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PRESTON HOLLOW ADVOCATE VOL.23 NO.1

PROFILE 9 W.T. White’s Jonathan Campos DINING 10 Two Guys From Italy FEATURES 6 25 moments in 2025 14 Unlocking Doors 16 E.D. Walker Principal Ashley Toole 19 My Pig Filled Life 22 History of Love Field

Historical photo of Dallas Love Field Airport. Photo courtesy of Dallas Love Field. Read more on page 22.

WHERE EVERY PET IS TREATED LIKE FAMILY

D I ST R I B U T I O N / A D V E RT I S I N G 2 1 4 . 5 6 0 . 4 2 1 2 President/Editor-in-Chief: Jehadu Abshiro jabshiro@advocatemag.com Chief Operating Officer: Alessandra Quintero 786.838.5891 / aquintero@advocatemag.com Digital Marketing & Analytics: Autumn Grisby agrisby@advocatemag.com Founder: Rick Wamre 214.560.4212 / rwamre@advocatemag.com ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Frank McClendon 214.560.4215 / fmcclendon@advocatemag.com Catherine Pate 214.560.4201 / cpate@advocatemag.com Brandon Rodriguez 972-754-3942 / brodriguez@advocatemag.com Kennedy Cox 214-796-8626 / kcox@advocatemag.com John Lynch jlynch@advocatemag.com

HISTORY OF PRESTON ROYAL ANIMAL CLINIC: Founded in 1969, by the late Dr. Malcolm Cameron, Preston Royal Animal Clinic (PRAC) has been serving the North Dallas, Park Cities, and Preston Hollow area for over 50 years. The practice has grown and changed along with the vibrant community that it serves.

OUR VETERI NARY SERVICES Wellness Exams Sick/ Illness Exams Vaccinations Preventive Pet Dental Care Spay & Neuter

Heartworm Prevention Flea & Tick Prevention

Classified Manager: Prio Berger 214.292.0493 / pberger@advocatemag.com E D I TO R S : Alyssa High ahigh@advocatemag.com Austin Wood awood@advocatemag.com

Diagnostic Testing

Madelyn Edwards

Nail Trims

ngummadi@advocatemag.com

medwards@advocatemag.com Niki Gummadi Victoria Hernandez vhernandez@advocatemag.com

VETERINARY CARE FOR CATS & DOGS IN NORTH DALLAS

Digital Editor: Cloi Bryan cbryan@advocatemag.com Senior Art Director: Jynnette Neal

Located in the Preston Hollow area of North Dallas, Preston Royal Animal Clinic provides comprehensive primary care for your dogs and cats. We specialize in dental, wellness, and preventative care, offering a full range of services to support your pet through every stage of their life, from nose to tail, kitten to senior.

jneal@advocatemag.com Creative Director/Photographer: Lauren Allen lallen@advocatemag.com Contributors: Patti Vinson, Carol Toler, Sam Gillespie Contributing photographers: Kathy Tran, Yuvie Styles, Victoria Gomez, Amani Sodiq, Cat Iler, Jenni Cholula, Austin Gibbs, Ethan Good, Tanner Garza, Gabriel Cano, Brandon Gonzalez, Jessica Turner, Justin Schwartz Advocate (c) 2024 is published monthly in print and daily online by Advocate Media - Dallas Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation based in Dallas and first published in 1991. Contents of this print magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements and sponsorships printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The Publisher reserves the right to accept or reject ay editorial, advertising or sponsorship material in print or online. Opinions set forth in Advocate publications are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the Publisher’s viewpoint. More than 180,000 people read Advocate publications in print each month; Advocate online publications receive more than 4 million pageviews monthly. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate print and online publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one print copy per reader. For information about supporting our non-profit mission of providing local news to neighborhood readers, please call 214-5604212 or email aquintero@advocatemag.com.

We are dedicated to making every visit a positive experience, which is why we practice Fear Free handling and adhere to Cat-Friendly guidelines. Your pet’s comfort and well-being are our top priority.

ABOUT THE COVER Parking Garage B at Love Field Airport. Photography by Lauren Allen.

BOOK ONLINE Schedule an appointment with us today and let us partner with you to keep your special companion happy and healthy. 10720 Preston Rd. #1013 • 214.369.7364 • prestonroyalvet.com PET HEALTHCARE PARTNER

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D i s co v e r t h e M a g i c ! Infants to Kindergarten | Applications open January 15 TEDALLAS.ORG/ECEC 8 5 0 0 H I L LC R E ST R OA D | 2 1 4 . 7 0 6 . 0 0 2 0 JANUARY 2026 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

As we ring in 2026, let’s look back at the moments that shaped the past year in Preston Hollow.

