Upcoming Events
SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2018
12 PM – 5 PM
*VIP Entry at 11 AM
Wicklow Heights
1027 W 19th Street
Cook-Off Chair - Brandi Key
Event Chair - Kelly Laudadio
Join HAPS for Blues, Brews and Barbecue! Cook-Off Teams will submit their Best Barbecue Bite and Side to compete for the Judge's Choice and People's Choice Awards! H Town Group’s Ruben Ortega, Pass and Provision’s Terrence Gallivan and Lasco Enterprises’ (parent company of Max’s Wine Dive and The Tasting Room) Brandi Key will be judging some of Houston’s finest barbecue cook-off teams. Rebecca Masson’s Fluff Bake Bar will provide dessert. The ladies of Urban Swank will emcee the event. Blues bands include High Tech Rednecks, Road Gang, Bluestown Shakedown, The Steve Crias Band and more!
General tickets to the event are $35. Entry includes a bite and a side from each Cook-Off Team and access to venue with live music.
VIP Tickets are $65 each, and includes early admission, a swag bag, a bite and a side from each Cook-Off Team and live music. Only a limited number of VIP tickets will be sold.
Click here to Purchase Tickets
Contact Madelyn Perry at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.
April is Parkinson's Awareness Month
Combining Passion and Parkinson's Awareness
by Nancy Gibbins
Three years ago, at the age of 53, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Nagging spasms in my left toes and loss of fine motor skills in the fingers of my left hand led me to a major movement disorders center here in Houston. Needless to say, this was not the news I expected. Right away the clinic recommended that I contact Houston Area Parkinson Society for support as I grappled with the gravity of this new diagnosis. I called and spoke to Kathleen Crist, one of the social workers at HAPS the very next day. With her encouragement, I got involved with newly diagnosed educational workshops and a support groupwhere I learned more about Parkinson’s and was able to share my experiences with others.
In 2015, I saw Leslie Stahl’s report on her husband who has PD and how much benefit he has received by participating in a Parkinson’s boxing class. Shortly after that segment, I learned that HAPS would soon be offering non-contact boxing as one of their exercise classes and I was able to enroll. The HAPS boxing program is awesome and has really made an impact on my life! It has improved my stamina, balance, and coordination, and I thoroughly enjoy the weekly class along with my peers, our die-hard volunteers and awesome instructors Pat and Marv Johnson.
I decided I wanted to give something back to support efforts to expand the HAPS boxing program so others could receive these benefits, too. Rather than write a check, I decided to learn to make soap and sell it to raise money through the small business I created, Texas Handcrafted Soap (THS). I have found that selling handcrafted soap also offers a chance for me to educate people about Parkinson’s disease and how the benefits of exercise and other programs improve the quality of the lives of individuals with PD. For instance, when I told Noe Garcia, owner of Master Barber Shop in Northwest Houston about my mission, he offered to sell THS soap out of his barber shop. My original plan was simply to raise support for HAPS, but it’s already turning out to be so much bigger than that. While those of us with PD don’t need a month on the calendar to be aware of how the disease affects our lives, Parkinson’s Awareness Month is a great opportunity to help others understand and to see how vital programs like those HAPS offers really are to our community.
If you would like to help me in my efforts to raise Parkinson's awareness and raise funding to support HAPS, visit my online shop at TexasHandcraftedSoap.etsy.com. I make small batches of handcrafted soap that take 4-6 weeks to cure and THS frequently offers new soaps for sale, so please check back occasionally for updated inventory. A portion of the proceeds for every bar of soap sold will be donated to the expansion of the HAPS boxing program.
