Beyond the typical “gavel” items of an annual meeting, the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation/Southwest Community Foundation adheres to the philosophy that real success lies in the people who usually donate time and resources because, for them, the whole is better than its parts.

The Dallas Jewish Community Foundation/Southwest Community Foundation annual meeting honors its fundholders, who give purpose to the foundations’ mission, and the people behind the scenes who allow it and its partners to fulfill their purposes.

These are the heroes within whose work goes unsung and the DJCF knows this more than anyone. A crowd favorite, of course, is the Unsung Hero program, now a permanent fixture of the annual meeting. The foundations, alongside its agencies, recognized the many agencies’ Unsung Heroes making their successes possible, awarded grants to recipients of the Sylvan T. Baer Foundation, and thanked area first responders.

Another staple of the annual meeting — and one that is well established outside of the foundation’s walls — is the awarding of the Sylvan T. Baer Foundation grants. Twelve agencies who work directly with Jewish individuals received $173,000 that night.

And though DJCF/SWCF always recognizes the area’s first responders by taking the “table to them,” this year was especially significant because only days before the meeting, the area (JCC included) was hit by an F3 tornado.

Together, these pieces proved again that annual-meeting-humdrum can be something exciting, memorable and welcomed.

For more information, visit www.DJCF.org or call 214-615-9351.