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Saturday, March 25, 2023 • Vol. 68 • No.12
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Special section spotlights powerful women in community Staff Reports
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INSIDE.
Area’s best The Booker T. Washington Eagles had three players named to TABC Region III-4A team
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Photo by Christi Gell Two boys prepare to play the drums during a previous Heights Kids Day of Music. This year’s event is happening this Saturday at Montie Beach Park.
Heights Kids Day of Music set for Saturday By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
Do it for the dance The city of Houston recently awarded grants to arts projects around the area
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Transformed This weekend, Memorial Park will be turned into a vivid art festival.
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If community members have a child that is musically inclined, an annual event aimed at spurring interest in music could be the place to be. This Saturday, the ninth annual Heights Kids Day of Music event will return with a new location for 2023. The annual festival will be held at Montie Beach Park, 915 Northwood St., from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday with fun for all ages. Musical guests AndyRoo & The AndyRooniverse, Beetle, Cristina Tribute Show to the Queen of Tejano, and Garbage Girlfriend, will lead the stage performances, and additional musical acts will include Institute of Contemporary Dance, Cass-Barrington Irish Dancing, Ally Theatre, Opera in The Heights, Bojangles Music School, and more. “A kid attending HKDM will be fully immersed in hands-on activities related to music and the arts,” HKDM president Christ Gell said. “For some who attend schools where music or arts programming has been cut, this can be the first exposure they have to some of the instruments or performance types at the festival.” In addition to being hyper-fo-
Photo by Christi Gell A young attendee listens to and creates music during a previous Heights Kids Day of Music. About 4,000 people annually turn out for the event.
cused on introducing the community to music in a way they haven’t experienced before, Gell said the annual event draws thousands of attendees from more than 130 zip codes to the event every year. The mission of the Heights Kids’ Day of Music, Gell said, is to inspire kids to have a “lifelong love of and engagement with mu-
sic and the arts” by introducing them to local musicians and arts organizations such as Bojangles, Opera in the Heights, and more. She shared an anecdote about a child who attended the 2019 HKDM and heard rock/pop group Wicked Pandas perform. After See Music P. 5A
As the business landscape has evolved, more and more womenowned businesses, and that trend has also been true in the local area as there have been rises in womenowned business in recent years. So, we here at The Leader wanted to do something to highlight some of the powerful women in our community who not only own their own business, but are still thriving to this day. And with March being Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day having been celebrated on March 8, we felt this was the perfect opportunity to do so. So inside today’s edition, there is a special B section with a few spotlights on some of the women-owned businesses and companies in the Heights, Garden Oaks, and Oak Forest. A 2021 report from World Economic Forum said that nearly 50 percent of startups in the U.S. in 2021 were started by women, up from 28 percent in 2019. According to a September 2021 report from Houston television station FOX 26, there were more than 125,000 women-owned small businesses in the Houston metro area. A July 2022 report from the Houston Chronicle also said that Houston is also a top15 business city for women-owned startups per a recent study, with nearly a quarter of businesses in the region being owned by women. Several organizations with a focus on women-owned businesses also have set up shop in the Houston area, such as the Houston chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and the Houston-headquartered Women’s Business Enterprise Alliance. There is also the Greater Heights Chamber of Commerce, which has a number of women-owned businesses as part of its ranks. Greater Heights Chamber spokesperson Rachel Goldstein estimated that about half of the Chamber’s member businesses are women-owned. “I think the rise of more womenowned businesses is because there are a lot more women working and for women it is essential for them to work for economic security, social equality and a sustainable economy,” she said. “... There are a lot more women owned businesses recently that have joined the chamber.” This week’s special section is one we put a lot of work into, because these entrepreneurs and their businesses deserve to be recognized. So we hope you enjoy the special section we’ve crafted for you, our readers, today as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
Love Elementary hosting Palm Sunday Easter egg hunt By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
Now open Leading Nibbles and Sips is the opening of The Heights Social on 20th Street
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THE INDEX. Public.................................... 2A Topics ................................... 3A Sports ........................................................ 4A Classifieds ............................................. 6A Local Culture ........................ 7A Food/Drink ........................... 4B
If community members are looking to occupy their children for a few hours, an upcoming neighborhood Easter egg hunt might be just the ticket. On Palm Sunday April 2, Love Elementary and Apostles Houston church in the Heights are partnering for an annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt beginning at 11:45 a.m. that is free and open to the community. The past few years had seen Apostles Houston host a community egg hunt at Milroy Park, but Apostles Houston pastor David Cumbie said they wanted to try doing it closer to home. There will be two separate zones, one for children four years of age and under and another for those five years old all the way up to 5th grade.
“I think healthy, strong neighborhoods have healthy, strong schools. Thriving schools help create thriving neighborhoods,” said Cumbie, himself a father of three elementary-aged kids in the Heights. “… I’ve seen the difference community partners can make in local schools by building relationships, supporting initiatives and doing joint events and projects.” The church, Cumbie said, had participated in school-related assistance such as teacher appreciation events, backpack, winter coat and hygiene kit drives, and service projects. Their partnership with Love, he said, began a little over five years ago when they helped meet some student needs in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. And since first-year principal Sean See Easter P. 5A