Since its founding in 1952, the Theta Charity Antiques Show has given nearly $8 million from the weekend events to cultural, community, educational, and medical causes in Houston. Funds raised from the Theta Charity Antiques Show supports the Show’s four permanent beneficiaries: Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens/The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Child Advocates, Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation, and Texas Children’s Cancer & Hematology Center. Additionally, seven deserving local charities have been selected to receive philanthropic support from the 2019 Show: Amazing Place, Bo’s Place, Camp for All, Holly Hall, Nick Finnegan Counseling Center, The Rise School, and The Rose.
Arrow Child & Family Ministries – Freedom Place
Arrow’s Freedom Place is a Christ-centered, trauma informed, comprehensive care and recovery facility for underage female victims of domestic child sex trafficking. As the first program of its kind in the nation, Arrow’s Freedom Place has become the model that others look to for best practices, to better understand how the complex trauma of trafficking shapes survivors’ behavior, and to gain insight on the most effective treatments in restoring survivors’ lives. Funds will be directed towards equine therapy, canine therapy and vocational resources to support child sex trafficking survivors.
Martha’s Way – CCSC
Martha’s Way is a vocational training program designed to increase the earning potential of low-income women and men. This innovative curriculum focuses on the field of residential housekeeping – a vocation that is desired by many clients trying to improve their financial situation. Through classroom education, hands-on training and job leads, the organization equips clients to operate their own professional businesses. Funds will directly benefit the residential housekeeping vocational job training program.
Second Servings
Second Servings is Houston’s only prepared and perishable food rescue organization. The organization picks up unsold and unserved food from regulated food businesses, such as hotels, distributors, and manufacturers, and delivers it the same day to over 50 charity sites (soup kitchens, shelters, low-income housing, and many others). Second Servings’ wholesome chef-prepared food helps nourish over 12,500 people directly and thousands more through food distribution centers, including abused women and children, at-risk youth, adults in recovery, veterans, disabled seniors, and more. Funds will be used toward the purchase of a new refrigerated truck to significantly increase capacity.
Small Steps Nurturing Center
Small Steps Nurturing Center provides a high-quality education, social and emotional support, a nurturing Christian environment, transportation, and nutritious meals to children ages two through six living in poverty. Through operating two preschools for economically at-risk children living in the First, Second, and Fifth Wards of Houston, Small Steps invests in the lives of its students by meeting their needs, intervening early, and setting them on a path filled with greater opportunities. Show funds will go towards the preschool’s Scholarship Society.
Bayou Bend
Displayed in the former home of Houston civic leader and philanthropist Ima Hogg, Bayou Bend Collection is one of the finest showcases of American furnishings, silver, ceramics, and paintings in the world. Funds will help sustain the ongoing acquisition of early American decorative arts and paintings which serve as cultural and educational resources for visitors of all ages.
Child Advocates
Child Advocates recruits, trains and supports volunteers who provide a voice for children in foster care. As Harris County’s Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program, Child Advocates provides lifesaving advocacy that helps abused and neglected children exit foster care to a safe, permanent home as quickly as possible. Funds will support its Court Services Program which provides lifesaving advocacy services for abused and neglected children who are lost in the system.
Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation
The gift from this year’s Show will go to the Houston Alumnae Chapter Endowed Grant Fund, supporting Thetas who endeavor to expand their educational opportunities in non-academic pursuits. This gift will allow collegian and alumnae Thetas to participate in educational and leadership development, as well as service-learning programs around the world, gaining skills and hands-on experience they need, but can’t get inside traditional classrooms.
Texas Children’s Cancer & Hematology Centers
As the largest pediatric cancer and hematology centers in the United States, Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers provide medical treatment for patients with childhood cancer and childhood blood disorders. With a staff of renowned experts in the treatment and research of pediatric and adolescent cancer, the clinic has developed a wide array of programs aimed at curing children with diagnoses ranging from the most common to the very rare. Funds will support research towards developing new therapeutic approaches for childhood cancer through the Developmental Therapeutics Program.
