Thirty years ago, some Hyer Elementary School moms had a crazy idea. What if they moved the school’s annual spaghetti supper from the gym to a restaurant, and added a live auction?
The change was a risk, and not everyone was in favor of it.
But the moms forged ahead, and the idea turned out to be a great one — their Boot Scootin’ Adult Auction was a huge success. By the end of the evening, they had raised a whopping $75,000 for Hyer Elementary, several times more than the amount the school had ever collected at its spaghetti supper.
Since then, Hyer’s annual auction has continued to be the school’s largest fundraiser. The money it raises is crucial to ensuring that students and teachers have the resources they need, both today and for years to come.
This November, Hyer’s auction isn’t only about providing for the future, but also about paying tribute to the past.
The daughters of two chairs of the original Boot Scootin’ Adult Auction, Julie Meyer and Stephanie Johns, are organizing this year’s event along with fellow Hyer mom Whitney Ward.
They’ve taken the reins at the request of Hyer parent teacher association president Ellen Kershaw, whose mother, Leslie Melson, was president of the school’s PTA during that first off-campus auction 30 years ago.
Organizing the auction is a massive undertaking that requires almost a year of planning, and there aren’t many parents waiting in line to volunteer. Kershaw said that she’d roped Johns and Meyer into taking on the task.
“I came to them, and I said, ‘Let’s do something really special. Your moms were auction chairs of my mom’s PTA year,” Kershaw remembered. “Will y’all be my auction chairs for this year?’And they thought about it for a couple seconds, but how could you not say yes?”
Kershaw chose the theme Boot Scootin’ Hyer for her year as PTA president in tribute to her mother’s Boot Scootin’ theme. The theme’s tagline, “Lone Star Legacy, Deep in the Heart of Texas,” is a nod to the generational commitment to Hyer that their mothers instilled in both Kershaw, the auction chairs, and other dedicated parents.
Like their mothers, Debbie Owen and Kristie George, Johns and Meyer are determined to make their Hyer Honky Tonk the school’s best auction ever.
Boot scootin’ honky tonks don’t often happen in ballrooms, so they’ve moved the event from the Dallas Country Club to Marie Gabrielle Restaurant and Gardens in the Harwood District.
They’ve also added two new events — an auction preview party and a College Throwdown fundraiser. University of Texas alums won the College Throwdown, earning the right to fly their flag from Hyer’s flagpole and play their fight song to students every morning the week before the Texas/OU Game.
Owen and George said they’re proud to see their daughters continue their legacy of service. It’s a commitment that the chairs believe will persist for generations to come.
There’s nothing extraordinary about extraordinary service to Highland Park ISD schools, they explained. Giving back is just what people in this neighborhood do.
“This is a celebration for our kids, and our school, and our community, and all the love that every volunteer has poured into our kids and this community,” Meyer said. “It’s something to be celebrated, truly.”