What gives?

from 2013 April Lake Highlands

Wild for cats

Small ways that you can make a big difference for nonprofits

Lose the tie, don the go-go boots ... and attend the 1960s-themed No Tie Dinner and Dessert benefitting AIDS services of Dallas, featuring sweets from Frosted Art Bakery, Cheesecake Royale and Kessler Cookie Company, to name a few. The party gets underway April 6 at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, 6911 Lemmon, at 7 p.m. A $50 donation garners guests access to unforgettable food, and, according to organizers, “the hippest event of 2013.” Visit aidsdallas.org for more information.

Thank a police officer by participating in the White Rock 5K to benefit families of Dallas Police Officers on April 18. The 5K course winds along the shores of White Rock Lake. Park at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther. Event organizers ask attendees to carpool, if possible. Registration begins at 5 p.m. at West Tower of Doctors Hospital at 9330 Poppy Drive, and the race starts at 7 p.m. Online registration is $30 through Sunday, April 7. After that, registration will be $35 though Tuesday, April 16 at midnight. Race day fee is $40. Visit the whiterock5K.com. want more? Sign up for the weekly newsletter and know what’s happening in our neighborhood. Visit advocatemag.com/newsletter/lh to sign up.

Pull on your gardening gloves … volunteer at the Dallas Arboretum. What’s a better way to enjoy the spring than among the tulips? If you have a green thumb, become a garden and greenhouse worker to help plant, trim, weed and many other tasks. If you don’t have a green thumb, don’t worry; there’s opportunities for everyone. Volunteer in the gift shop, office or visitor services. For more, visit dallasarboretum.org or contact Sue McCombs at 214.515.6561 or smccombs@dallasarboretum.org.

Know of ways that neighbors can spend time, attend an event, or purchase or donate something to benefit a neighborhood nonprofit? Email your suggestion to launch@advocatemag.com.

Writer in residence

Donna Gormly

After teaching English and creative writing at Eastfield College for almost three decades, Donna Gormly wanted to write a novel based on community college in the 1970s. But this other story — one about religion, politics and social dynamics in a rural Missouri town — was living inside her. So she penned her first novel, “The Tysen Hotel,” about a woman who challenges a small town’s influential Baptist preacher in an effort to protect her loved ones. The characters, who she says “sat on her shoulders as she wrote,” are largely based on people Gormly grew up around, though she has changed the names. Her father was a “fire and brimstone” Baptist preacher. Changing the names was tough, she says, because “they had such fabulous names in real life.” But she captures the nomenclatural essence with fictional characters such as Sample Forney and Ray Redeem. The plot — which capably carries themes of love, power, lust, abandonment and resilience tempered with a rich sense of humor — is full of fiction. The frightening and unflinching Baptist preacher, she insists, is not necessarily her father. But most of the strange little anecdotes in the novel are real. “Those parts that seem too crazy to be true, such as the story about a fast-moving three-legged dog, and about the character known around town for having an enormous sexual organ, are the true parts,” she says. Gormly has been in discussions about selling a screenplay version of “The Tysen Hotel.” Meanwhile, the 79-yearold, who lives in Lake Highlands with her husband, Paul, plans to begin work on a second project — the one about college.

The frightening and unflinching Baptist preacher, she insists, is not necessarily her father. But most of the strange little anecdotes in the novel are real.