Surprise twist

Good guys: HSPVA wins H-E-B Montrose Market award and decides to share thewealth

HSPVA representative Dr. Scott Allen poses with a check made out to the school,although he decided to split the difference with the other three charities
Photo by Caroline Gallay
Representatives from each of the selected four area charities pose with theirchecks
Photo by Caroline Gallay

In a surprise twist, there were four winners of the new Montrose Market H-E-B's charitable customer's choice contest.

Although Houston Achievement Place, Wilson Wonderground Spark Park, Kids Meals, Inc. and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts competed for a top prize of up to $10,000, it was in the spirit of Thanksgiving that the winner — HSPVA — decided to split the top prize four ways and send everyone home with an equal share.

When all of the more than 5,000 in-store and online votes (facilitated by a CulturePoll) were tallied, HSPVA had won a grand prize of $9,552.

"The weekend before Thanksgiving, I was reading about the other charities and thought, it's Thanksgiving — why not share the wealth?"

After all the checks were handed out, however — including checks for $5,000 to each of the remaining three charities — HSPVA's Dr. Scott Allen took the podium to deliver another bit of good news.

"I wasn't sure who would win, but I asked to take any amount over $5,000 and split it four ways, and H-E-B agreed!"

(Although online votes were to count for $1 each, while in-store votes counted for $5 each, once H-E-B heard of Allen's plan, they doubled the value of online votes to up each charity's winnings.)

Allen tells CultureMap: "The weekend before Thanksgiving, I was reading about the other charities and thought, it's Thanksgiving — why not share the wealth?"

Allen says he immediately got the school's blessing and is thrilled with the way everything turned out.

Wilson Wonderground Spark Park will use its total $6,138 to revamp and revitalize its school park, while Kid's Meals, Inc. and Houston Achievement place will continue to fund their day-to-day missions of assisting children.

"We made an early commitment to be actively engaged in the comunity," said H-E-B spokesperson Cyndy Garza to the crowd of dozens of representatives of the involved charities, parents and kids.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”