What: New Friends New Life Luncheon
Where: Hyatt Regency Dallas
The 411: Co-Chairs Katherine Wynne, Kristi Sherrill Hoyl, and Melissa Sherrill Martin — along with honorary co-chairs Matrice Ellis-Kirk and former Dallas mayor, Ambassador Ron Kirk — welcomed 800 supporters to the beloved fall luncheon November 4.
The official mission of New Friends New Life is to restore and empower trafficked and sexually exploited teen girls, women, and their children, and drive awareness of the issue and its prevalence. Emcee Shelly Slater, CEO Bianca Davis, and several inspiring presentations and speakers underscored the importance of that aim.
Martin highlighted the work of NFNL’s Youth Resource Center, which has provided hope for nearly 550 girls, and recognized top sponsors Nancy Ann and Ray Hunt, Tracey Nash-Huntley and David Huntley, Ashlee and Chris Kleinert, Southwest Airlines, and the Jensen Project as well as Nancy and Randy Best and Carolyn and David Miller.
The 2022 ProtectHER awards honored recipients Lynn McBee, Santander Consumer USA Foundation, Dr. Nissi Hamilton for the impact they make as advocates and volunteers.
The highlight of the afternoon were remarks by Emmy-wining actress and activist Julia Ormond. Ormond is the founder of the nonprofit ASSET Campaign, which works to require major businesses to publicly disclose their policies to prevent human trafficking and forced labor in product supply chains.
She has traveled the world to campaign against human trafficking and child enslavement. She shared from her perspective that “enslavement and forced labor are like the cancer in humanity. With cancer you do chemo to get right to the tumor. With trafficking we also need to take a laser-like approach that gets right to the tumor. We need to understand that when we buy a product from a supply chain, we are supporting value chains, the people who are in forced labor.”
Thanks to impactful words and the inspiration of all the presentations, the luncheon surpassed its goal with $560,000 in net proceeds raised.
Who: Hundreds of supporters and champions of the cause, including Katherine Wynne, Maggie Kipp, Elizabeth Saab, Michael Horne, Marissa Horne, Elizabeth Gambrell, Cheryl Joyner, Beth Thoele, Suzanne Massey, Jeff Waugh, Gail Turner,, Jessica Turner Waugh, Caren Prothro, Robin Bagwell, Wendy Messmann, Diondra Wilcher, and Kaileigh Johnson.
Photo by Tamytha Cameron and Celeste Cass
Julia Ormond, Jenna Quinn
Ice skaters showed off their moves in the "Central Park" rink.Photo by Ashley Gongora
The Kilgore Rangerettes channeled the Radio City Rockettes.Photo by Ashley Gongora