Amanda Schulz For Dallas

Nov. 4 and 5: As we’re all still celebrating our world champion Texas Rangers 🎉, I’m giving thanks, today, for youth baseball. Why do I give this TWO days of thanks? Because any parent of a son that plays baseball knows that you give up entire weekends for tournaments! LOL. It’s a commitment, but there is also nothing like making it to that final Sunday night game. I’m about to watch one such final game in just a few minutes.

Dallas provides endless opportunities for youth sports. From YMCA leagues to Rec center teams to private club organizations, our Dallas kids have the option to choose almost any sport imaginable! Youth sports is a place where kids learn teamwork, develop self-confidence, improve their health and simply have fun. I’m proud to live in a city that values these opportunities for our kids. Who knows…any one of us, on any given Saturday, could be watching the next starting Texas Ranger. ❤️⚾️💙⚾️

Nov. 3: Today, I am grateful for this table. This table, in the upper room of The Wine Therapist, anchored a group of neighborhood friends to drink wine, share food, tell stories and enjoy one another’s company. Tables, just like this one, are sprinkled all across our fabulous city. You can find them in our locally owned and operated restaurants and bars. We pride ourselves in eating, buying and celebrating local. It’s one of the things that makes Dallas great. But the tables…the tables are where the magic happens.

“To share a table with someone is to share everything.” - Paul Krueger

Sometimes it is very easy to become cynical and jaded…to see the world through the lens of loss or hurt or depression or uncertainty. Social media often doesn’t make it easier. I feel as though, more and more, I witness people on forums fighting, name calling, excluding others and even posting misleading information and outright lies about people just to position themselves to somehow feel “ahead in the game” or maintain some sort of perceived control. All the while, all this accomplishes is to break friendships, splinter communities and slowly disintegrate once functioning societies.

This page is “for Dallas.” What does it mean to be “for” something? I think in order to move forward in service on behalf of anything, a city, an organization, a cause, even the friends and family in your life, you must first have genuine gratitude for that thing. Then, and only then, can you be truly “for” it.

So, since we have entered the month of November, the season of Thanksgiving, I am choosing to be mindful of the things I am grateful for that I see in our city every, single day. I plan to share photos that I take, for the rest of the month, in the hopes of adding just a little more positivity to social media, in the midst of this tumultuous world.

I love this place we call Dallas, and I am thankful that I get to call it my home. ❤️

Nov. 2: Today I am grateful for this view. My husband and I get to witness this view every day when taking and picking up our kids from school. No view makes me happier than the turn from Buckner Blvd. onto Mockingbird, looking out across White Rock Lake toward the city. If only for a few moments…it brings me peace.

Yesterday, over 130 area East Dallas neighbors came out for a free morning of swim time to celebrate the annual Tietze Splash! For two hours, pool admission is complimentary and yummy treats like breakfast tacos, coffee, cereal bars and cookies are provided for attendees. Tietze Splash is held every August and co-sponsored by Friends of Tietze Park and the neighborhood associations of Lower Greenville, Lakewood Heights and Wilshire Heights.

Also, on the horizon, Tietze Park will celebrate its centennial in 2024! The park has two exciting projects coming up…the installation of a new sand volleyball court and a centennial tree planting. If you would like to donate to either of these efforts, please visit the Friends of Tietze Park link below!

https://www.tietzepark.org/join-us.html

It was during the pandemic, when I was the District 14 Park Board Appointee, that the very first site meetings took place to consider this project. That was three years ago! After a long process, with many steps, it looks as though our local East Dallas Tietze Park will now get a new sand volleyball court. When we were going through public input meetings, I asked my 13 year-old son, “Hey…if Tietze were to get a new sand volleyball court, would you and your friends go play?” His answer, “All the time.” Looks like they’ll get the chance before we wrap up 2023!🏐

Tietze Park will get a sand volleyball court Local residents play volleyball at the proposed court's site. Photo by Lauren Turner. Dallas Park and Recreation staff approved the proposed sand volleyball court for Tietze Park on June 29. Next, a development agreement will be created to ensure that all contractors involved in the project are corr...

