense for some people, and it’s not a sexy purchase.”

Luke Miller of East Dallas put it off for a while, but eventually decided to pay the price in the interest of safety.

“My wife and I just bought a home in Lochwood that contained the dreaded panel. After mixed advice, we decided to go ahead and replace it. We decided that peace of mind was worth the money,” he says. “We found a skilled, and moreimportantly, licensed electrician who did the whole job for around $1,200, and we’re really glad we went ahead and did it.”

Homeowner Keith Graham knew about the potential dangers of his FPE panel and wishes he hadn’t waited to replace his. Just after midnight on May 16, 2009, he and his wife, Kathleen, awakened to their “dogs barking like crazy,” and thought someone was breaking in.

Keith jumped into action.

“In the seconds between getting up and reaching the garage, I noticed the lights were out. I wondered, ‘Did they turn off our electricity?’ ”

He opened the garage door to an infer- no that had already engulfed the family car. He yelled at his wife to get their son, Jason, and get out. Smoke filled the house. He grabbed his phone, dialed 911 and ran out the front door hollering for his wife, but no answer. He ran back inside.

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A faulty electric panel made by Federal Pacific Electric, a company that is no longer in business, sparked a fire that caused about $190,000 worth of damage to a White Rock area home. The homeowners, in this case, escaped unharmed.

“I was screaming at the 911 operator, screaming for my wife and son at the same time, and then I heard the fire truck outside and they drove right by my house,” he says. “I ran out the door, chasing the truck, got their attention then ran back toward the house screaming. It was pure chaos.”

At that point, a neighbor told Keith that Kathleen and Jason were inside another neighbor’s home, but Keith was suffering from delirium caused by severe smoke inhalation.

“They found me wandering in a nearby yard. The next thing I remember was waking up in the ambulance with an oxygen mask on my face.”

The next day, the fire investigators told the Grahams that the blaze had begun in the electric panel.

“I knew it was a bad panel,” he says.

The family was preparing to embark on a remodeling project and Keith, who runs an East Dallas-based air conditioning company with his brother, Kelly, had

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