The rug in Barbara Hyman and Robert Smithers’ living room once lived under their bed, until architect Laura JuarezBaggett convinced the pair to let the rug have its moment somewhere more visible. The two often recieve compliments about the rug, which has now become the center piece of the space. Read more on page 10. Photography by Lauren Allen.
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NEIL BROUSSARD
Neil Broussard left a life of sports marketing to serve the real estate needs of Lakewood. How? A chance lunch with Tom Rhodes turned into a change in careers nearly 20+ years ago. Now Neil represents everything from M-Street Tudors to historical Swiss Avenue to Lakewood new construction as a member of The Rhodes Group, one of Compass’ top producing groups. His sports management experience comes in handy on the fields of his own active kids—students at St. Thomas Aquinas. But the BBA business acumen he puts to good use every day, serving his clients with the best combination of honest insights and shrewd negotiation skills. Tom made Neil an “honorary Rhodes” years ago, but Lakewood made him Top Realtor and trusted friend.
Thinking of selling or just can’t decide? Give Neil a call.
Broussard
TRIAL BY FIRE
Story
A blow-by-blow of how Noe Mendoza Jr. balances life in the boxing ring and life in the courtroom
Noe Mendoza Jr. has a bit of a sniffle. He explains that his professor had been sick the previous weekend and since then, his classmates had been dropping like flies. Coughing, sneezing and a slew of other symptoms played a game of tag between him and his peers. It would seem that on this particular day, he was ‘it.’
Perhaps being sick is the only time things truly slow down for Mendoza, and maybe not even then. He’s a second year law student (also known as a 2L) at the University of North Texas and a boxer.
Law school is what brought him to Lakewood. While the South Texas-raised law school student was no stranger to southern hospitality, he found the charm of our neighborhood to be something unique.
It had been a year and a half since his arrival and the more he explored, the more he found to indulge in. He especially enjoyed running down Swiss Avenue.
“You have people walking their dogs, kids playing outside and so it really just brings that lively, vibrant energy that you would want from a neighborhood,” Mendoza says. “I really just enjoy living here.”
Mendoza is admittedly still exploring the neighborhood, having to find time between school and training for fights.
His last round of training took place
by AYSIA LANE | Photography by YUVIE STYLES
IWAS LOST FOR WORDS AT THE TIME. EVEN RIGHT NOW, IT KIND OF BRINGS TEARS TO MY EYES
in March and lasted three months. At 5 a.m. he’d be jogging four miles, before he would go to boxing training from 6 to 7:30 a.m. and head to legal training from 9 to 5 p.m.
The days would end with another four mile jog at 6 p.m. before reading for classes from 7 to 11 p.m.
Three months in the metaphorical ring, all in preparation for the real one.
THE UNDERCARD
When Mendoza first slipped his hands into a pair of boxing gloves, it wasn’t for fun and it wasn’t for sport. It was for self defense. Mendoza considered himself a bit of a “wimp” when he was a child. He was smaller than the other kids and was a late bloomer, making him the subject of bullying.
His father was an amateur boxer, who had taken on some professional fights in Mexico. After expressing concerns about his son’s safety, he began to take Mendoza to a boxing gym.
“He told me, ‘Look, I’m not gonna push this on to you, I just want you to be able to defend yourself,’ but I really enjoyed it,” Mendoza says. “I found it therapeutic.”
Soon enough Mendoza took such a liking to boxing that his father used it as a tool for him to get good grades, stating that lack of consistency on a report card could mean no more boxing.
He made it clear to Mendoza that learning to box was secondary to school and that the goal wasn’t to become some sort of “champion.”
But Mendoza was eager. After dabbling in other sports, he picked the gloves back up around his senior year of high school. He and his father ended up opening a gym.
“When I say ‘open up a gym,’ it’s not like, we got a warehouse and we got funding through
the city or anything,” Mendoza says. “We just extended our house, the roof on our house, and we converted our carport into a boxing gym.”
