Home

By Sally Crocker, for Tarrant Regional Water District, Fort Worth, Texas

There’s a special satisfaction you get from digging in the dirt, planting something and watching it grow. A tiny bud starts to sprout, and before long there is a plant, a beautiful flower or an edible vegetable taking root.

Students at Bess Race Elementary School in Crowley, Texas, are experiencing gardening firsthand through a partnership with Tarrant Regional Water District that is taking them outside their classrooms and into nature to learn about plants that nurture our community and sustain our local ecosystems …

… For a generation that spends so much time indoors on their devices, getting outside can be a whole new experience.

Being able to see a garden grow teaches kids so much about water, the land, conservation, leadership, responsibility and teamwork ... And the more you learn about something, the more you appreciate it and want to protect it.

In the fall of 1984, Maria Guadalupe Almaguer was murdered by her estranged husband, David Gonzales. The couple had been separated for two years following a rocky, abusive relationship, and Maria had been saving for a divorce. She had just been promoted at work, and things were slowly starting to go her way. She was feeling upbeat, thinking she might finally be ready to start dating someone new who would treat her right.

• PLATINUM AWARD WINNER FOR BRAND JOURNALISM/WRITING/ARTICLE, AWARDED BY THE HERMES CREATIVE AWARDS COMPETITION, 2022

• 2022 HONORABLE MENTION AWARD WINNER IN PR DAILY’S NATIONAL NONPROFIT COMMUNICATIONS AWARDS, COMMUNICATIONS ASSETS/ARTICLE CATEGORY

(originally published by The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, June 2021)

He didn’t know it at the time, but when Dr. Scott Walters was growing up in San Diego in the mid 1980s, a next-door neighbor was concealing a homemade meth lab just across the fence and mere steps away from his bedroom window. Now, decades later, the U.S. war on drugs is still being waged, and this public health researcher is leading the charge against today’s national opioid crisis.

Written for Tarrant Regional Water District, Fort Worth, Texas. Published March 25, 2026.

What happens when a little boy gets a very big idea? A small part of the world is transformed in a major way.

When Walker Lane’s parents asked how he wanted to celebrate his fourth birthday, he responded without hesitation: “Let’s do a Trash Bash!”

Walker has spent a lot of time outdoors at Fort Worth’s Clearfork area. His family enjoys taking walks and runs, biking, fishing and just hanging out in nature. You can find them at Clearfork often. A lot of times, they will stop to pick up trash they see along the way.

An idea taking shape

 Last semester, Walker and his siblings were studying the rivers of Texas, the water cycle and how rivers work, leading him to the birthday Trash Bash idea. He wanted to start with a dinosaur party and then head out to the Clearfork Trailhead of the Trinity River with some of his friends and family.

“Clearfork is incredibly special to our family. Over time our kids have developed a real sense of ownership and pride in keeping it clean. Together, our family has picked up more than 50 pounds of trash in that area,” Tae Lane, Walker’s mom, wrote to Tarrant Regional Water District when requesting to schedule the event.

“For his birthday, Walker has asked that we spend some time doing what he loves most,” she said, “helping take care of the river. It will just be a small group of us, but we believe every piece of trash picked up makes a difference.”

How a personal health crisis led one physician to a career dedicated to lifestyle medicine and patient empowerment. 

Daniel Chen, MD, FACP, DipABLM, was a practicing physician in his mid 30s when he suffered a heart attack. With his life in jeopardy, he spent 10 days in the hospital and ended up with nine coronary stents to restore blood flow to his heart. Today, he is a double board-certified internal medicine and lifestyle medicine primary care clinician who serves as the lifestyle medicine program director practicing in Spanish and English at Esperanza Health Center in North Philadelphia …

By Sally Crocker for Tarrant Regional Water District, Fort Worth, Texas

There’s a place in the heart of downtown Fort Worth, Texas, where the landscape has been given purpose, beauty and nature reign, and water conservation and sustainability have come to the forefront.

The turnaround at Tarrant Regional Water District is an example of how incredible changes can make a difference in water, environment and urban development.

TRWD’s main campus, overlooking the Trinity River, was built in phases over the years. Like many urban spaces developed over time, the terrain surrounding headquarters incorporated natural hills, pockets and dips that resulted in gritty puddles, waterlogging and a soggy landscape after storms. At one point in time, a stormwater detention basin had been developed by TRWD’s Henderson building, the lowest spot on campus, to temporarily store stormwater runoff after heavy rains. The area followed the city’s standard design to prevent flooding and erosion before slowly releasing the water through the storm drains and out to the river.

As the campus grew and construction projects for different phases were developed, however, building plans and permits stacked up. The campus outgrew the capabilities of the detention basin as it was originally designed, and it had become a waterlogged eyesore. Maintenance was a challenge, with lawnmowers sticking in the swampy grass, leaving rows of bumpy ridges as they rolled through. Other than mosquitos, not many creatures chose to call this place “home.” The space was unsightly and no longer in city compliance.

