Congratulations to three of our finest Cougars, Aaron Martin, RJ Moilan and Keyon Butler who signed with the University of Central Missouri Mules to play football. Click on the videos to watch the signing ceremony and listen to their achievements. #Mul23Brothers
575 Grocery Bags Assembled For Spring Break
On February 27, 2023, Alliance volunteers built 575 grocery bags to provide to students at WHHS, as well as Leonard, Luella Merrett and Waverly Park middle schools during Spring Break. Additionally, LVTRise built grocery bags for Western Hills Elementary and Western Hills Primary schools.
Thank you to LTVRise for financing the cost of the groceries, and the WHHS JROTC, Band members, Cheerleaders, Soccer team, student volunteers and alumni who came early at 7am to help setup the food line. Way to go Cougars!
Weldon Cannon Earns All State Choir
Congratulations to Weldon Cannon, Western Hills’ first All State Choir Cougar in 13 years! Way to go, Weldon!
WHHS Students Display Works At Kimbell Art Museum
On January 6, 2023, The Kimbell hosted their first student show for the first time in the 50-year history of the Art Museum. Four Western Hills students, Rachel Hickey, Carlos Moran, Jimmy Rangel and Karen Rascon were selected to participate in this student show. Their art was displayed until January 29th.
In November, Patty Pressley took some students to the Kimbell for the Murillo exhibition and art-making session based on that show. The students had only 45 minutes to paint their picture and only had one color plus black, white and brown to use.
Lady Cougars Football Team Provides School Supplies
Our Lady Cougars Flag Football Team in collaboration with The Mercantile, Dallas Cowboys and Cougar Pride Alliance dropped boxes and boxes of school supplies and over 300 backpacks to Waverly Park and Luella Merrett Elementary Schools. The customers of The Mercantile along with their vendors and The Album in Benbrook (55+ Living Apartments) donated school supplies.Thank you to everyone who donated to this event. The schools were more than grateful!
2022 Christmas Break Bag Distribution
This is our 6th school year and families continue to need help feeding kids over the holidays. Again, we had the right amount of bags. We had so many helpers getting bags inside the school. JROTC, Student Council, Trainers, Athletes and Coaches. Everyone pitched in, including our volunteers and alumni volunteers. Wishing all of our Cougars, Faculty & Staff, Alumni and Community Volunteers, a wonderful holiday season.
WHHS Tower Field Makeover
Southern Painting of Fort Worth noticed a need and repainted the Western Hills High School Baseball Team’s Facility-Hightower Field. Our facility now proudly displays a fresh coat of paint and is ready for the upcoming season. Shout out to Southern Painting Fort Worth and their fantastic employees who gave Tower Field a a much needed makeover! Thank you so much.
LVT Community Rallies Around 3 WHHS Football Players
The Fort Worth Report has written a heartwarming article about three WHHS football players who have been accepted to The University of Central Missouri with the help of The Cougar Price Alliance and LTVRise; two of many nonprofit organizations who are making a difference in the lives of local residents. Please click on the photo to read the article.
Patty Pressley Receives Community Service Award
Executive Director Patty Pressley was recently recognized with a Community Service Award by the Texas Society Daughters of the American Revolution at the society’s State Conference in Dallas.
Patty has worked tirelessly to ensure that the Alliance remains successful. Her never ending efforts to personally assist the students at WHHS is very much appreciated by students, parents, faculty and the community. Congratulations on a well earned honor, Patty! You certainly deserve it!
Volunteer Account/Bookkeeper Wanted
The CPA Operations Leadership Team is looking for a Volunteer Account/Bookkeeper, a position we need to fill to make our future financial support sustainable. CPA uses Intuit QuickBooks® as its bookkeeping software. A summary of the position is as follows:
- Scanning and uploading receipts monthly and saving to Dropbox folder.
- Matching receipts to payments in QuickBooks and coding to appropriate accounts.
- Reconciling bank account to QuickBooks register monthly.
- Running monthly financial reports.
- Filing 990 report with IRS or preparing records for CPA to file
Total time commitment for this volunteer positions is expected to be 8-10 hours per month. The position will report to Board Director Saralyn Vance Carrillo.
Lead Grant Writer Volunteer Wanted
The CPA Operations Leadership Team is looking for a volunteer to be our lead grant writer, a position we need to fill to make our future financial support sustainable. A summary of the position is as follows:
- Research online databases to develop a target list of 10-12 North Texas-focused foundations most likely to fund a non-profit like ours with material grants of $10k or more per year.
- Develop a schedule of grant application deadlines spaced out to create a reasonable work load for a lead writer and board reviews.
- Be the lead writer on any grant applications green-lighted by the board.
- Make the phone calls to the target foundations to create an improved understanding of the selection criteria and to establish rapport with the donor organization.
- Process comments and input from the board and make the official submittals in accordance with any and all application deadlines.
- Prepare a 3-6 bullet monthly summary of grant pursuits for the board that depict deadlines, decisions, and upcoming pursuits.
Total time commitment for this volunteer positions is expected to be 4-8 hours per month. This position will report to Board Chair Shawn Doherty.
Our RISE Program (Special Ed) starts RISE and GRIND Service
Our RISE Program (Special Ed) has started RISE and GRIND, their coffee delivery service for the Faculty & Staff. This will teach the students how to make coffee and tea and also intake money. The funds from this project will take the students on much needed field trips. A generous donor of the Cougar Pride Alliance made this dream come true and our hope is that they can self sustain with the support of faculty and staff purchasing drinks.
A message from their teacher, Ms Haley: Good morning! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who ordered from us and made our first day of RISE and Grind a success! I wish you all could order and see the faces of our students beaming with excitement to get to have this opportunity.
New Alliance Board Member, Schavion Graham
As we move into our 6th year of existence, we are on a purposeful trek to strengthen and diversify the board of directors for the foundation (now called Cougar Pride Alliance) with a particular emphasis on adding directors with deep non-profit experience. Today, we are pleased to announcehas joined our board effective September 1st. We fully expect that Schavion’s passion, energy, and know-how will make our mission more sustainable as move into the new school year.
The Foundation Becomes The Cougar Pride Alliance
Great things are happening at Western Hills High School and throughout our pyramid which includes: Leonard Middle School, Western Hills Elementary and Primary, Waverly Park and Luella Merrett Elementary.
To start, we will be expanding our services to Western Hills Elementary and Leonard Middle School. With grants and help from LVTRISE, we have another Alumni who will service these two schools in portables that will be similar to Cougar Corner. Heather will bring alumni and community volunteers together to help keep these portables stocked with food, hygiene and clothing.
In the next six months or sooner, we will undergo a name change to Cougar Pride Alliance. This will help us apply for more grants, which in turn will help not only our work at Western Hills High School but also help our new locations.
Our work will be reaching all of the kids in our pyramid. With this kind of support, we hope that these students/ families will be less transient because they know that there is community support.
We are setting the standard of what should happen all across the city. It takes a village to raise kids to become good humans, we hope you will join us.
We will be holding quarterly meetings and will post the date and location of our next meeting soon, so you can get it on your calendar.
Thank you to all of you who support our mission. We are excited about our plans for the future. Let’s Go Cougars!