25 THINGS IN 2025 Compiled by NIKI GUMMADI

After serving in an interim capacity since May 2024, Kimberly Bizor Tolbert was appointed as city manager by Dallas City Council.

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Saks Global said that after a month of back-and-forth with neighbors and the City, it will keep the Downtown Neiman Marcus location open through the December holidays. A recent announcement said the store will remain open into 2026 while Saks works with the City to find a resolution.

An official timeline was finally announced for the renovation of the Preston Royal Branch Library at a community meeting. Instead of being rebuilt on a separate plot of land as originally planned, it will be fully renovated and is expected to be complete in the spring of 2028.

Dallas Pets Alive! and The Humane Society of Dallas County merged, bringing HSDC under the DPA! umbrella and giving DPA! its first traditional shelter space.

Justin Ball and Daniel C. Comeaux took their oaths of office, becoming the 18th Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief and Dallas’ 31st Chief of Police, respectively.

Slightly over 8% of the county’s voters came out for Dallas County Election Day. Gay Donnell Willis was reelected as District 13’s Council member. The District 11 race led to a runoff as neither of the top candidates received 50% of the vote.

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Dallas’ Director of Sanitation Cliff Gillespie briefed City Council on a proposed plan to phase out alleyway trash pickup for around 30,000 homes and charge others for continued alley service. The plan quickly garnered opposition from neighbors.

Southwest Airlines announced it will change its boarding process to assigned seating starting Jan. 27. This year has seen a number of changes for the Dallas-based airline, including cancellation of the “Bags Fly Free” policy and changes in leadership.

Bill Roth is elected as District 11’s Council member in a runoff election, defeating Jeff Kitner.

The Mavs announced that everyone’s favorite Preston Hollow neighbor, Luka Dončić was traded to the Lakers, casting a dark cloud over the Metroplex. Grieving fans held a mock funeral outside the American Airlines Center, which included a casket bearing the Mavs’ logo.

The Plaza at Preston Center kicked off its largest construction project in over a decade. The $5 million renovation came as the shopping center celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Audrey Bryant, a recent graduate from Ursuline Academy, was named Texas Gatorade Player of the Year for Girls Soccer. She is now playing soccer for the University of Texas at Austin.

The neighborhood came together to support those affected by the Hill Country floods. The Good Shepherd Episcopal School’s Disaster Relief and Recovery Program visited the site, neighbors put green ribbons in their front yards to show support and local businesses donated to relief efforts.

Dallas ISD students returned to school, adjusting to new legislation affecting the classroom. Students are no longer allowed to use personal communication devices during school hours, classrooms are required to display the Ten Commandments, and all library materials must be approved by the school board.

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The iconic shopping destination NorthPark Center turned 60 years old. Celebrations ran throughout the year, including different art exhibitions and a birthday party complete with live performances and face painting.

Dallas City Council approved a $5.5 billion budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The budget included a lower property tax rate and a $63.1 million increase in funding for Dallas Fire-Rescue and Dallas Police Department.

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Dallas Love Field Airport announced the completion of its master plan, including plans for concourse expansion, a new terminal headhouse, parking facilities, access roadways and support facilities.

20 Neighbors David and Vanessa Cain chaired the annual Dallas Symphony Orchestra Gala, helping the organization celebrate its 125th anniversary with a dinner, live auction, gala concert and afterparty.

Despite some neighbors’ concerns about traffic, the City Plan and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval for a zoning change that would allow H-E-B to build its first Dallas location on the corner of Hillcrest Road and I-635.

It is reported that Nancy Nasher and her husband David Haemisegger were about to land a $900 million loan to regain full control of NorthPark Center by buying out J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s equity stake. Nasher’s father, Raymond Nasher, developed the center in the early 1960s.

After their Christmas light display caused a stir last December, Deloache Avenue neighbors returned with larger-than-life Halloween decorations. The display included skeletons and statues of Frankenstein’s monster, the grim reaper, a headless horseman, killer clowns and multiple Jack Skellingtons from the film The Nightmare Before Christmas.

City council unanimously voted to move general elections for council members and mayoral races from May to November of odd-numbered years as a measure against sagging voter turnout.

Friends of the Northaven Trail partnered with the City and The Colony-based Open Space to bring around 400 sheep and goats to naturally mow the trail through grazing. The animals drew crowds as they grazed, with one giving birth to a lamb during its time in our neighborhood.

A·T Bistro and Adelmo’s Ristorante served their last plates in their current locations in our neighborhood. Both restaurants said they are looking for new locations to reopen.

