Kevin King's archive

Gift of Life holds pep rally for 7th annual Procter 5K

Gift of Life ‘cheerleaders’ spell out ‘victory’ during a pep rally to kick off t

One of the most popular and well-attended nonprofit events in Southeast Texas is coming in the fall, and Gift of Life started early, working to get the community fired up for it by hosting a pep rally luncheon Thursday, June 8, at Broussard’s Centré in Beaumont.

Cancer-fighting cheerleaders engaged the crowd, spelling out “victory” over the deadly disease, which Gift of Life has been helping Southeast Texas battle since 1994.

shadow

Noah’s Seafood Kitchen

Although he’s still a young 31 years of age, Tan “Ro” Phung is no stranger to the restaurant business. Phung, originally from Vietnam, came to the States as a baby. He opened Ro’s Seafood in 2008 with his sister Nhi Phung before opening Noah’s Seafood Kitchen in Vidor in 2012.

Phung named the restaurant after his nephew, Noah. Also, Phung’s relatives own Bruce’s Seafood Deli and Gulf Coast Seafood in Port Arthur.

shadow

Alcohol & Drug Abuse Council of Deep East Texas

ADACDET Beaumont office employees are Julie King, liaison counselor; Kara Wharto

The Alcohol & Drug Abuse Council of Deep East Texas is seeing a rise in abuse of meth, opiates and synthetic marijuana in the area.

Kara Wharton, a licensed chemical dependency counselor and team leader at the Beaumont office of the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Council of Deep East Texas (ADACDET), said the non-profit organization services around 90-100 clients a month and the three aforementioned problems are the most common addictions seen.

“The numbers are growing,” Wharton said. “In this area, it’s methamphetamine” that’s most abused.

shadow

Harbor Foundation’s eighth annual Butterfly Release set for April 29

Butterfly Release

The Harbor Foundation will host its eighth annual Butterfly Release on Saturday, April 29, from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Ford Park in Beaumont. Admission to the event is free.

The entire community is invited, said Brenna Rodriguez, regional director of Business Development at Harbor Healthcare System.

“The event last year just brought out huge crowds of families,” Rodriguez said. “Due to that, we wanted a facility that would accommodate a larger crowd and participation of people that wanted to come out and get involved and be a part of this event.”

shadow

Spoon It!

Funilla yogurt with coconut, strawberry, cherry, kiwi, M&Ms, Nerds and strawberr
There are more than 30 different yogurt toppings to choose from at Spoon It incl

Shamsha Ali was in second grade when her family immigrated to the United States from Pakistan. With business owners for parents Ali, a 1999 graduate of East Chambers High School, decided she wanted to follow in their footsteps.

“Basically I told my husband, I wanted to start something on my own — something small,” Ali said. 

In 2011, Ali started researching different concepts and discovered the self-serve frozen yogurt business plan.

“It wasn’t really that popular back then, and I thought this is really unique,” she said.

shadow