Kids in the neighborhood began to marvel at the home gym and watched Mendoza with a sense of awe.
“Maybe you should train them,” his dad would say.
Mendoza wasn’t too keen on the idea. He wanted to focus on his next steps after high school, and plus he didn’t even know how to coach. It took some convincing and it took some time, but eventually he started coaching the kids for $1 a day.
Mendoza recalls, in the summer of 2012, two kids approaching him before a session. The pair were brothers and carried brown sandwich bags with them. They handed the bags to Mendoza — filled with potato chips, ham and cheese sandwiches and sodas — saying that their parents couldn’t couldn’t pay the $1 fee.
“Can we still train?” the pair asked. They had paid for the meals with their food stamps.
“I was lost for words at the time. Even right now, it kind of brings tears to my eyes,” Mendoza says.
The conversation was unsettling to Mendoza. He had to figure out a solution. He consulted his father, who he consistently refers to as “strategic,” “calculated” and the “most reasonable man” he knows.
His father offered him a familiar solution: have the kids turn in their report cards. Good grades mean you get to train.
THE MAIN EVENT
Mendoza had dabbled with the idea of pursuing boxing professionally, something that he now reflects on as a “foolish” idea. His father gave him an ultimatum: live with him for free and go to community college, or pay rent and get a full time job while pursuing boxing. The third option silently loomed in the words not said — go out and find his own path.
“Given those options, I chose to go to school,” he says.
Two years later, he graduated from the community college and went on to Texas A&M University, studying philosophy and founding their boxing team. He was inspired after watching a taekwondo tournament in the recreation center on campus, waiting in line with other guys for a punching bag.
“Our interest drove us to ask the right questions, and we eventually got in contact with people on campus,” he says. “They gave us a step by step process on how to start a new club.”
By 2016, he had gotten the club off the ground but was unable to compete as a then-graduated student.
He was itching to put the gloves back on, to train. He decided to return to coaching. He began working at a local school district’s recreational center, coaching casual boxers and then would go to the campus, training students to compete. Then came 2018.
“Our team eventually grew. We branched out. We started traveling to compete. We were allocated some funds through the state to go and compete and participate in competitions,” he says. “And we did that for two years.”
The hamster wheel of boxing and school is still going strong. Mendoza has since competed nationally and led athletes to securing their own victories, all while chasing the steady dream of law at UNT. He interns, and serves as a board member for both the Sports Entertainment Law Student Association and the Hispanic Law Student Association at the university, all while maintaining a healthy passion for boxing.
The sniffles persist but so does Mendoza, after all, he has family looking to him to succeed.
“I just feel like my family is counting on me in many ways to break the generational barriers that have kind of held us back for so many years” he says. “My grandfather took my father to go work in the fields as a kid, as a migrant farm worker — they worked the fields of Idaho and Michigan. And so when my dad would recount those stories to me I could see the pain in his eyes and how much he wanted more for his children,” he says.
To date, his father still runs the gym in the same fashion for young students looking to box, having report cards be the entry fee. Mendoza sings his father’s praises for keeping him on track, one grade and one life lesson at a time.
“I’m glad that I have somebody like him, who can help me find that balance between doing what I want and doing what I need to do,” he says.
What’s next? Is the daunting question Mendoza has been asked and is constantly asking himself. Moving forward, Mendoza plans on hanging up the gloves…for now.
“I want to kind of get away from being a student leader and now, I want to take the fight to the courtroom,” Mendoza says. “That’s what I’m really gearing myself towards, for the next stage of my career.”
Trusted by White Rock Lake Families for Generations of
9431 Waterview
Nestled in one of the most coveted lakeside neighborhoods of White Rock Lake, this elevated building lot offers breathtaking views of hundreds of acres of park land, with the lake providing a stunning backdrop. Less than 20 neighbors share these exceptional vistas, making this property a rare and coveted opportunity. Located in the heart of Dallas, 9431 Waterview Road combines serene surroundings with the convenience of city living. A nature lover’s paradise in the heart of the city - this it the perfect setting to create your dream home!