Walnut Hill Church, a Ministry of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church (formerly known as Walnut Hill United Methodist Church), held its last services. In 2020, the church merged with Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, which decided on the closure in October 2025.

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p ro f i l e Career Institute North lent Campos a drone to help kickstart JC Productions.

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A CHANGE OF SCHEDULE A W.T. White junior turned an unplanned class into a budding small business Story by NIKI GUMMADI | Photography by GABRIEL CANO

hen Jonathan Campos signed up for aviation classes, he didn’t expect becoming a business owner. Campos moved to Dallas almost three years ago from Panama and is now a junior at W.T. White High School. The year after he started at W.T. White, his counselor helped him take the next step toward his career. “Since I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a pilot,” Campos says. His sophomore year, he enrolled in Dallas ISD’s Career Institute North, which offers career and technical education programs, to study aviation. But, his schedule also placed him in Rebecca Palmer’s entrepreneurship class. Palmer introduced Campos and his classmates to the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Each year, NFTE hosts its National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, in which students from around the country pitch their small business ideas. While brainstorming his idea for the competition, Campos was working on his Part 107 certificate, which would give him a commercial drone license. This overlap steered his idea toward something familiar: photography. Campos created JC Productions, a company offering aerial photography, videography and cinematography for real estate agents, marketing firms and other agencies looking for drone footage. He worked with Palmer to create a four-slide pitch deck for the school-wide competition. As he advanced through each round — first school, then district, then regionals — the pitch deck expanded, along with his confidence.

“NFTE makes you a really confident person,” Campos says. “It teaches you how the business world works, how to do networking, how to talk with people, how to make connections with people, how to run a business.” JC Productions eventually brought Campos to the national competition in New York. NFTE paid for Campos and his mom to stay at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for four days. The first round, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals were all held on the same day, with Campos being the only student representing Dallas ISD. He credits both NFTE and JROTC for how he carries himself now. “When I got here on my first day, I was a really, really shy person, but that and JROTC just made me really confident.” Though the competition is over, Campos is still working on his business. He is currently building a website to house h i s e n t i re p o r t fo l i o, a n d h e re ce n t l y attended a NFTE event to network with real estate agents and spread the word about his business. He is also working on a documentary about W.T. White’s JROTC program. Campos says that though he maintains his aspiration to become a pilot, this experience has given him the long term goal of tying aviation and entrepreneurship together. “Don’t be scared to try new things,” he says. “You never know what the outcome will be or the stuff you’re going to learn and what other opportunities are going to show up or how many doors are going to open if you don’t try something new.” JANUARY 2026 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

fo o d

Noodles & nostalgia

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Two Guys From Italy has been serving the neighborhood Italian classics for almost 40 years

Story by NIKI GUMMADI Photography by KATHY TRAN

wo brothers from Mexico walk into an Italian restaurant. It’s not the setup to a punchline, but rather the beginning of how Two Guys From Italy became a neighborhood institution. The Italian restaurant’s name might seem like a misnomer, as owners Salome and Librado Marquez are not from Italy, but the brothers have been tied to the brand longer than many Dallas restaurants have been around. “We saw families back in the ’90s that came with their kids, some of them even still in the baby carriage. Now you see them as teenagers or even married,” Salome says. They first started working for Two Guys From Italy as dishwashers back in 1974 when they first moved to California from Mexico, and the chain restaurant had locations across the West Coast. Two Guys eventually moved them to the Salt Lake City location, where Librado was the chef and Salome was one of his cooks. After working there for almost 14 years, a friend of theirs called and offered to sell the Dallas location, which opened in 1979, to the Marquezes. The brothers accepted, becoming business partners and moving to Dallas in 1988. Around the same time, the corporation that owned the restaurant chain dissolved, and the Marquezes bought the rights, retaining the name Two Guys From Italy. The menu is simple, with diners being able to get their choice of pasta — spaghetti, linguini, rigatoni, mostaccioli, angel hair or fettuccine — and their choice

Two Guys from Italy’s menu features a choice of spaghetti, linguine, rigatoni, mostaccioli, angel hair or fettucine, as well as pasta, poultry and seafood specialty options. JANUARY 2026 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

The walls still feature murals painted by an Italian artist the corporation flew in when the restaurant opened. When it expanded years later, a local painter added new artwork to match the originals.

