Meet Last Year's Charity Partner

Carry The Load helps to restore the true meaning of Memorial Day

Annual Carry The Load marches are helping restore the meaning of Memorial Day.

Photo courtesy of Carry the Load

Editor’s note: Carry The Load was last year’s winner of the CultureMap Charity Challenge. There are only a few hours left in this year’s poll, so vote now for one of the worthy nonprofits. The new winner will be announced January 5.

Walker Stovall’s father died a decade ago. After driving 10,000 miles delivering supplies to American troops in Iraq, the truck the Army National Guardsman drove hit a roadside bomb. Walter wears his dad’s hat and dog tag and was thrilled last year when Carry The Load marchers asked him to be the flag bearer as they passed through Memphis, Tennessee.

While marching, he met Stephen Holley, a former Navy SEAL, who co-founded Carry The Load with fellow former SEAL Clint Bruce. “That relationship [with Holley] has been really cool,” says Stovall’s mom, Natalie Stovall Frady.

To honor fallen soldiers, policemen, firemen and other first responders, Carry The Load walks each spring 1,600 miles from the cemetery at West Point, New York, to Dallas, arriving on Memorial Day. “It is really an uplifting way to recognize the holiday,” Frady says. “You feel you are doing something.”

Carry The Load has raised more than $2 million over the past four years.

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Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty is pleased to support the outstanding work of Carry The Load, winner of last year’s CultureMap Charity Challenge.

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Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

Photo by R K on Unsplash

This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

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