LOVE THY LAKE
For the Love of the Lake aims to protect one of Dallas’ most recognizable landmarks
Story by AUSTIN WOOD | Photography by TYLER ROBINSON
White Rock Lake is the beating heart of Lakewood, Casa Linda, Forest Hills and Lake Highlands.
Residents of surrounding neighborhoods use its trails, streams and parks to bike, jog, play pickleball, paddleboard and relax. Neighbors have grown to cherish the wildlife, and many hold special regard for the 1,015 acre lake that anchors the Dallas Park and Recreation system.
The Lake has also seen its fair share of ups and downs since its filling in 1911. From litter to neglect to drought to well-publicized spills courtesy of Collin County, locals have seen it take its fair share of blows.
For the Love of the Lake (FTLOTL) aims to preserve and protect this local landmark as it approaches into its 30th year of service in the area. The organization supports this mission through litter clean-ups, maintenance work and improvement projects.
The nonprofit was founded in 1996 as a more consistent, organizational alternative to the City of Dallas’ annual Trash Bashes. The annual events drew hundreds of residents to the park once a year to get rid of litter, which was far more prevalent than it is today.
“If you’ve ever been around the lake, you’ll know that that’s not enough, because then with every heavy rain, all of that litter just comes down all of the streams and tributaries and creeks, and it lands in White Rock Lake,” says administrative coordinator Gail Greenaway, the organization’s lone part-time employee. “So there was really one person. Marci Novack is the founder of the group, and she just gathered up some neighbors and friends and people who were concerned about the quality of the park and the lake, and said, ‘We got to do something.’”
That something turned into the Second Saturday Shoreline Spruce Up. Operating in agreement with Dallas Park and Recreation,
the monthly event brings together FTLOTL volunteers for a morning of litter pickup, tree trimming and other small improvement projects. Some longtime volunteers say the organization hasn’t missed a Saturday in close to three decades.
“All of our programs are very unique and different. And what I think is really cool is that you can volunteer in the capacity that you want to,” says FTLOTL President Elizabeth Sullivan. “Second Saturday is awesome, because if you can only make it out once a month, every six months, no problem. We’re always here every second Saturday for you. If you have more commitment, more capacity, maybe through your company, you adopt a shoreline, and you’re committing with your company to bring out eight to 10 people every month and really kind of getting in a little bit deeper then we talk about padillacs.”
With the Padillac program, experienced volunteers are given access to FTLOTL’s fleet of three kayaks and six canoes freeof-charge. The padillac rowers collect waste that on-shore volunteers would be otherwise unable to reach. In the past, rowers have pulled tires, shopping carts, car bumpers and TVs out of the Lake.
FTLOTL also collaborates with the Texas Stream Team to monitor water quality around the lake. Texas Stream Team volunteer water monitors undergo special training to learn how to collect water samples, assess bacteria levels and report data — data which was used to help the City of Dallas after the Collin County sewage spill last year.
“When that happened, we had to be really big advocates for the water when the water activities were closed, you don’t want to close the water activities,” Sullivan says. “You want those to continue, but we had to make sure that we communicated that and the Stream Team was out there testing the water just to make sure it’s safe.”
In addition to its volunteer programs, FTLOTL also organizes improvement projects around the Lake. Last year, the group put in scannable QR codes at mile markers around the Lake to help lost park goers. They have also organized a celebration tree grove where neighbors can donate to get a loved one’s name on a plaque in lieu of a tree planting.
FTLOTL plants one to two trees a year in the grove to collectively honor individuals listed on a plaque, since planting.
The organization’s upcoming project takes aim at ADA accessibility around the Lake. With donations from the Chi Omega Christmas Market and the Lakewood Garden Fund, FTLOTL has identified nine sites around the Lake which lack handicap accessibility. Funds are currently being dispersed for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2025.
