TREC also honored nonprofits that received nearly $800,000
Dallas, Texas – On January 21 at The Fairmont Hotel, The Real Estate Council's 2010 Community Breakfast featured Terdema Ussery, president and CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, as well as chairman of the board of commissioners of the Dallas Housing Authority. His speech was entitled “Inspiring Mind: The Importance of Making Personal Commitment.”
Jim Berry of Deloitte. and TREC chairman welcomed the 420 attendees. “Today we are celebrating the 2009 recipients of TREC Foundation’s community impact initiatives and our financial partners who helped make this a reality,” Berry said. “Special thanks to our generous sponsors for this breakfast: Ernst & Young, Haynes and Boone, LLP and Stewart Title.”
Melissa Eastman of Stewart Title and TREC Foundation vice chairman shared more about the foundation. “The mission of The Real Estate Council Foundation is to improve the quality of life of all citizens in our community by focusing on four key areas: affordable housing, education, job creation and the environment,” she said. “Despite a difficult economic environment in the real estate industry, in 2009, we committed nearly $500,000 in pro bono professional services and more than $300,000 in monetary support to nonprofit organizations doing amazing things in our community.”
Eastman then recognized The Real Estate Council’s 2009 Community Impact Initiatives:
· Big Thought
· Builders of Hope Community Development Corporation
· Circle of Support, Inc.
· Communities Foundation of Texas
· Forest Heights Neighborhood Development Corporation
· Shared Housing Center Inc.
· St. Anthony Foundation
· Uplift Education
“We extend our most sincere thanks to our Community Partners: Bank of America, The Boone Family Foundation, BBVA Compass Bank, Citi, Chase, The Craig and Kathryn Hall Foundation, Frost, and The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation,” Eastman added.
TREC’s Community Partners Program is a vehicle in which businesses, foundations and financial institutions can donate funds that are leveraged by the pro bono professional services of TREC members. For more information about the program, contact TREC at 214.692.3600.
Michelle Corson, president of TREC, introduced Terdema Ussery who told his life story about growing up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.
“I watched our neighborhood burned down,” Ussery said. “Once that happened, we had to go several miles just to go to the store.”
Ussery talked about the adults in his life who made a difference, a UCLA graduate student and volunteer who talked to him about “mathematics and elliptical curves,” a teacher who kept him from fighting to be “king of the school” and eventually got him in boarding school.
He eventually went to Princeton, graduate school at Harvard, and finished law school at the University of California at Berkeley. Now in his roles as president of the Dallas Mavericks Foundation and chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Dallas Housing Authority, Ussery is giving back and inspiring others to make the kind of personal commitment that changes lives.
“I was the child everyone looked through, but there were some adults who cared about me. I love what TREC is doing, and I would challenge you to take a look at a child who may need a hand and help them,” he said. “When I am asked why I am involved, I say that I don’t have any choice but to be involved because people interceded in my life.”
Ussery’s career path included being a real estate attorney, working for Nike, and helping Ross Perot Jr. achieve his vision “to build Times Square in Dallas.” That vision is now Victory and the American Airlines Center.
“Two weeks before the election to vote on the AAC, I called John Wiley Price who said to me, ‘You need to give me your word that you’ll be involved and I’ll help you,’” Ussery said.
“I said that I would, and I do that through the Dallas Mavericks Foundation and through giving my time on local boards. One board is the Dallas Housing Authority where 70,000 people rely on housing. We’re trying to run a public agency like a public company.”
He added, “In order to be a great city, it has to be a great city for everyone. It’s about making sure the least of these is taken care of from the homeless to the wealthiest.”
Ussery’s challenge for those who attended was two-fold: “I have a personal responsibility, and it gives me purpose to help others. Whether or not we are the same, we are in this together to make it a better place for others.”
Corson said, “Terdema’s story inspired our members and guests. He grew up in a neighborhood where opportunities were limited yet succeeded in business and used his success to improve the community.”
About TREC:
Founded in 1990, The Real Estate Council (TREC) is a dynamic organization of approximately 1,600 commercial real estate professionals representing more than 500 companies in the Dallas area.
TREC pursues industry advocacy efforts on local and statewide public policy issues and works to improve the quality of life in Dallas with impact initiatives that address housing, education, economic development and the environment. Since 1990 TREC’s investments in the community have totaled $75 million in pro bono professional expertise and added asset value supported by $7 million in cash.
TREC is a leader of efforts shaping the future of Dallas including the original $1.5 million investment that spearheaded Woodall Rodgers Park, as well as $6.3 million in pro bono legal and title services and $250,000 in funding that helped create Dallas’ Urban Land Bank. Find out more at www.recouncil.com or by calling 214.692.3600.