Scissors come out as Fort Worth businessmen get clipped for $286,400 at charity benefit
One businessman had his necktie cut in half, another surrendered a charity donation at shears-point and Tarrant County children came away the winners to the tune of $286,400 on Dec. 3 at a downtown civic club’s annual holiday party benefit.
Members of the Exchange Club of Fort Worth gave a nod to past high jinks at an 88-year-old event where emcees used to swing a chainsaw, lead marching bands or run horses and cattle through the staid Fort Worth Club to raise charity money.
After emcee Bill Landreth made a new member recite the nonsensical TCU Horned Frogs cheer “Riff, Ram, Bah, Zoo” — second line: “lickety, lickety, zoo, zoo” — former emcee Edward “Buzz” Kemble stood up with a cap of the playoff-bound SMU Mustangs and shouted defiantly, “I ain’t singin’ no TCU song!”
New member Chris Semple lost a tie.
But the Goodfellow Fund gained $84,716 toward Christmas clothes and shoes for more than 800 children, and four other local charities received more than $200,000 in designated gifts.
Semple said he’d been warned.
After Landreth snipped Semple’s tie, new club member Matt Homan waved his gift check at Landreth and said confidently, “I’ve got a bigger one for you.”
Landreth was not impressed.
He put the scissors down and came up from behind the lectern with a full-size pair of garden shears.
“Well, I’ve got a bigger one for you!” Landreth said with a grin as Homan meekly surrendered his check.
It was the kind of good-natured guy prank and light arm-twisting that has filled Exchange Club parties and newspaper pages every December since 1936, and filled children’s stockings.
Semple said the annual charity benefit is important.
“Everyone here is quite accomplished, and you may not always appreciate what you have — something like this, helping these groups, is what keeps us grounded,” he said.
The meeting drew more than 100 businessmen donating more than $2,000 per person, collected by Mayor Mattie Parker and Rose Bradshaw of the Fort Worth-based North Texas Community Foundation.
The other new club members include former City Council member Leonard Firestone, investments manager Brad Wallace and lawyer Marianne Auld.
Based on a tentative total, about $44,000 each was raised for ACH Child and Family Services and to Cook Children’s Medical Center.
Club members also could designate gifts to the local Boys & Girls Clubs, to the Lena Pope family services center and to other charities of their choice.
Emmy-winning and Hall of Fame CBS Sports producer Lance Barrow of Colleyville gave the keynote speech, telling stories of producing the Masters, Super Bowls and some of the most memorable sports events of a generation.
“I love this city,” Barrow said after his speech.
“Yesterday, a gentleman I’ve never met came up to me at Colonial [Country Club] and said, ‘Thank you for what you’ve done for the city of Fort Worth.’ I said, ‘What? I haven’t done anything.’ ”
He quoted the man’s reply: “Every time the Colonial [pro golf tournament] came around, you’d show downtown Fort Worth, you’d show the zoo, you’d show TCU, you’d show the arts district, you’d show the Stockyards and everything about Fort Worth.”
Even if the event wasn’t in Fort Worth.
“When I was producing a [Dallas] Cowboys game I’d show the city of Fort Worth, not the city of Dallas,” Barrow said.
Barrow talked about the marketing impact of events like the golf tournament.
“When CBS shows a golf tournament from Colonial,” he said, “we go to 233 countries around the world that get to see the city of Fort Worth. You know, even if you’re not a golfer, you should support that. Just like the rodeo. Just like the Van Cliburn,” the Fort Worth-based world piano competition in May.
And just like children’s charities at Christmas.
About Goodfellows
The Goodfellow Fund began as an offshoot of the first newspaper charity drive in the United States, founded by the Chicago Tribune on Dec. 10, 1909. A Chicago city attorney wrote a letter challenging his friends to donate the money they would have spent on holiday partying to charity.
Two years later, the Advertising Club of Fort Worth staged the first local Goodfellows campaign.
On the day after Thanksgiving in 1912, Publisher Amon G. Carter (1879-1955) brought the tradition to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with Editor James M. North as the first Chief Goodfellow.
To find out more, visit goodfellowfundfw.com.
Send donations and correspondence to P.O. Box 149, Fort Worth TX 76101.