“One of the problems that we had seen was that a lot of the park areas were not handicap accessible,” Sullivan says. “So what we did is we kind of did a survey with the City to see how many people in Dallas are handicapped, and how many of them are disabled that aren’t able to enjoy the park.”
FTLOTL will celebrate its 30th anniversary of custodianship next year. Looking ahead, organization leadership hopes to continue improvement projects and keep its Second Saturday streak alive. Sullivan says the organization is lucky to work in an area that loves the Lake as much as they do.
“I think that when people care this much, it’s instilled in the community, they keep coming back, and they keep coming back, which is so cool to see. I mean, one of our board members, he’s about my age, but the reason he’s on the board is because his mom was on the board. It really is something that legacy passes down. And when you build these giving back items in the community, people really keep coming back for it.”
TWO BEST FRIENDS & A BLUE GOAT
The smell of clay and paint wafts through the studio. The soft murmurs of a class ensues. Pinching, molding, painting and critical squinted eyes fill the space in between friendly chatter. The rectangular wooden tables are wide and long, decorated with various paint marks. Metal racks are home to an array of ceremic pieces, all in various stages of the creative process. The artists mingle, but the true focus is their creations.
Shuffling through the tables are two women, one with an apron on. She sports a white collared shirt — the collar perched up, just enough to meet the back of her wispy updo — that has an orange paint stain on the right elbow of her rolled up sleeves. Her name is Sharon Hodges. Her medium of choice is paint, but clay is a close second.
Then there’s Mary Nickell. Paint isn’t an accessory she’s sporting today but the pieces of her work that live in the studio suggest that on a different day that may have certainly been the case. Her deep brown hair rests on her shoulders and bangs frame her face. She walks with a calm purpose, jeans and a loose fitting black top complete the look. Her medium of choice is relatively undefined but she paints often for her children — her artwork hanging in their homes.
The women move through the space comfortably, as the organized chaos of art projects lingers in every part of the space. Each room is home to an assortment of canvases, paint, finished paintings, unfinished paintings and even some that exist in limbo, awaiting a final decision about their completion.
Blue Goat Studio offers pottery classes, a pottery club and allows artists to rent workspace. The two also host private adult parties, bring in artists to host adult pottery classes and Friday Nights Out — classes with an instructor that guides guests through a planned project that they can come back and pick up once it’s been fired in their kiln.
If you asked them some years ago if this is what they’d be doing, they’d be probably confused. While art had always “been a part” of them, they didn’t know running a studio was in the books. It just sort of… happened.
This wasn’t the plan. In fact, there isn’t even a business plan. The two laugh at the thought. They both had business experience and felt that was enough. They take it day by day, week by week and so forth.
How a first grade classroom brought East Dallas the Blue Goat Studio
Story by AYSIA LANE | Photography by YUVIE STYLES
Hodges had previously owned another studio with another group of friends, a concept born out of their husbands not wanting them to “trash” their homes in pursuit of an artistic endeavor. She was looking for a new location, after deciding the space was no longer preferable, and stumbled upon what would become the Blue Goat space.
“I came across this building, and called Mary
and said, ‘Hey, I think this could be something,’” Hodges says.
The original idea was to have a club with individuals signing up with a monthly fee. That would cover rent and allow the ladies to enjoy a space to create their own works.
“We just didn’t want to get on a hamster wheel, that was our whole thing,” Nickell says. “We want to pay for the studio, and have a space for us to work.”
But when an artist they knew and respected was looking for a new space to host classes, and their students were calling them and asking to use the space, it seemed like something to try.
Since opening in March of this year, the studio is now completely full. Classes are consistent and several members of the community have indulged in the pottery club, having their own racks and work ready for them when they return to create more.
The two admit that they have been “nonstop” since they opened their doors.