of sauce, like butter and cheese ($9.15), meat sauce ($9.65), clam sauce ($11.95) and more. Ravioli is also available along with specialties like manicotti ($9.95) or fettucini alfredo ($12.15). Other mains include seafood, chicken and veal dishes. Salome recommends the lasagna ($10.25), but his personal favorite is the pizza, which he enjoys at least twice a week. With the restaurant now being family-owned, Salome says he was able to upgrade some of the menu items. For example, the alfredo sauce used to be made with half and half but now has 40% whipping cream and is one of the restaurant’s best sellers. Now, all bread and dough is made inhouse, along with all sauces and dressings (except the French). All of their pasta is brought in from Italy. Some things, however, never changed. The decor still looks like it did when the restaurant opened, with fake grapes and Chianti bottles hanging from the ceiling. The walls still feature murals painted by

an Italian artist the corporation flew in when the restaurant opened. When it expanded years later, a local painter added new artwork to match the originals. The brothers ran the restaurant together until Librado retired a couple of years ago. He passed his responsibilities to his sons, but he still comes in every day. “He can’t stay away,” his brother says. Salome himself spent nearly 25 years on the line before moving to the front of house. He says he is considering retiring next year, as running a restaurant for decades has taken a toll. “Family owned places like ours, as an owner, you care about it. You’re there all the time ... it’s a very hard job, mentally and physically,” Salome says. He hopes that his nephews, who have stepped in since his brother retired, will continue their legacy. What has helped the restaurant keep going over the years, is the support from the neighborhood. Salome says that being a family-owned restaurant means they don’t

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have the capital for large advertisements on the radio or TV. Instead, the restaurant relies on word-of-mouth from longtime customers. “We have a lot of clientele that have been with us for a long time. They’re the ones that have been making us strong,” he says. “You know, in times like the pandemic or times when the economy is not doing well, we still have a lot of support from the customers that have been with us forever.” What keeps customers coming back over and over is the consistency, which Salome credits to his chefs, some of which have been with the restaurant for over 30 years. Even neighbors who have moved away make a point to return whenever they’re in the area. “Dallas has been really, really good for us in so many ways,” he says. “My family grew up and has been working here, and the support is phenomenal.” Two Guys From Italy, 11637 Webb Chapel Road, 972.247.6814, twoguysfromitalyrestaurant.com

JANUARY 2026 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

REHABILITATION REIMAGINED Preston Hollow neighbor Christina Melton Crain helps formerly incarcerated individuals start life after prison on the right foot Story by AUSTIN WOOD | Photography by KATHY TRAN

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hristina Melton Crain wants felons on the street. And no, the former Gov. Rick Perry-appointed chair of the Texas State Board of Corrections isn’t advocating for a Gotham-style takeover of society by experienced criminals. Instead, Crain is trying to keep justice-affected individuals, as she calls them, from making the same mistakes that landed them inside in the first place. A Kimball High School graduate, Crain finished a master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin before being awarded her juris doctorate from Oklahoma City University in 1991. In her over 40 years practicing law, she’s mainly specialized in juvenile cases and representation. But, up until 2001, her experience with criminal justice and the corrections system had been limited. That year, Gov. Perry appointed her to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, an experience which she describes as eye-opening. Crain went on to serve as the first and only chairwoman of the board and is credited with significant reforms during her tenure, including the introduction of a program intended to soften procedural barriers during family visits. As her term ended in 2008, Crain knew her work in the field wasn’t finished. In 2010, Crain founded Unlocking Doors, a nonprofit organization created to smoothen individuals’ transition into society and prevent recidivism — the economic impact of which its CEO and president stresses when emphasizing the organization’s importance. Operating out of a north Greenville Avenue office tower, Unlocking Doors serves close to 1,000 clients a year, most of whom are referred to the nonprofit while still incarcerated. Crain’s team finds employment, housing, healthcare and other services for clients with one of the organization’s 300 plus partner organizations. The organization’s model has a 92% success rate, Crain says. To learn more about how Unlocking Doors achieves that success rate, we sat down with the former president of the Dallas Bar Association and current University of Texas System regent for an interview. Here’s what Crain had to say. H OW ’ D YOU G E T I N TO C R I M I N A L J UST I C E ? No one in my family went to prison. I didn’t do criminal law. And then all of a sudden, one day, I get a call from Gov. Perry, and he says, “I want to put you on this Texas Board of Criminal Justice.” I’m like, “What the heck is this?” A couple months into it, I was pretty much wowed by the whole thing. It’s not like a lot of boards and commissions where you just get together to rubber stamp. It is about lives, and it just resonated with me. Plus, in my law practice, I represent children who are abused, neglected and injured, and a lot of their parents have been involved in the criminal justice system. WHAT ARE SOME MISCONCEPTIONS YOU THINK P EO P L E H AV E A BOU T R ESTO RAT I V E J UST I C E ? A lot of times when people hear rehabilitation or restorative justice, they’re thinking that we’re just letting the person off. It’s “nobody can be rehabilitated,” and that can’t be further from the truth. Now, are there a lot of people that we will never help? Absolutely, because there are a lot of people that just don’t want to be helped, but it starts with the person, and that’s our model here is you can opt

