Ashley Young and Lindsey Hughes showed off their moves before the 2011 Blondes vs Brunettes Game.

While the competition on the field is stiff between Blondes & Brunettes, tomorrow night all the ladies are teaming up to take on a mutual foe: Alzheimer’s.

You can join the fight, too, and have a pretty good time while doing it. From 7 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, the Gossip Bar at the Hilton Anatole will be transformed into a charity auction replete with Budlight and appetizers, plus a photo booth to help you remember it all.

Paxton K. Baker, Stephen Hoefer, Pete Sessions, and Francisco Canseco

On June 20, Cistercian Preparatory School senior Stephen Hoefer, son of Steve and Bursley Hoefer of Highland Park, joined other distinguished youth from around the nation on the floor of the House of Representatives to receive the United States Congressional Gold Award.

The Gold Award is the highest granted by  Congress to recognize a young person’s exceptional initiative, achievement, physical fitness, and community service. Stephen qualified for this recognition by serving more than 900 volunteer hours and helping to raise $80,000 for the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital, along with numerous other volunteer and leadership efforts. CNN Broadcaster Wolf Blitzer was on hand to host the 2012 award ceremony and aired portions of the event, including a shot of Stephen, on “The Situation Room.”

Source: SMU

According to Dallas Police, Louis Rothermel III, 44, died yesterday after an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at the Dallas Marriott. The death, which is still officially classified as “unexplained,” shortly follows the passing of Rothermel’s infant son, Harrison, on July 15.

The Dallas Morning News described the baby’s death as “suspicious” in a Page 2 brief in today’s Metro section. The write-up said Louis and his wife, Honea, were cooperating with the investigation. The couple’s older son is reportedly in foster care.

Enter Leadership DISD, a 10-month program open to the public and designed to increase student achievement. Apply today, because tomorrow’s the deadline.

Thanks to the Frontiers of Flight Museum, you don’t have to visit a “galaxy far, far away” to experience the wonders of space exploration. Star gazers and space enthusiasts of all ages can now trek over to the family-fun activities scheduled Saturday for “Moon Day 2012.”

In 2009, Moon Day was created in Dallas by Frontiers of Flight Museum and the National Space Society of North Texas as an annual event to celebrate space exploration on or near the anniversary of the first moon landing.  This year, Moon Day will commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the lunar landing, which took place when Apollo 11 touched the surface on July 20, 1969.

Festivities run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Frontiers of Flight Museum, 6911 Lemmon Ave. Cost is $5-8.  Museum members and children 3 and under are free.

Brown graduated from St. Edward’s University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Writing and Rhetoric. She currently resides in Munich.

Amelia Taylor at the Highland Park Library's summer reading program kickoff at Prather Park in June.

A large, enthusiastic crowd attended the kickoff party of Highland Park Library’s 2012 “Get a Clue … At The Library” summer reading program in Prather Park on June 1. Children solved a series of mini-mysteries by using their senses of touch, smell, and sight, collecting clues along the way. When the young detectives had gathered all the clues, they were able to crack the code and claim their rewards at the snack table.

Beautiful weather, a large group of teen volunteers, and a record number of excited readers and their families helped make the event a success.

From left: Barbara Kerwin, Spring Market co-chair; Nicole Richter, UPPA president; Renne Lokey, Spring Market co-chair; Lynda Carter, UP elementary principal

The University Park Preschool Association recently donated $73,000, a record amount, to University Park Elementary School.

The money came from the proceeds of this year’s annual Spring Market, which was sponsored by Wells Fargo and held April 4 at the school. Shoppers enjoyed more than 90 vendors of unique items. There was even entertainment for the little ones, including a balloon man and face-painting.

Bradfield alumnus Luke Cameron hugs the school's new bronco mascot, Blaze.

The 2012 graduating class from Bradfield Elementary can take pride in the fact that they’ve left the school a little better than they found it. The enterprising students raised money for a new mascot costume by setting up a Snack Shop once a month during the year. Clearly, this was time and money well spent.

An excerpt:

In the recent Dallas school board election, an unprecedented river of cash poured into a handful of campaigns, the lion’s share from donors in downtown, the Park Cities, Preston Hollow and far North Dallas. That money came from affluent people, the majority of whom are white, some of whom must think that sending their own kids to a public school in Dallas is like sending them to the gallows.

Schutze explores many possibilities for the sudden flow of cash, including the extremes that:

• “A bunch of wealthy white people” suddenly decided to start supporting DISD out of the goodness of their hearts, as DISD trustee Mike Morath (who lives in Preston Hollow) claims.
• The flow of cash is actually a sinister one, meant to create charter schools that will pluck the best students out of DISD and leave the others “behind to rot,” as Black community activist Joyce Foreman believes.

The article isn’t just extremes, though. It holds a number of interesting points about various public school reform efforts, as well as an interview with Highland Park resident Harlan Crow.