D’ANDRA SIMMONS
“You just have to see this; it just arrived from Africa today!” D’Andra Simmons said as she navigated through a living room filled with books, framed photographs of family and friends, a Christmas tree, art and more books, to the over-sized frames leaning against the wall. “Things are kind of crazy around here right now; we’re trying to have a holiday and get ready to move all at the same time,” she apologizes with a laugh.
D’ANDRA SIMMONS
The we are D’Andra, her love Colin Duchin – son of famed music impresario Peter Duchin – two Brussels Griffons, Dixie and Gypsy, and Monkey, a huge lovable Black English Labrador. The newly arrived art – photographs of African wildlife and mounted African ceremonial necklaces – serve as a harbinger of who this woman is, wants to become and where her heart truly rests. It was no surprise to those closest to her once tapped to chair the upcoming Junior League of Dallas annual fundraising ball what her theme would be.
“I always wanted to go there and see elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, hippos in their own domain,” she said. “My first real trip to Africa was in September 2003. I remember stepping off the plane: there’s a smell – charcoal, dust, leather, it brought a sense of déjà vu – as if I had been there before. The red dirt, I just felt I had come home.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I wanted to see, touch, smell, experience everything. I stayed a month and a half.”
She likens large-scale charity fundraising efforts to running for political office. “You own it,” D’Andra said. “If I’m having a bad day, too bad. You have to be ‘on’. If you fail or don’t succeed, you have to think how many lives you’re impacting.
“In most cases, I hand write letters to donors myself,” she added. “If I’m asking you for money, but can’t take the time to write a personal letter what does that say? You have to be respectful of people’s money and where they choose to give it and why. I know I’m careful, so why should I expect a donor to be any different?”
League President, Leigh Anne Haugh, describes D’Andra as the right choice as Ball Chair. “She’s a visionary who knew exactly what she wanted to do to showcase her talents and at the same time make it fabulous, fun and financially successful. She is a team player who knows she is only as good as the people working with her, said Haugh.”
Heather Hicks, JLD Vice President of Fund Development, met D’Andra through the League and agrees, “D’Andra is a wonderful fundraiser and definitely a go-getter who has used the fundraising training she received from the Junior League to train others.”