into our program. It’s not mandatory. We talked about making it mandatory at one point, going to the state asking public officials to say, “If you’re coming back to Dallas, this ought to be a mandatory program.” We decided long ago that it was never going to work, that it was best to make it an optional program, because then when the person walks through the door, we know at least they are saying up front to us, “I want a fresh start.” W H AT W E R E T H E E A R LY DAYS L I K E ? Shoestring budget, basically taking a very small concept and forming a board. They were friends. They were people involved in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, some judges, etc. You would go to every meeting that became available just to get the word out that we are here. And by the way, we’re here to work with everybody. So it was making sure people understood why we were different and why we were relevant in the space. I think that was super important to understand that we’re just not another reentry organization. It took five, six years to kind of really start resonating with everybody, and then we moved to this space and built this out, and all of a sudden we started getting noticed. W H AT D O ES T H E P RO C ESS LO O K L I K E ? You fill out several assessments on your own. We have a career key that you fill out. We have a benefits calculator you fill out. And then there’s what’s called BEI, it’s a behaviors and experiences inventory that you fill out. And then we have a psych form that you fill out, that we just added this year, and then you get placed with a broker. Our reentry brokers are our case managers, because they’re really brokering the relationships. We don’t provide the service, that’s how we’re unique. Tier one brokers are going to take you and they’re going to do the full-on evidence based assessment. It’s the one that TDCJ uses. So our folks have to be trained in it. It’s going to tell us everything, from number of incarcerations, education history, children, health care. Everything. So that broker is going to take all these assessments and is going to work up a plan for you. The tier two broker is going to take that plan and is going to start making referrals for you, based on the needs that are in that plan, to one of our 300 partner organizations. Then we can add that person in or that group in as a partner, but once all those referrals are made, we’re going to keep track of you as you’re working that plan. W H Y I S T H I S SO I M P O RTA N T TO T H E G E N E RA L PU B L I C ? I’ve got to look at the return on interest is, and I’m in the people business, but yet, how does this fiscally affect the community? And so I think, roughly, it’s about $80 a day for the general population offender at TDCJ. So if you take that and you amortize that over somebody being incarcerated, let’s say they get out and then they come back, and then they get out and they come back. Think about that. I mean, it’s crazy, whereas, on average, for the general guy that walks through our doors, it costs me maybe a buck a day.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. JANUARY 2026 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

LEARNING CURVE How E.D. Walker Principal Ashley Toole rethought leadership on campus

Story by NIKI GUMMADI

ix years ago, E.D. Walker Middle School was still finding its footing. Today, the campus holds an 89 accountability rating with seven distinctions and exceeded state Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System targets for the first time. A cohort of seventh-grade English learners recently advanced two proficiency levels in a single year. This growth is a reflection of a gradual change in how school leadership operates, according to Principal Ashley Toole, who has led E.D. Walker since June 2020. Much of this work has been shaped by the campus’s participation in the Holdsworth Center’s Campus Leadership Program, a two-year initiative focused on developing principals and building systems meant to last beyond a single leadership cycle. The Austin-based nonprofit is dedicated to strengthening public schools by investing in those that lead them, like principals, superintendents and district officials. “Our mission at the Holdsworth Center is really to help school leaders grow their leadership capacity so that they can drive meaningful change for students that’s lasting,” says Sharon Foley, director of campus programs at Holdsworth. Dallas ISD selected E.D. Walker to be part of the program at the Holdsworth Center. In the first year, principals focus on strengthening leadership skills through executive coaching and in-person learning at the Holdsworth Center’s campus on Lake Austin. Foley says participants take a hard look at their leadership skills. This includes asking different stakeholders, like supervisors and teachers, for feedback on their leadership. The principals also complete self-assessments on different learning objectives and the data to land on a personal leadership goal. Foley says the process often highlights common challenges for principals, particularly around communicating

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in high conflict situations and delegating responsibility. “We have a lot of educators who understandably take this work very personally and have gotten to where they are by being incredibly high performers themselves at a lot of the work,” she says. “And I think for many of them, as they step into the principal role or as they grow, they learn that in order to be effective at their job, there are things that they probably are doing that others on their team need to be owning and doing.” During the program’s second year, principals bring in two members of their leadership team to identify a “problem of practice,” an underserved student group they want to support better on campus. Toole selected seventh grade English, language arts and reading teacher Laura Hall and seventh grade science teacher Janet Rodriguez to join her. “These teachers make invaluable contributions to their

