The Texas Transplant Network, which Pendergraft founded and which received its 501(c)(3) designation in May 2025, addresses a specific financial barrier: the donor's costs.
Dowdy, the orchestra's conductor and artistic director, appeared alongside Board President Tim Summerlin to discuss a season that is both one of the symphony's most programmatically ambitious in its 26-year history.
Sisters in Service began as a Bible study. It evolved into something harder to categorize — a logistics operation embedded in the Hill Country's nonprofit network, deploying volunteers and resources wherever the gap opens.
The organization's Demonstration Garden at the AgriLife center showcases deer-resistant native plants that perform in the Hill Country's specific conditions — a living reference library for homeowners, ranchers, and land managers. The First Wednesday public speaker series brings horticultural expertise to the public at no cost.
The organization operates four mobile vans that bring mental health services directly to rural communities — including Rocksprings and Hunt — that have no local provider access.
When a person can no longer drive — whether because of age, disability, or medical condition — they do not simply lose a convenience. They lose access to their doctor, their pharmacy, their grocery store, their family. In rural Texas, where there is no bus network and taxis are sparse, that loss is total.
"The river is our identity," Walther said. "Its health is directly tied to the local economy, the local culture, and who we are as a place."
A new partnership with San Antonio's Tobin Center is now piloting a Gifted and Talented Arts Integration Program within Kerrville ISD. The program brings world-class performing arts education into direct contact with the district's most advanced students.
Jan and Mike Pieraccini founded Gunny's Warriors five years ago in memory of their son, initially focused on traumatic brain injury education and awareness among veterans.
The society's permanent mission centers on preserving the "heart of Hunt" — specifically Preservation Park and the historic Hunt Store, which functions as the community's gathering anchor — and supporting the Hunt CPR program for local businesses. But the floods revealed a gap in existing relief infrastructure that HPS has moved directly into: the legacy home problem.
