Their office may be in the heart of the Park Cities, but these Virginia Cook, Realtor agents poured their own hearts into helping the December 26 tornado victims located in the midst of the hardest hit Rowlett and Garland neighborhoods.

Under the leadership of Kathleen Schiele, whose Rowlett church swiftly established a Relief Center, the Virginia Cook, Realtor agents donated the funds to purchase a commercial-grade ice machine to support recovery efforts.

“The disaster may not be in the news every day, but we need to remember that needs of the victims are still immense,” said Kathleen. “I am so proud of our Virginia Cook team and their desire to help.”

Participating agents and staff members included Frank Hayward, Chris Papazian, Lasandra Miller, Bob Moran, Cathy Ward, Peggy Jones, Harriet Holiday, Dan Cohn, Bob Spurlock, Suzanne Smith, Annette Rivera, Sherri Baer-Wilson, Greg Pape and Linda Claycomb.

To date, the Virginia Cook agents have contributed to a response that includes serving over 3,000 meals prepared at the Relief Center by a professional chef and served onsite or delivered to the neighborhoods where residents and volunteers are working.

The Disaster Relief Center has also fulfilled over 2,600 resource requests for non-perishable food items, toiletries, towels, bedding, furniture and appliances.

With ReliefCenter volunteers working 24/7, crews of more than 3,000 have accepted assignments to assist residents in the recovery process. The ReliefCenter has also sheltered 20 people who were displaced, hosted counseling services with certified professionals, and even offered Play Therapy sessions for children

 “The silver lining of this tragedy is seeing people from all walks of life, from all over the Metroplex, and even around the world, come to the aid of our fellow citizens,” said Kathleen, listing organizations such as Crisis Response International, Nachama Jewish Response to Disaster, Therapy Dogs International, International Alert Academy, University of North Texas counselors, and World Vision.

  “At Virginia Cook, Realtors, we’ve always said that we put our hearts into the community before we put a For Sale sign in the yard. Here’s another example that we really mean what we say.”

Mayor Lorne Liechty was a guest speaker at Heritage Christian Academy yesterday, where he shared his personal collection of U.S. Presidential signatures and interesting and entertaining facts and anecdotes about our nation’s leaders with the high school students. The Mayor’s collection includes one or more signatures of all 44 presidents. Items bearing the Presidential signatures include books, letters, deeds, warrants, posters, political signs, and even baseballs signed by Presidents George H. and George W. Bush.

With so many special items carefully collected through the years, it could be hard to determine which a favorite is. But Mayor Liechty is fairly certain his most coveted collectible is the 1917 World War I poster (pictured) urging citizens to help the war effort by lending their telescopes and binoculars to the U.S. Navy. The poster is framed with a telescope that was used by the Navy in World War I.

Pictured from left: Kelsea Rushing, Brooke Pirrone, Madeline Schroepfer, Katie Harmon, Holli Minter, Kendyll Harvey, Haley Fleming, Mayor Liechty, Morgan Bailey, Whitney Willis, Parker Smalley, Terry Canada, Molli Howard, Eli Cates, and Will McEvoy.