There are so many things to do and so many places to visit in Downtown Dallas, including our central J. Erik Johnson Public Library! I had the opportunity to attend, for the first time, the DPL’s True Crime Mini-Convention this weekend. It was the second time this event has been offered. On Friday, we spent time with keynote speaker Brian Fillingim, of DPD’s Cold Case Squad. Currently, DPD has over 2,500 cold cases. That’s a lot to tackle, but kudos to Fillingim for his assistance on the case to exonerate Martin Santillan, this spring, who was unjustly incarcerated, for over 25 years, for the murder of Damond Wittman. DNA evidence is finally bringing the true perpetrator to justice! Fillingim told attendees, however, that he is most proud of his work on the tragic cold case of attorney Ira Tobolowsky, who was murdered by being set on fire in his garage. Through a lot of diligent work, the perpetrator, Steven Aubrey, will now stand trial at the end of September for this heinous murder. Which two cases has Fillingim worked on the longest? They’re both from my East Dallas neck of the woods…Jill Bounds (Lakewood) and Gail DeLay (Lovers/Skillman).

Saturday morning was spent with the fun, married duo of Brandy and Chris Diamond, hosts of the Texas Wine and True Crime podcast. They did a podcast recording with attendees, and we covered the famous case of Candy Montgomery, out of Wylie, Texas, and the bizarre murder of Canadian real estate agent Lindsay Buziak. I haven’t listened to this podcast before, but after meeting Brandy and Chris, I will definitely tune in!

We rounded out the afternoon with true crime author visits from James Renner, Alan Prendergast, and Jake Anderson (via Zoom), and then finished the day by breaking up into teams for true crime trivia!

If you love true crime, I would recommend attending this event when it comes around again in 2024.

If you are looking to do other fun things at our downtown central library, you might also check out Summer Screen Saturdays, where they feature a different movie every Saturday at 2:00 in the first floor auditorium. Check out the link below!

https://dallaslibrary.librarymarket.com/event/summer-screen-saturdays

The Dallas Park and Recreation Department Aquatics facilities are now open for summer! You can swim, slide, splash…and, of course, have a sweet treat. 🍦

Visit www.dallasaquatics.org for a list of facilities and pricing. It’s a great way to spend your summer in Dallas!

It was a great Friday morning at Tietze Park, here in East Dallas! Each summer, Friends of Tietze Park sponsors the planter beds at the Aquatics Center. Today was planting day! I loved working with our board President, Lisa Marshall, and park staff to get the new plants in the ground in preparation for the opening of pool season on May 30th. 💦

Don’t know anything about Friends of Tietze Park? Check out our website. We are always looking for new donors and volunteers!

http://www.tietzepark.org/

Have a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend, everyone! 🇺🇸

It was a wonderful morning attending the Dallas Park and Recreation Department Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast! Our parks system includes 410 parks, comprising over 23,000 acres of land, and the staff and army of volunteers that make that system operate is nothing short of staggering. I have been volunteering in our parks system now for 6 years, and it has definitely become an integral part of my life. If you are interested in volunteering your time with Dallas parks, more help is needed! Simply use the QR code or go to the link listed in the informational sheet below and set up your own account. It’s that easy to get started!

A special thank you to Maria Guerrero of NBC 5 - Dallas, Mistress of Ceremonies, and to Park Board members Daniel Wood, Maria Hasbany and Priscilla Rice for spending your Saturday morning appreciating the volunteers of Dallas. 💚

Late yesterday, I got a call from a representative of Downtown Dallas, Inc., about a swarm on Pacific Avenue. Now this is really an unusual one, because the Queen obviously decided to land somewhere on/in this planter. My husband, Jon, is headed there now to remove the swarm and save the bees!

Thank you to DDI for being responsible stewards of our environment with a “no kill” policy. We love Downtown Dallas, Inc., and we love our bees!

Blackland Bees 🐝

Today, I had the opportunity to join a room full of engaged women to hear British A. Robinson, President and CEO, speak about the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Did you know that the latest census shows the United States population at just over 331M people? Did you also know that 130M of those people are adults that cannot read above a 6th Grade level? This is an astounding figure. We have to do better as a nation, and Dallas should be an integral part of that mission!