A local Sugar Land resident has taken it into her own hands to help Fort Bend children get new shoes. Or rather, she’s taken it onto her own feet.

Leola Anifowoshe is the founder of Shoes4School, a division of Keep Kids in School, Inc., a 501 (3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization, the only shoe charity of its kind in the Fort Bend area and surrounding counties. She and a group of volunteers strive to provide new shoes for area homeless and low-income children.

In order to spread awareness of the cause, Leola and her husband organized the “Sole Fest Concert 2009,” the organization's first ever music festival and health fair held at Oyster Creek park located at 4033 Hwy 6 in Sugar Land, only about 8 miles from the RiverPark West community.

Want to learn more about your environment and the Texas landscape? Then the 2009 Fall Texas Master Naturalist Program, Coastal Prairie Chapter, is the perfect opportunity for you.

This program is a series of volunteer training courses that offer specific training in natural history, wildlife and the ecosystems of the area, including specialized study in birds, ecology, fish, mammals and soil science. “The goal is to help improve volunteers’ understanding of natural resources and related management activities, enabling them to earn Master Naturalist certification.” All volunteers perform these training duties in their own communities, “providing natural resource education and participating in community service and outreach projects.”

The Texas Master Naturalist Program is sponsored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and AgriLife Extension. Classes will be held on eight consecutive Thursdays beginning September 10th from 9am to 3:30pm. The group will meet at various locations throughout Fort Bend and Waller counties. To learn more about this program, please visit their official website at www.coastalprairie.org or call 281-663-7042. Fall 2009 applications and training schedules are also available for print.

According to the real estate forecaster Local Market Monitor, the latest Home Price Forecast has officially listed the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area as expected to hold some of the strongest home prices in the nation over the next 12 months.

“These are markets that did not have a large boost in home prices over the last few years and therefore, even though the economy is doing poorly, no adjustment in prices has been necessary,” said Ingo Winzer, president of Local Market Monitor. “Steady economic growth and price appreciation have helped these markets remain stable.”

Because of Houston’s past stability in this area of the economy, turmoil is expected to be less profound than in other areas across the nation. This will create numerous opportunities for city- and state-wide growth in both the housing and employment sectors.

According to a new study from the Brookings Institution, out of the 100 largest metropolitan areas of the Unites States, Texas boasts four of the top five cities to have performed the strongest during the recession through the first quarter of 2009.

The Washington D.C.-based think-tank’s MetroMonitor reports that San Antonio has taken the lead in this study, followed closely by Austin, Houston and Dallas. Oklahoma City came in second, the only out of state city to ranked in the top five. Austin was also one of only two cities, along with McAllen, Texas that actually experienced an increase in economic output over the past year.

“The rankings were based on four indicators: Percent employment change from peak quarter to first quarter 2009; percent change in unemployment rate from March 2008 to March 2009; percent gross metropolitan product change from peak quarter to first quarter 2009; and percent change in housing prices from first quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009.”

After defeating over two dozen other school districts, the Lamar Consolidated School District was selected as the Best Large School District of Texas and received a grand prize of $100,000 as the winner of the H-E-B Excellence Award, the state’s largest monetary recognition program for educators.

The Richmond community of River Park West is located in the LCISD and hosts some the award-winning schools within the district. The new Hutchinson Elementary School has achieved Exemplary Ratings from 2005-2007, and half of the local high school graduates are recommended or distinguished program participants, making them “Texas School Grant Eligible.” As proof of LCISD’s commitment to the establishment of premier education, over 75% of graduates are college-bound, compared to the national average of only 25%.

The H-E-B Excellence Award program began its campaign to find such honorable schools in 2002, awarding over $3 million to 773 educators and 155 schools and districts across the state. The program specifically recognizes “the best in Texas education,” from school districts as a whole to individual teachers, as well as cash prizes for educator’s achievements.

Fort Bend Independent School District was recently recognized as one of the top five Texas school districts for health instruction implementation. It was then awarded the 2008-2009 Awards of Excellence for local School Health Advisory Councils, and will also receive $2,000 to strengthen school health services. The recognition was granted for FBISD’s excellence in implementing community health education initiatives specifically aimed at reducing obesity and other diseases, namely cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes.

The award was given by the Southern Collaborative on Obesity Reduction Efforts team, or SCORE, which was organized by The Council of State Governments. SCORE is a group of team members and state leaders that work to create change at the state level for supporting obesity prevention.

The state awarded the highlighted work of FBISD in effectively incorporating instruction to help promote healthy lifestyles through health education, physical activity, nutrition services, parental involvement and tobacco prevention.