Yeah about that hamter wheel we weren’t going to get on?” Hodges begins, eyeing Nickell, who quickly chimes in to help her finish, “Wrong.”
When they speak, a natural comfort buzzes in the space between them. It would seem that there wasn’t a time where they didn’t know each other. Well, that’s partially true. The pair met in 1962, back in first grade.
The ebbs and flows of childhood, their teenage years and adult years naturally pushed and pulled them into different stages in their lives but their friendship didn’t take much effort. It simply was exactly what it needed to be when they returned to one another.
“Our friendship is strong enough that we could go for long periods of time without seeing each other and just pick up,” Hodges said. “Except for my sister, there’s nobody on earth who’s known me longer than Mary.”
While the growth of the studio was unexpected, the community that’s grown from it has been a welcomed surprise.
“People like to come in and feel like it’s safe, it’s not controversial, we don’t talk politics,” Nickell says. “We’re a community of artists, and we’re here to work.”
PATIENCE TASTES LIKE PUPUSAS
Good things come in twos, threes and fours… at least pupusas do
Story by AYSIA LANE | Photography by KATHY TRAN
Besides perfecting the intensity of the meat flavor, owner Jose Lupian has never changed the pupusas recipe from when he began making them as a child. His family trains new hires to replicate the same recipe, focusing on consistency.
2016. THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT JOSE LUPIAN BEGAN OPERATING PUPUSAS TO-GO. At least, officially. That was when he registered the name. Before then, Lupian used to sell pupusas out of his house. He always had a knack for making pupusas.
This knack was a byproduct of his mother’s love for cooking. Well before his pupusas, Lupian’s mother had a location in a gas station on the corner of Gaston and Fitzhugh Avenue, selling burritos, quesadillas and hamburgers. She would eventually sell the restaurant to Lupian and as word got out about the pupusas, the more popular Papusas to-go would become.
Lupian was about 14 or 15 years old when he realized his love for food extended beyond the kitchen and into the business of dining when he began working at a taqueria.
“I enjoyed the excitement of it. When it starts getting busy, the adrenaline and plus, I like putting things together,” Lupian says.
Lupian was a bit fearful when it came to running his own restaurant. He worked retail for 20 years before taking over his own business, and the sudden change of pace was jarring.
“It’s a big jump, having something that you’re gonna get every week, a paycheck from, to depending on yourself,” Lupian says.
His time in retail taught him a few things he realized could give him an edge as he looked for ways to make Pupusas to-go grow.
“I worked at Sam’s Club and Central Market, and they’re pretty big on samples,” Lupian says. “I started giving out pupusas to people, and they were kind of surprised, because nobody was giving something to them for free, but for me to get the word out, I realized that we had to start giving out pupusas for free.”
On November 2 of 2023, Pupusas to-go moved into its current location on N. Fitzhugh and Columbia Avenue.
Lupian’s biggest lessons in this past year on Fitzhugh? Patience and consistency.
Consistency with the recipes and the way food is prepared
La Popelle — an order of spinach and cheese pupusas ($1.75) is one of seven kinds of pupusas offered.
and having patience with establishing a flow and routine. The mastering of these lessons has brought a new endeavor to the forefront for Lupian and his family.
He shares that the eatery is planning a second location in Garland. This one will be a drive through and is about “80% done.”
Even with several years under his belt, the prospect of a new, larger location can be daunting. But Lupian has involved his family in every step of the process.
“That older lady you see there is my mom — she stuck around because, like I said, you know, she enjoys cooking, so she helps me out. And the other lady there is my wife,” Lupian says.
His children, who are both in their twenties, are involved with the restaurant as well, something that puts him at ease.
“It’s a family thing,” Lupian says. “We want to keep it to where it’s a family business.”
While pupusas are the main attraction for most patrons, the eatery has breakfast burritos, tacos, hamburgers, quesadillas and tortas. Lupian says that as a customer of other restaurants, he can easily sort out when food has been made with a lack of passion or intention. In his eyes, visitors should leave Pupusas to-go tasting the quality of the food because it’s simply ingrained into their process.
