Spring 2017 Newsletted

Posted on April 17, 2017

Houston was overflowing with celebrity parties and charity events with Super Bowl LI taking over the city. The Bulls and Blackjack Celebrity Poker Tournament & Casino Night was a gala charity event held at a private mansion in River Oaks on Thursday, February 2nd.

The event benefitted the Wade Smith Foundation, the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation and the WithMerci Foundation. Hosts of the event included Wade and Rita Smith, Neil and Maria Bush as well as Chris and Jennifer Myers. Celebrity guests included actor Adrian Grenier, Houston Texans linebacker Whitney Merciless, NFL greats Ray Lewis and Adrian Peterson, former Houston Astro and MLB legend Roger Clemens, professional poker player Maria Ho (who was the last celebrity standing winning $25,000 for WSF!), Brandon Brooks of the Philadelphia Eagles and former WNBA player Chantelle Anderson.  This star-studded event raised a whopping $170,000!

It's that time of year again! The 6th Annual Wade Smith Foundation Charity Weekend will take place April 28th - 29th, 2017 in Dallas, TX.  Each year, our founder, Wade Smith, celebrates his birthday by giving back to the Lake Highlands community through two days of education, fun, football and philanthropy. What started out as the Lake Highlands Legends Charity Weekend has since become known as Wade's Weekend and this year, we will celebrate 6 amazing years of giving back to the Dallas community!

We are so excited to announce the release of Wade's second children's book Smitty Tackles Bullying.

Smitty is one year older and a year wiser since readers last saw him. He has truly discovered his love of reading and is doing great in class and on the field, but when Smitty begins to notice his best friend Luke is skipping out on Reading Lab, he decides to investigate. What Smitty finds is that somone is bullying Luke because he isn't a strong reader! Smitty knows he needs to take action. He confronts the bully and applies his dad's saying of, "you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar." Smitty uses kindness and understanding to confront the bully, and in the end makes a new friend and finds a way to help Luke with his reading. Along the way, Smitty once again proves that reading is cool! This charming picture book is the perfect story for kids who may be dealing with bullying themselves, and proves that it isn't ok to just stand by the sidelines.  Sometimes, kindness, understanding, and true friendship are the keys to tackling bullying.