Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > October > 30
Saturday, October 30, 2010
St. Jude’s Gala at the Driskill Hotel
How do young people choose a charity? It’s a mystery to most leaders in the nonprofit field.
Jeremy Benson and Melissa Matherne
For whatever reasons — national prominence, clear goals, firm local network — St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital pulls in a remarkably youthful mass to its Austin affairs. This, despite the habit of booking opposite prominent traditional fundraisers.
Alexis Seidel and Devon McGoldrick
Thursday, that group moved indoors from the GSD&M courtyard — its home the past few years — to the Driskill Hotel upper lobby. That made the event chummier, louder, a bit more intense.
Ron Oliveira and Marilyn Aboussie
One of the novelties of St. Jude’s is the loyalty of Lebanese Americans to a cause founded and championed by famed comedian Danny Thomas, born Amos Alphonsus Muzyad Yakhoob in Deerfield, Mich. I met several organizers and guests of Lebanese descent who treasure their association with St. Jude’s.
Elisa and Joshua Farrow
Whatever the reasons, St. Jude’s flourishes in Austin.
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Eloise DeJoria backs the Palmer Drug Abuse Program
Hard to imagine now, as she relaxes in healthy repose at her spa-like house on Lake Austin, but Eloise DeJoria knows a little something about teenage rebellion.
At age 14, she hitchhiked with two girls to San Francisco, camping out in Janis Joplin’s former apartment. By age 15, the tomboy, who rode horses through the wilds of West Houston, was already pregnant and married.
One of her core charities is the small Palmer Drug Abuse Program, which provides a peer-oriented, 12-step recovery sequence for teens and their families.
Thursday, the program — known almost universally as “PDAP,” pronounced “pu-DAP” — will benefit from a private dinner, catered by the Four Seasons, and concert by Jimmie Vaughan at Antone’s. DeJoria, one of Austin’s warmest and most accessible socializers, plans to attend.
DeJoria, quietly mesmerizing and playful at age 53, looking more than a little like movie star Tuesday Weld in her prime, praises PDAP’s emphasis on spirituality and companionship.
“I know so many friends affected by alcohol or drugs,” she says. “In PDAP, you meet the most spiritual, wonderful human beings. You become lifelong friends. The answer to drugs is not doing them. But you have to replace (them) with something else. You join the sunshine and fresh air.”
DeJoria is profoundly loyal to friends of many years, including Kelly Sellers, wife to Gregg Sellers, executive director of the Austin PDAP program. (The duo goes by “Kelly and Elly” and have known each other since Eloise was 22 and Kelly was 17.)
Recovery is something of a family endeavor. One of DeJoria’s sons, Justin Harvey, has opened a Georgetown recovery center called the Arbor.
“Between Arbor and PDAP: Two ways to save the kids,” says John Paul DeJoria, 66, as he glides through the kitchen of the white-walled, Dick Clark-redesigned house, barefoot and in jeans.
How did this charismatic couple, who give so generously of their time and treasure to Austin charities, end up on the shores of Lake Austin?
Living in Los Angeles in the 1990s, Eloise DeJoria longed to be closer to her mother, Anne Broady, who, at age 92, now lives in Temple. She contemplated an apartment by the lake.
“My soul was missing Texas,” she says. “Then John Paul said: Just go ahead and get a home there.”
She fell in love with a property shown by Tosca Gruber at the end of a West Austin lane. Located on a rounded peninsula, the landscaped expanse is protected by a grotto of high canyon walls across the lake. Golden retrievers, children, grandchildren, a chef and laborers circulate around the hidden house and yard as DeJoria is interviewed.
“This whole property is so healing,” DeJoria says. “My sons live close to us here in Austin. I wish we had all six kids here. I’d really love that.”
The health-conscious couple also owns a home in Las Vegas, Nev., but they spend more time these days in Malibu, Calif. They own an apartment in New York City and plan to bring the whole family together for Christmas in Beaver Creek, Colo.
One son, John Anthony, 13, was raised almost entirely in Austin. At six feet tall, he’s a cross-country running star at his school and appears in creative Paul Mitchell advertisments.
His mother, who once supported her eldest sons with a modeling career, has appeared on TV shows such as “Dallas” and “Friday Night Lights,” and in movies like “Weekend at Bernie’s” and, most recently, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”
Her husband, the formerly homeless marketing mastermind, built his business empire around Paul Mitchell products, the Patrón Spirits Company and, now, John Paul Pet, a line of pet grooming products.
“He’s the hard worker,” Eloise says. “I’m the artist type.”
They both stand behind the recovery program, however, which was started in 1971 at Palmer Episcopal Church in Houston and now thrives in several cities in Texas.
“It’s a program that can change a child’s life,” Eloise says. “A counselor is always there. Parents belong to groups who are exhausted from the disease.”
“The peer component so important,” says Gregg Sellers, who has increased the local program’s annual budget from $5,000 to $150,000, while working as a licensed real estate agent with Horizon Realty. “Other 12-step programs are for adults. This is directed to teens and their families. I wish we had free housing. One of our aspirations is to have a PDAP safe house. That’s the next step.”
The program’s staff of five currently serves 25 young people and 30 parents, having helped more than 1,000 during its time in Austin.
Eloise DeJoria adds another core principle, which could be applied to her life story, as well as to the recovery philosophy: “Stick with winners in order to grow.”
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