What happened next transformed the basin into one of the most attractive features on campus – plus a money saver.

In just one year, the LIVELY (Lifestyle Interventions Through Empowerment and Learning for Youth) program has positively impacted the lives of Boston youth, earning the Boys and Girls Club of Boston’s Volunteer Group of the Year honor.  

A University of Mississippi Medical Center team is studying the success of lifestyle medicine delivered in a nontraditional health care setting such as a YMCA. Dr. Josie Bidwell, who leads the program, will be a featured panelist at ACLM’s annual conference, Lifestyle Medicine 2025, discussing the intersection of clinical-community health.  

Taylor Harden was in a high-flying profession when she decided to reroute to a new destination. Her successful landing into health care moved her from an exciting career in aviation and travel into the business of healing and improving the lives of others.

By Sally Crocker for the American College of Lifestyle Medicine

ACLM Fellow Dr. David Bowman experienced the power of lifestyle medicine in his own life and is now passionate about empowering clinicians and patients to transform their health as well.

For years, David Bowman, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, battled a host of health problems. He suffered from backaches and foot pain, and he would get tired after eating. He was living on laxatives due to chronic constipation, his asthma was getting worse, and he had constant allergies. He had gained weight while eating candy, fried foods, pizza and the like. He had reflux and frequent abdominal pain, and he once missed a plane connection for a job interview because he was in the bathroom for so long.  

The doctor who trained and practiced as a pediatrician embarked on a commitment to lifestyle behavior change that transformed his health and how he practiced medicine. Dr. Bowman is in the planning stage of the first-ever lifestyle medicine clinic at the Howard University College of Medicine, where he serves as assistant dean of Student Health and Wellness and director of the Spiritual Health and Wellness Center.  

2024 International Gold Winner, MarCom Awards

“Loving Long Ears Donkey Therapy & Sanctuary” feature article for Southlake, Texas, City Lifestyle magazine.

2024 Honorable Mention winner, MarCom International Awards

“Go for your dreams!” feature article for Southlake City Lifestyle magazine.

Platinum winner 2024 – Content Marketing/Blog Writing category

“Reigniting the flame: a medical student’s journey with lifestyle medicine”

https://lifestylemedicine.org/articles/reigniting-the-flame-in-residency/

For the American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Gold winner 2024 - Content Marketing/Blog Writing category

“Transforming Hospital Food From Bad to Healthy and Delicious”

https://lifestylemedicine.org/articles/transforming-hospital-food/

For the American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Gold winner 2024 – Content Marketing/Website Story category

“Hands-on service: building healthier communities by improving housing quality and safety”

https://www.unthsc.edu/school-of-public-health/hands-on-service-building-healthier-communities-by-improving-housing-quality-and-safety/

For The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth -  School of Public Health

Honorable Mention winner 2024 - Content Marketing/Blog Writing category

“Addressing the physician shortage through lifestyle medicine”

https://lifestylemedicine.org/articles/primary-care-shortage/

For the American College of Lifestyle Medicine

2024 International Platinum Award winner, Hermes Creative Awards competition, Blog Writing category, for “Journey of Survival” article for Tarrant Regional Water District, Texas.

2024 International Gold Award winner, Hermes Creative Awards competition, Blog Writing, for “Water is Life” article for Tarrant Regional Water District.

These awards are international competitions honoring excellence in web creativity and digital communication. The competitions spotlight the role of creatives in the dynamic, constantly evolving web. Winning one of these awards signifies to employers, clients, prospects and competitors that the winner’s web and digital work is among the best in the industry.

Entries come from corporate communication departments, public relations firms, digital shops, advertising agencies and freelancers.

Crocker is a longtime writer, editor and brand communications storyteller, with a background in marketing communications for all types of organizations, including healthcare, higher education, nonprofits, the finance and retail sectors and more.

Crocker is a principal in the firm Crocker2 LLC Content Creation+Writing+Graphics

The U.S. Surgeon General’s recent advisory on the link between alcohol consumption and increased cancer risk is an opportunity to engage with patients on the avoidance of risky substances pillar of lifestyle medicine. 

Shelly Hattan remembers the days when people looked for job listings in the newspaper. This was how she found her first job with Tarrant Regional Water District. It was the early 1990s and she had completed her civil engineering degree at the University of Texas at Arlington.

She interviewed with David Marshall, Director of Engineering at the time, and the position he offered sounded really interesting. Shelly started with TRWD in December 1994. She stayed with the district for about two years, and then moved on to work for the City of Fort Worth, the City of Arlington, and went out on her own for 10 years.

