Levy Park Conservancy hosts “Smitty’s Day at the Park” July 8, presented by the Wade Smith Foundation and offering a free youth camp with top-level instruction in football, cheerleading and music/art/literacy for children ages 5 – 12. The Foundation brings together retired NFL Pro Bowl Offensive Lineman and former Houston Texan Wade Smith, current and former NFL players, collegiate student athletes, professional dancers, former NFL cheerleaders, children’s book authors, musicians and artists for this unique community event.

The camp is scheduled from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m., and advance registration is required. In addition to workshops in football, cheerleading and art, music and literacy, all participants receive a camp T-shirt and lunch.

Following the camp, participants and families alike are invited to enjoy games, snacks, music and activities aimed to promote health and fitness at the recently renovated Levy Park in the Upper Kirby District of Houston. Among the highlights are a water park, obstacle course, onsite DJ, food trucks and raffle prizes.

The Wade Smith Foundation supports community youth programs in the greater Houston area and the  Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, with a focus on literacy and education. Smith believes all children deserve the opportunity to succeed by expanding their minds through reading and to earn a college degree if they so choose.

As part of “Smitty’s Day at the Park,” children will be required to read one book in advance of the camp and answer questions about it on the registration form. Everyone attending the camp is encouraged to bring at least one book for a community book drive, along with donations from the public, to achieve a goal of 5000 books. Books can be dropped off during the day on July 8. These books will be donated to children who lack access to books so that they can read, explore and broaden their horizons.

Additional sponsors for “Smitty’s Day at the Park” include CharitaBulls, which is  dubbed (Houston) Texans for a Cause and Sports Radio 610, part of CBS Radio.

To register, or learn more about the camp and registration requirements, go to: https://smittysdayatthepark.eventbrite.com. To volunteer for the event, check out http://www.charitabulls.net/volunteers. Registration for the camp is limited to 300 participants.

About the Levy Park Conservancy

The Levy Park Conservancy is an affiliate of the Upper Kirby District Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization managing Levy Park, a six-acre City of Houston park in the Upper Kirby District of Houston. The Conservancy oversees maintenance, operations, long-term stewardship, programs and events, and partnerships and visitor services and concessions at Levy Park. Learn more about the Conservancy and Levy Park at levyparkhouston.org.

Mayor Sylvester Turner is calling for Houston’s best ideas to endorse for the national Our Town grant program.

The National Endowment for the Arts’ Our Town grant is interested in projects that bring arts and culture to impact community priorities such as public safety, health, blight and vacancy, environment, job creation, equity, local business development, civic participation, and/or community cohesion. Successful projects will improve the livability of communities, create opportunities for all and empower residents.

“I am very enthusiastic about having artists bring their best ideas to community projects and the NEA Our Town grant is a tremendous opportunity,” said Mayor Turner. “There is so much great talent in Houston and by working together across sectors to solve problems and expand opportunity, we will keep our city moving forward.”

The Our Town grant program supports creative placemaking projects that help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core. Our Town requires partnerships between arts organizations and government, other nonprofit organizations, and private entities to achieve livability goals for communities. This grant provides an opportunity to embrace the expanding role culture plays in our community.

The National Endowment for the Arts limits the number of Our Town grant applicants per city and requires a letter of endorsement from the Mayor. Applications that respond to the City’s Arts and Cultural Plan will be most competitive for an endorsement.

To be considered for endorsement, applicants should submit their concepts with confirmed artists and partners no later than July 17, 2017 to Cultural.Affairs@houstontx.gov. Applicants should consult the Our Town grant program website, which includes guidance and resources including case studies for developing successful projects: https://www.arts.gov/grants-organizations/our-town/introduction.

Successful applicants will receive endorsement notification in early August for a final submission to the National Endowment for the Arts on September 11, 2017.

For more about the Arts and Cultural Plan visit: http://www.houstontx.gov/culturalaffairs/artsandculturalplan.html.

A Dallas police officer will face aggravated assault charges for firing into a moving car at least 13 times and killing a 21-year-old woman.

He will most likely face no consequence for taking this young woman’s life.

Thirty-nine-year-old Dallas police officer Christopher Hess has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation into the death of Genevive Dawes, according to the Guardian.

The charges stem from a Jan. 18 incident when Hess responded to a suspicious person call at an address near downtown Dallas. They found Dawes and Virgilio Rosales, her partner, sleeping in a Dodge SUV she had purchased a month earlier, according to a federal lawsuit brought against the city by Dawses’ mother, Mary Dawes.

The Guardian reports:

The vehicle had been reported stolen, though Dawes did not know this and thought she had purchased it legitimately, the court filing states. It adds that when the officers approached the SUV with flashlights, Dawes was startled and tried to reverse the car. A police vehicle drove into her path, causing a minor collision.

The lawsuit states: “Dawes still unaware of what was going on or who was blocking her path, pulled her vehicle forward so she could have a clear path to back up. As Dawes backed up her vehicle at a very slow rate of speed, defendants Hess and Kimpel fired at least 13 shots through the passenger side window, striking Dawes four times in the neck, her right tricep, left arm, upper left chest and right forearm.

“Dawes’s right earlobe was also partially amputated. Dawes was transported to Baylor Hospital where she later died as a result of her injuries.”

Police later stated that Dawes and Rosales ignored “loud verbal commands” then “started the stolen vehicle and reversed a short distance striking a marked police vehicle.” (emphasis ours.)

Daryl Washington, an attorney for the Dawes family, vigirously disputes that version of events. Washington says that the car was moving at less than 5mph and not accelerating, he said.

“We are happy that there may be some justice in this case because the death of Genevive was definitely preventable,” he said, adding that although the charge against Officer Hess is not murder, it carries a prison sentence of between five and 99 years.

Good luck on that.

Body camera footage has not been publicly released yet.