Toole says practices from the program, like empathy interviews, have now become part of the decision-making process at E.D. Walker. Photos courtesy of Ashley Toole.

teams and classrooms,” Toole says. “They’ve demonstrated the power of informal influence through their capacity, integrity and humility.” As part of that work, the E.D. Walker team conducted empathy interviews with students and parents, a practice that involves asking participants open-ended questions to better understand their experiences. Toole says the interviews challenged assumptions, particularly around how emergent bilingual students experienced classrooms and support systems. “ T h e e m pa t hy i n te r v i ews, w h i l e se e m i n g l y s i m ple, we re so m e th in g we ha d n’t p r i o r i t i ze d i n dec ision-making,” Toole says. “Asking students to reflect o n t h e i r c l a ss ro o m e nv i ro n m e n t a n d ex p e r i e n ces t ra n s fo r m e d o u r a p p ro a c h t o s u p p o r t i n g E B s t u d e n ts. We d i scove re d t h a t e n ga g i n g pa re n ts ea r l y was critica l to s u ccess.”

For Toole, the experience has helped her adopt what she calls a “think big, act small” approach, testing ideas with a single class or teacher over a short period before deciding whether to expand them. “Often, we look at data, come up with a research-based idea, and immediately decide, ‘Yes, we all need to do that!’ without first identifying unforeseen barriers or balancing effectiveness with practicality,” Toole says. While test scores and ratings show improvement, Toole points to changes that are less visible. Teacher retention has increased from nearly 50% turnover in previous years to almost 80% retention. Student participation has grown across programs including band, orchestra, robotics, theater and athletics. “I hope visitors can feel the culture on our campus,” Toole says. “We work hard to create an environment where kids and teachers feel valued and supported.”

JANUARY 2026 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU P U M P KI N S

One neighbor has turned a seasonal surplus into a donation drive Story by NIKI GUMMADI | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

18 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com JANUARY 2026

AS N O RA H M E I E R - M A ROU L I S looks out onto her yard, a neighbor on a run stops and gestures toward the sea of reds, oranges and yellows in front of her home. “What a gift to the neighborhood, you doing this. My kids love it,” he says. He is referring to the piles of pumpkins, ranging in size from the palm of a hand to a car tire, stacked waist-high. They cover almost half of her yard and go all the way up her driveway. Inconvenient? Sure, but the pumpkins won’t be there for long. This is the third year Meier-Maroulis has used her yard as a donation site for My Pig Filled Life, a rescue pig farm in Wills Point. She was first introduced to the organization a couple years ago after rescuing a potbelly pig that had been severely sexually assaulted. A friend connected her with Melanie Moreau at My Pig Filled Life, who helped her save the pig’s life and get him adopted. From there, the two became friends, and Moreau told Meier-Maroulis about how My Pig Filled Life had drop-off locations around DFW for people to donate pumpkins, which are used to feed the pigs at the farm. Meier-Maroulis offered up her driveway, expecting no more than a couple hundred pumpkins. That first year, the entire driveway was filled within four weeks. Last year, the piles began spilling out into her yard. This year, Meier-Maroulis intended to collect for only two weeks, but her yard filled up after a little over a week. She had to put signs up saying she could no longer collect pumpkins. The influx peaked the weekend after Thanksgiving, when neighbors were transitioning from fall decorations to Christmas displays. Meier-Maroulis says it was “like a carpool,” with cars lining the street to drop their pumpkins off. The drop-off has become a family affair. “The whole family will come, maybe grandma and mom and dad, and the kids are pulling a cart full of pumpkins to drop off. And we sit here and we watch it all from the window, and it’s just the cutest thing,” Meier-Maroulis says. Each year, neighbors walking by will stop to take pictures of their kids or dogs posing with the pumpkins. Meier-Maroulis says the collection has allowed her to meet neighbors from streets away whom she has never crossed paths with. “I’m very thankful that people are so