“You can taste it just by trying the food,” Lupian says. “It’s just the way that we work here.”
Pupusas to-go, 108 N Fitzhugh Ave, Dallas, TX 75246
THE LOVEBIRDS ON YOSEMITE LANE
After 38 years, this duo decided to check off a bucket list item: build a new home
Story
by
AYSIA LANE
Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
You got the job, you found your person and you made a life for yourself. What do you do when you’ve checked off the big to-dos? Barbara Hyman and Robert Smithers knew the answer to that question: Make your home into your dream destination. They had lived on Yosemite Lane for about 38 years. Since they moved in back in 1986, the two went from being the youngest couple in the neighborhood to now being one of the oldest.
“I was riding my bike and I saw this regular looking 1953 ranch-style house, and I noticed something in the backyard,” Robert says. “I overlooked the fence and there was a lake in the backyard. And that’s when I called Barbara, and I said, ‘Barb, I think I found our house.’”
The house was built on a slope, most easily seen in the driveway — leading you down to the carport and into the backyard portion of the property. This slope became one of the key characteristics of the home and one of the many original features the couple wanted to utilize as they planned to completely rebuild in 2020.
“We wanted to be contemporary, but not cold,” Barbara says.
Architect Laura Juarez-Baggett fell in love with the spirit of Barbara and Robert’s vision for their rebuild, a project the two shared was on their “bucket list.”
A walk through their original space was very telling to Juarez-Baggett. The home was full of color and art pieces that suggested a healthy dose of personality was to be expected in the new home.
“They’re both very fun. They’re very easy to talk to,” Juarez-Baggett says. “So that’s kind of the personality of the house.”
Fun indeed.
A stroll past the front door leads directly to the second floor, complete with wood flooring — from the original house — that overlooks the living room. Tall and wide square windows give way to a view of the backyard, making natural light pour into every portion of the house. A constant theme in the home is a sense of connection to the outdoors, providing a constant feeling of being both inside and outside at the same time — something a birdwatcher like Robert especially enjoys.
The top floor features several rooms, each with large
windows connecting the space to the outdoors. The largest window doubles as a door to the patio that wraps around the back of the house, overlooking the small lake Robert initially fell in love with that flows throughout the backyards of their neighborhood as far as the eye can see.
Entering in on the opposite side of the patio spits you back out at a cozy nook with a chair, a spot Barbara has designated for drinking tea, that looks over the living room.
Vertically, the living room windows stop just before the wooden ceiling, made from high school gym bleachers. Horizontally, the windows are thoughtfully interrupted by gray brick. The same brick that can be found on the outside of the home has crept its way in, just enough to meet a portion of the wall that sports a calm-blue color.
“One of the things we asked Laura for was a house where we could age-in-place,” Barbara says.
The couple is in their 70s and after this rebuild, they plan for this to be their final home. Maintaining an easily accessible structure and using materials from the original home was paramount to the rebuilding process.
“As you get older, you’re still going to be able to live in this house, right? No matter what your situation, whether you’re in a walker, whether you’re in a wheelchair,” Juarez-Baggett says. “For the most part, they can live on only the first floor if they choose to.”
The stairs leading down to the first floor are low rise, with a deep tread and gently glow when motion is detected, providing easy navigation in the evening hours.
If they ever find a need to get upstairs but don’t want to use the staircase, there’s an elevator.
As Juarez-Baggett says, from the carport, to the kitchen, living room and primary bedroom, the first floor is a one-stop-shop.
The first floor is concrete — another feature that may be useful to them as they progress in the home. What would seem to be a cold, more modern touch is juxtaposed by the calm blue-colored portion of the wall that acts as a backdrop for the living room’s mustard yellow couch, multicolored rug and small artistic decor that rests on the white rectangular coffee tables.
