By Lauren Lamp
The Family Place announces landmark event’s chairs and award recipient for 2021. Dallas-based family violence agency, The Family Place, is pleased to announce it will hold its annual Texas Trailblazer Awards on the evening of Wednesday, November 17, 2021, at the newly opened Thompson Dallas hotel in Downtown Dallas.
Since 1996, the Texas Trailblazer Award has honored those who create positive change in the community. The gathering is the largest educational event for The Family Place and is attended by philanthropists, corporations, members of the media, and other North Texas leaders.
The Family Place is thrilled to have Carol Seay, Stephanie Seay, and Travis and Stephanie Hollman as co-chairs for this year’s event. All four are continuing their ongoing support of The Family Place by chairing the landmark event again this year, as the foursome had previously chaired the same event together in 2014.
Mother- and daughter-in-law duo Carol Seay and Stephanie Seay are each longtime advocates of The Family Place, who’ve provided unconditional support and contributions to the agency over the years. Both are heavily involved in the community and have chaired previous events for The Family Place, and Carol Seay currently sits on The Family Place Board.
Fellow co-chairs Travis and Stephanie Hollman are also actively involved with The Family Place, and Travis is President and CEO of Hollman, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of modern lockers. “We are excited to have the Texas Trailblazer Awards return for another exciting year and could not be more grateful to have the support of our four co-chairs this year. Each one of them passionately supports the mission of The Family Place and wants to
make this year the most successful event yet.” shared Heather Street Baker, Assistant Director of Development.
This year’s recipient of The Texas Trailblazer Award is Paige Flink, who announced her retirement this year after working at The Family Place for 30 years, most recently as the agency’s CEO. Flink has been part of The Family Place organization since 1991 and has been instrumental in changing the public’s perception and response to family
violence in the North Texas community. Under her leadership, Flink grew a once 40-bed emergency shelter and counseling office to three shelters with 177 beds total, along with three counseling offices in Dallas and Collin Counties. In addition, she founded one of the only shelters specifically for men and children in Texas and created
Partners Card, the popular 10-day shopping and dining fundraiser, coming up from October 29 through November 7 this year.
As a timely addition, Mimi Crume Sterling has succeeded Paige Flink as the new CEO, The Family Place recently announced, and has officially begun her new role within the agency as of September.
“There is no one more deserving of receiving the Texas Trailblazer Award than our own Paige Flink. She is a passionate icon of The Family Place, and we are forever grateful for the work and contributions, she has given to the organization,” shared Baker. To learn more about this year’s Texas Trailblazer Awards dinner or to sponsor the
event, contact texastrailblazers@familyplace.org or 214-443-7766.
ABOUT THE FAMILY PLACE:
The Family Place empowers victims of family violence by providing safe housing, counseling and skills that create independence while building community engagement and advocating for social change to stop family violence.
In 1978 a group of community volunteers organized The Family Place as one of the first family violence shelters in the state. Today The Family Place is the largest family violence service provider in North Texas, with three emergency shelters providing 177 shelter beds each night, including the state’s only shelter for men and children. We served 13,016 clients with 169,672 hours of service last year alone. Over the past 41 years, we have counseled more than 216,500 clients, provided lifesaving shelter to more than 25,000 women, men and children, and answered more than 615,000 calls for help. We have helped more than 19,000 batterers learn how to change their abusive behavior and reach approximately 6,500 students each year through our youth education programs. All our programs are provided in both Spanish and English.
For more information on The Family Place, call 214-559-2170 or visit familyplace.org.