happy about it, and I will tell you, it brings us so much joy, and I think it brings a lot of the neighbors joy,” she says. Once the collection period ends, Meier-Maroulis organizes a day for volunteers to come together and load the pumpkins up for transport to Wills Point. This year, a group of around 130 volunteers filled three 30-yard dumpsters with the haul, including local students and Scouting America troops. “It’s really been a whole community effort to do this,” Meier-Maroulis says. But for her, the work starts even before it’s time to load up the dumpsters. Each day, Meier-Maroulis comes out to inspect the pumpkins, ensuring any rotten ones are removed and that the piles are not spilling out onto the sidewalk or street. The work continues into the spring, when new pumpkins start sprouting and must be picked out. Though the rescues at My Pig Filled Life still need feed, the pumpkins serve as a supplement, offsetting the farm’s feed costs by tens of thousands of dollars. Last year, the pumpkins lasted through early March. The donations also keep the pumpkins out of the landfill, another reason Meier-Maroulis continues to offer her yard each year. The pumpkin donation is just one of many ways Meier-Maroulis is involved in animal rescue. She runs the Educational Animal Rescue Society and has been doing rescue work in Dallas for more than 20 years. It started one day after she moved to Dallas after college. While driving down Singleton Boulevard, she saw two stray dogs in the middle of the road. She picked them up and got them vetted and adopted on her own, as the shelter and SPCA were both full. Soon after, she created the Facebook group Dallas Strays and Rescues, which still functions as a hub for adoptions, lost pets and rescue resources. “You meet everybody along the way,” she jokes. “You’re friends with a squirrel rescuer, you’re friends with a pig rescuer, you’re friends with the horse rescuer.” Helping with the pumpkin drop-off is one way for her to support those in the rescue community, especially during h a rd t i m e s . Me i e r-Ma ro u l i s s ay s t h e post-pandemic years have been hard on the community, with donations, fosters and volunteer numbers down. “It’s a small thing that we can do to make a big impact,” she says.

IT BRINGS US SO MUCH JOY, AND I THINK IT BRINGS A LOT OF THE NEIGHBORS JOY.” Opposite: The stacks of pumpkins were donated to My Pig Filled Life, a rescue pig farm.

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LO O K I N G BAC K AT LOV E F I E L D Dallas Love Field Airport’s history from the beginning to the 1950s

hen people think of Dallas Love Field Airport today, they probably think of Southwest or private jets. Maybe they think of the creative billboards along Mockingbird before the entrance to the Main Terminal or the landing aircraft flying overhead while walking around the Bachmann Lake Trail. However, the original Dallas Love Field certainly lived up to its name when it opened in November 1917 (during World War I) as a military training airport. It lived up to its name because the parallel runways, state-of-the-art terminal, and massive facilities dotting Lemmon Avenue did not exist. It was simply a grass field with no runways, stretching from slightly north of Lovers Lane to ‘Hangar Row,’ which was an east-west strip of 11 hangars, military housing and other structures south of today’s Shorecrest Drive. The road was officially named Love Field Drive. After the War, Love Field’s story looked much like other famous airports around the country: barnstormers, flight schools, a little bit of military aviation, daredevils and eventually, Airmail. With a surplus of aircraft and trained pilots from WWI, the Airmail Act of 1925 began awarding contracts for companies to transport mail around the country, and this eventually led to passenger aviation. Among the first was Contract Airmail Route 3, stretching from Dallas (Love) to Chicago with stops in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. The first flight took off on the morning of May 12, 1926, and this marked the first-ever commercial flight in the state of Texas. Herb Kindred of National Air Transport flew the Curtiss Carrier Pigeon aircraft. Early passenger service started shortly after, with flights operatingout of hangars. Southwest Air Fast Express began passenger service to Tulsa on April 2, 1929. These successes led to the Dallas City Commission voting to purchase the airport for $325,000 ($6.16 million in 2025) from the Dallas Chamber of Commerce’s Love Field Industrial District on March 30, 1928. Charles Lindbergh allegedly pushed Dallas into this decision.

22 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com JANUARY 2026

Story by JACK DRAKE

An immediate result of this decision was the construction of a new passenger terminal. It opened in 1929. This terminal was the site of the first passenger flight for a little-known company called Delta Air Service, Inc., which had started as Huff Daland Dusters, Inc. in 1925. The route was from Dallas Love Field to Jackson, Mississippi, via Shreveport and Monroe, Louisiana and that company is now a very well-known carrier called Delta Air Lines. Around the same time, a freight and mail carrier from Oklahoma, Braniff Air Lines, Inc., founded by Paul and Thomas Braniff, briefly flew to Love Field starting Sept. 1. The company restructured as Braniff Airways in 1930, and brought back service to Love in 1934. Southern Air Transport was founded by Texas politician and business owner Alva Pearl Barrett when he purchased fellow Airmail carrier Texas Air Transport, founded in 1928 by Temple Bowen. Bowen started a new carrier, Bowen Airlines, which started passenger service from DAL in 1930. He would eventually sell to Braniff in 1936. Cyrus Rowlett Smith joined Southern in 1929 as Vice President. That company combined with others to form American Airways, which rebranded as American Airlines when it was acquired by Errett Lobban “E. L.” Cord in 1934. These three companies would all become powerhouses in Dallas. All three would later build up hubs at Love Field and eventually Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport (DFW). They defined aviation in Dallas for many years. Speaking of defining aviation, Dallas Love Field “[solidified] its position as the air capital of the Southwest with the formal opening of the $210,000 terminal” on Sunday, Oct. 6, 1940. The old building was quickly outgrown in 10 years, and it was clear they would need something new and fantastic. According to The Dallas Morning News piece on the opening, “the most striking featur[e] of the interior is the terrazzo map on the floor of the central concourse, showing the United States, part of Canada, the West Indies, Mexico, Central America and the northern part of South America.”