Just behind the living room area is the kitchen, complete with laminate cabinets made to look like a gray wood and an island, made with paint-grade cabinets and a porcelain top.
The primary bathroom contains glimpses of an accessible future and nostalgic past with a shower floor made from the original home’s ipe deck and a toilet area that features a removable cabinet, in case a wheelchair was ever to be used in the space.
Rather than a freestanding bathtub, Juarez-Baggett opted for a drop in tub with a deck around it, suitable for sitting and swinging the legs over into the bathtub if need be.
Every few paces, whether it’s the bathroom or the staircase, you’re liable to run into a book, a framed piece of art by Robert or some kind of knick-knack. From almost every space, you can sit and peer out to the backyard.
“I really pushed them to think of living on this site differently, down at the grade of that tree, closer to the water, to make the house more part of the landscape,” Juarez-Baggett says.
The calm hum of the water and the large Texas White Ash tree seem to demand freedom. No fence required — the oasis-like space is shared, with both sides of the lake becoming a home to the entire neighborhood’s backyards.
Laura Juarez-Baggett had her eye on a bird-shaped light for several months. She wasn’t sure when she’d use it, but she knew it had to be special. After meeting Barbara and Robert, she knew she found the perfect clients to show the light to.
How loss broke 35 years of silence at St. John’s Episcopal Church
Story by AYSIA LANE | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
DENNIS STUEKERJUERGEN WAS AN ACTIVE MEMBER AT ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. He organized their yard crew, served as an usher, on the vestry and in the men’s camping group, where he had made several “dear friends,” his wife Leah Stuekerjuergen says.
Throughout his involvement, he was consistently mentioning the church’s bell. It was silent and had been that way for over 30 years. Father David Houk, who serves as the rector, says that he also heard about the bell from other members of the congregation since starting at the church in 2006.
“Over the years, I’ve heard all of this sort of sentimental longing about the bell and how the bell doesn’t work,” Houk says.
The chatter about the bell became so repetitive that he brought it up to church board members from time to time, asking what it would take to make it ring again. The reply would be that it was too complicated and too big of a project to tackle. The bronze alloy bell weighed 300 pounds and rested in a tower that was well above the church. There had been efforts in the past to revive the silent bell.
“We found records of an attempt to revive it in 1971,” Houk says, adding that the building was completed around 1961, and since then the bell had a track record of working inconsistently until it stopped ringing all together.
But for members of the church like Dennis, the desire to hear it ring persisted.
“That was something that he always hoped at some point would happen again, that they would get it working,” Leah said.
In the summer of 2023, Dennis passed away. Houk recalls that it was maybe six months after his funeral that Leah came to church asking to figure out a way for the bell to ring in his memory. Admittedly, Leah thought the process would be simple: figure out the problem and then figure out the solution.
“I really thought it was going to be just actually getting people up there and really looking at it,” Leah says.
In hindsight, “simple” may not have been the first word they would have used to describe the process.
First, Leah approached one of Dennis’ friends from the camping group who’s an architect, David Farrell.
“A couple of weeks later, he called, and he said, ‘You’re never going to believe who I met,’” Leah says.
He met Gary Loper, of Loper Pipe Organ Service Co. A man who knows the niche world of bells and how to repair them, AKA The Bell Expert.
Slowly but surely, a small team had assembled to tackle the operation: Leah, Farrell and two electricians, Bill Knowles and Jimmy Little. Farrell became a coordinator of sorts, providing sketches and materials to Loper, who would then translate those items into a game plan.
“The first thing we did was we replaced the supports on either side and put ball bearings on the bell, because part of the problem was the bearings that they had created many years ago, when they replaced the wood, were not satisfactory,” Loper said. “We wanted to use high quality stuff, — we knew that we’re gonna only do this once, so let’s do it right.”
And they did. The bell is now automated and able to be controlled via an application, accessible to Houk and other prominent staff members.
