The Junior League and The Links, Inc. have joined the SLANT 45 initiative
Daryl Johnston understood the necessity for talent and teamwork during his Cowboys career. Today, he views the makeup of the newly-formed SLANT 45 Action Team in much the same manner.
Football teams, as Johnston explains, must be adept in three areas — offense, defense and special teams. As Chair of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee’s SLANT 45 Action Team, Johnston regards non-profit Big Thought as the offensive juggernaut for this massive undertaking. After all, Big Thought is carrying the proverbial football.
And at a Monday press conference at the American Airlines Center, Johnston announced that the SLANT 45 Team had installed two more critical components — the five North Texas chapters of Junior League and five chapters of The Links, Inc.
An incredible volunteer force has suddenly been added to what is already the largest service-learning project for children in U.S. history.
Gigi Antoni, Big Thought’s President & CEO, called the five North Texas Junior Leagues and The Links “the heart and the hands” of the project. They will assist Big Thought and the Host Committee with registration, project coordination and curation of reflective art pieces. And they will spread the word throughout the four-county region, encouraging third through fifth graders to participate.
Included are the Dallas, Fort Worth, Mid-Cities, Plano and Trinity chapters of The Links, Inc.
Never before has Junior League’s five local chapters (Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Richardson) come together to support a single project.
Service Learning Adventures in North Texas, or SLANT 45, will allow more than 20,000 children to devote at least 45,000 hours toward their own service-learning creations to better their communities. No previous Super Bowl has seen anything like it.
The SLANT 45 project will kick-off in early 2010. In January 2011, the week leading up to Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium on February 6, all participants will be honored in the American Airlines Center, a celebration extravaganza that will include their works of art as well as celebrities and nationally known musical entertainers.
“It’s really the partners that come together to make it happen,” Antoni said. “And this extraordinary group of women that have decided to engage in this project, the Junior League and The Links, are going to be the heart and the hands that will touch the children and the adults. Without them, this project would be much less able to touch communities in the way that it will.
“Although Big Thought and the Host Committee may be the architects of SLANT 45, the real heart of this program lies in the hands of these extraordinary women.”
Not only has the “team roster” been bolstered dramatically since the initial launch of the program only three months ago, an Action Team of North Texas superstars convened for the first time prior to the press conference.
THE SLANT 45 ACTION TEAM
Honorary Co-Chairs: The Honorable George W. Bush & Mrs. Laura Bush.
Chairman: Daryl Johnston.
Title Sponsors for SLANT 45: Bank of America and the Ted & Shannon Skokos Foundation. Richard Holt, President, and Pam McQuitty, Senior Vice President, for Bank of America-Dallas; and, Mike Pavell, Senior Vice-President, Bank of America-Fort Worth. Ted and Shannon Skokos of the Ted & Shannon Skokos Foundation.
Action Team Members (besides the aforementioned): Meredith Camp, President, Junior League of Dallas; Johnny Campbell, President & CEO, Sundance Square; Kathy Chapman, Director of Education & Programming, the Dallas Holocaust Museum; Neil Dugger, Interim Superintendent, Irving ISD; George Dunham, KTCK 1310 Radio; James Guess, President & Founder, $chool of Money & Wealth; Anita Hanks, Director, Starwood Montessori-Frisco; Dr. Michael Hinojosa, Superintendent, Dallas ISD; Dr. Lisa Holecamp, Head of Lower School, The Hockaday School; Dr. Melody Johnson, Superintendent, Fort Worth ISD; Leah King, Senior Director of Public Affairs, Chesapeake Energy; Patricia Linares, Deputy Superintendent, Fort Worth ISD.
Also, Jerry McCullough, Superintendent, Arlington ISD; Gerald McElvy, President, ExxonMobil Foundation; Evan Peterson, Headmaster, Fort Worth Country Day School; Gary Randle, Founder & Director, Hope Farm Fort Worth; Deedie Rose, philanthropist; Rusty Rose, philanthropist; Bill Siegel, Shareholder, Cowles & Thompson, P.C.; Rev. Steve Swann, Headmaster, Episcopal School of Dallas; Barbara Lord Watkins, President Emeritus, Parkland Foundation; Jeanne Whitman, Headmistress, The Hockaday School.
SLANT 45 Operations Staff: Gigi Antoni, President & CEO, Big Thought; Angie Bulaich, Community Outreach Manager, North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee; Tony Fay, Director of Communications, Host Committee; Amanda Gibbons, SLANT 45 Project Manager, Big Thought; Bill Lively, President & CEO, Host Committee; Chris Orzechowski, Director of Marketing, Big Thought.