The Art Deco building featured metal doors and windows, murals throughout, and an observation deck. Thomas D. Broad was the architect, Wood & Scurlock were the contractors for the structure and O’Neal Construction Company did the paving for $23,401. There were initially five ground boarding gates, but this terminal was an early adopter of a ground air conditioning system that provided cool air to aircraft. Before passengers stepped onto cool aircraft (the temperature and the types of planes themselves), the terminal was intended to be an experience in and of itself. Passengers “will eat in a smart restaurant on the upper terrace where they can see their planes come in, or in the convenient coffee shop downstairs, or sip a soda at the well-equipped soda fountain, or buy their papers and magazines and smokes at a well-stocked cigar stand. Luxurious lounges for ladies and men will be waiting for them. Of course, this will be a far cry from the old days when the airport terminal was just where your ticket was checked, your baggage was weighed and loaded, and your friends met and saw you off.” -Fairfax Nisbet An opening ceremony packed with “air-minded citizens” featured Dallas Mayor Woodall Rodgers, CAA regional director, L.E. Elliott, Dallas Chamber of Commerce President J.B. Adoue, Jr., WPA Regional Director Gus Thompson, Braniff VP Robert J. Smith (as well as the Braniff Troubadours), American Airlines VP O.M. (Red) Mosier, Delta President C.E. Faulk, City Manager James Aston, Scottish Bagpipe Bands, high school bands, Dallas Aviation School cadets, and a special color guard honoring disabled WWII veterans. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt described the facility as “one of the nicest in the airways system” during her visit on the afternoon of Dec. 1, onboard an American Airlines flight. Military activity resumed at Love Field during WWII. Longtime tenant Dallas Aviation School trained aviation cadets, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation opened a facility, and the Fifth Ferrying Group and the Women Airforce Service Pilots of the Air Transport Command opened bases. The addition of larger Douglas DC4 aircraft and new airlines to Love Field following WWII prompted a terminal expansion, adding wings on each side of the original building to increase the gate capacity. The East Wing opened on March 9, 1947 and the West Wing opened on Aug. 10, 1948. Just as the facilities of the late 1920s built to support 10-ish passenger aircraft like the Fort TriMotor, Lockheed Vega, and Travel Air 6000 were quickly made obsolete, the same fate was coming to the Art Deco Lemmon Avenue terminal built for DC2s and DC3s by the 1950s, and it would seem more expansion would need to be made. This is part 1 of a series on Love Field. JACK DRAKE is a student at The Ohio State University studying aviation management. The Preston Hollow-resident is known for publishing Preston Hollow: A Brief History. Drake is a member of Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, a volunteer at Vickery Meadow Food Pantry and creator of Facebook

Dallas Love Field started out as a a military training airport in November 1917 and later, transported mail by plane in the next decade. This led to passenger aviation. In 1940, Dallas Love Field formally opened its $210,000 terminal. Photos courtesy of Dallas Love Field.

group Preston Hollow History. JANUARY 2026 prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

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SOLD

4107 S. BETTER

5 /4.2 | 6,065 SQ. FT. | 0.39 ACRES | $2,989,000 RYAN STREIFF • 469.371.3008 JASON BATES • 214.673.4268

9909 PRESTON ROAD 1.41 ACES | GATED | LOT | $3,195,000 RYAN STREIFF • 469.371.3008

SOLD

7137 ROYAL LANE

4254 RIDGE ROAD

4/5.0 | 4,995 SQ. FT. | 0.395 ACRES | $2,395,000 MIKE BALDWIN• 214.499.1233 RYAN STREIFF • 469.371.3008

5/6.2 | 6,030 SQ. FT. | 0.403 ACRES | $2,395,000 RYAN STREIFF • 469.371.3008 JAMIE KOHLMANN•214.669.6520

A Berkshire Hathaway Affiliate Rankings based on RealTrends + Tom Ferry The Thousand, 2023, Medium Teams by Volume