“The main benefit is the low maintenance, because you don’t have a chain that you have to lubricate, you don’t have a sprocket which can break teeth and come loose. You actually have no physical contact between the motor and the bell,” Loper says. “The bell is just hanging there, and it’s got a plate, [that’s] driven magnetically, so that the bell just swings. It’s almost like magic, but not quite.”
On June 23, 2024, the bell finally rang again.
“It wouldn’t have happened without Leah,” Houk says. “[The team] really deserves the credit for getting it ringing after 35 years.”
AC & HEAT
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TURNING A NEW PAGE
Woodrow Wilson senior Delila Vasquez is no stranger to beating the odds
Story by AYSIA LANE | Photography by RAE OVERMAN
DELILA
VASQUEZ GESTURES TO HER STOMACH, PULLING ON THE SWEATER SHE’S WEARING.
“I still have scars,” the 18-yearold Woodrow Wilson High School student says. Vasquez is recalling first grade, when she was 6 or 7 years old and having bone and skin removed from the area in order to construct her ears.
Vasquez was born with CHARGE Syndrome, a genetic condition that can cause a wide range of birth defects to multiple parts of the body. The condition manifests itself differently in each person. For Vasquez, CHARGE syndrome caused her to be blind in her right eye and born without eardrums.
She missed a large part of elementary school due to surgeries — eventually getting cochlear implants — but she still found herself ahead of the academic curve. Something about school agreed with Vasquez.
“I love school,” she says, her enthusiasm palpable. “If I understand it, I’m so excited to do it over and over.”
Vasquez, in her earlier years, was enrolled in classes for deaf students. It was in these classes that Vasquez began to notice her peers’ treatment of her.
“I used to hide myself. I used to have so many sweaters, and I would cover myself up,” Vasquez said. “I was being bullied by my own people.”
She was deeply disappointed that the bullying was a result of other deaf students, peers she had grown up with. While she acknowledges the emotional pain she felt during middle school and early high school, she doesn’t regret it.
She owes her current self confidence to the lessons she learned while enduring the poor treatment from her peers. The bullies were handled in time and Vasquez found herself taking “mainstream” classes with hearing students.
The transition was a bit bumpy at first, as she was learning to navigate a totally different kind of classroom with an interpreter, but as she got her stride, she saw it as a challenge. She was beginning to be more comfortable with asking questions and asking for help, learning how to “advocate” for herself. She continued to progress and began to prove to her teachers and herself that she no longer needed an interpreter.
Over the years, she had grown a fondness for searching up other people’s stories, particularly those who have disabilities. She found herself wanting to do the same, to share her story with others.
One Dallas teacher, Crystal Sapier, maintained a connection with Vasquez and her family since being her teacher in fourth grade. When she was finally ready to tell her story, Sapier offered to help her do just that. She began writing a book her freshman year, in the thick of the bullying. It took two years to complete, cover to cover. She titled it In CHARGE of My Life , with the goal of inspiring other students and people like her.
Vasquez will soon be on her way to her next academic challenge: college. She’s chosen to attend the University of North Texas, planning to study journalism and business. The two, she says, are going to be useful when she decides to tackle telling her story through film.
The normal bouts of nervousness and excitement surround the topic of graduation for Vasquez. But the excitement may also be because she plans on celebrating two accomplishments the week she graduates.
Her second book will be making its debut the day after she walks the stage.
“I’ve been currently working on it,” she says. “It’s gonna publish next semester.”
The second book is going to be a deeper dive into the story Vasquez has to tell. The first book, she says, was meant to be more accessible for younger children. She wants the next one “to be more detailed,” including her “trauma,” and the experiences she had with her bullies.
She hopes it can help others, even the ones that have hurt her.
“Yes, they did a lot of things, but at the end of the day, I’ll be there for them,” she says. “I know their story. I know what they’ve been through, to the point that I’m here — no matter what.”