Shelly moved back to TRWD in 2009, just as the district started interviewing for positions related to a huge new undertaking called the Integrated Pipeline Project (IPL), a joint water supply project between TRWD and Dallas Water Utilities. When completed, this multi-year, $2.3 billion project will connect to existing water supplies in East Texas and add capacity to the water district’s system. Instead of two pipelines, Dallas Water Utilities and TRWD will use one joint pipeline.

The miracle of animals healing people and people healing animals.

By Sally Crocker for Southlake City Lifestyle magazine, Southlake, Texas, August 2024 issue

Jules Peterson has been around animals all her life. She started riding horses at age five. During the summers at her grandparents’ home in the North Dakota Hills, she rode western saddle and always loved being on ranches and around farm animals.

Jules grew up in Minneapolis, where she became involved in English riding, or dressage. She quickly grew into hunter/jumper equestrian riding, also known as the highly competitive sport of show jumping.

An accident that seriously injured her neck and spinal cord took Jules out of the sport. She ended up on a walker and then a cane, suffering excruciating pain. But her medical treatment was only part of what helped Jules recover. She continued to love being around horses, and also children, so she volunteered for equine therapy in Arizona. Eventually, she started riding again, sitting up straight in the saddle as a rider must do, which helped to alleviate her pain. Amazingly, what ended up bringing Jules back was the very thing she loved – and it showed her the power of healing through equine therapy.

Today, Jules is founder and director of Loving Long Ears Donkey Therapy & Sanctuary, Inc. in Southlake, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supported 100% through donations.

Loving Long Ears rescues donkeys that are unwanted, neglected, abused, need rehoming or are heading for slaughter. The organization rehabilitates them for donkey assisted therapies and activities that inspire, renew and heal the human spirit for children, adults, veterans, first responders and mental health conditions.

By Sally Crocker for the American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Practicing tai chi in the park. Preparing healthy plant-predominant meals to enjoy with friends and family. Taking time for mindfulness. Those are just some of the ways older adults are applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine to remain mentally and physically engaged as the years tick by.  

The effect of healthy behaviors on both body and mind is powerful. As an example, lifestyle medicine pioneer Dean Ornish, MD, FACLM, recently published results from the first randomized, controlled trial to demonstrate that an intensive lifestyle intervention, without drugs, significantly improved cognition and function in many patients with early dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. 

By treating the whole person—considering a patient’s genetics, lifestyle and social environment–clinicians have an opportunity to support healthy cognitive aging and reduce the future public health burden of dementia. Furthermore, by understanding and addressing specific risk and resilience factors in women, who have twice the risk of Alzheimer’s disease than men, clinicians are better able to personalize treatment approaches to well-being and healthspan, concluded ACLM member Nancy B. Isenberg, MD, MPH, FAAN, DipABLM, and colleague Jessica Z.K. Caldwell, PhD, in a 2023 review on “The aging brain: risk factors and interventions for long term brain health in women.” 

“Aging is inevitable,” Dr. Isenberg said. “But how we age is not.” 

April 28, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HERMES CREATIVE AWARDS ANNOUNCES SALLY CROCKER AS PLATINUM AND GOLD WINNER IN TWO BLOG WRITING CATEGORIES

DALLAS, TX – Hermes Creative Awards, an international awards competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional and emerging media, has announced that Sally Crocker of Flower Mound, Texas, has won both a Platinum and a Gold award for her blog writing on behalf of client Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD).

Crocker won a Platinum award for her article “Journey of Survival” (https://www.trwd.com/trwd-employees-journey-of-survival-is-an-inspiration-in-never-giving-up/) about one employee’s longtime health struggles and his strength, positivity and will to never give up.

Crocker won a Gold award for her article “Water is Life” (https://www.trwd.com/water-is-life-trwd-employees-show-their-support-to-underdeveloped-countries-in-need/) about TRWD employees showing their support to underdeveloped countries in need. The blog talks about ways that the employees and their fellow volunteers are helping to improve quality of life in countries around the globe by helping to develop rural villages’ water systems and addressing other safe water needs in countries like Bolivia.

Crocker is a longtime writer, editor and brand communications storyteller, with a background in marketing communications for all types of organizations, including healthcare, higher education, nonprofits, the finance and retail sectors and more. She is also editor/writer for Southlake City Lifestyle, a magazine covering Southlake, Westlake and surrounding areas of North Texas.

By Sally Crocker, freelance writer for the Tarrant Regional Water District, North Texas

Blog article published April 9, 2024, to TRWD online news page (trwd.com)

“In his spare time, Chris Akers enjoys clowning around.

During working hours, Chris serves as patrol sergeant for the Tarrant Regional Water District’s law enforcement division, but as a volunteer for Shrine International – benefitting the Shriners Hospitals for Children national network that provides medical services to children in need, regardless of ability to pay – Chris is known as Kranky the Clown.

His wife and daughters are involved as well, dressing for parades, entertaining children and their families, and spreading the word about the great work of Shriners International. His youngest daughter’s clown name is Flower, his other daughter is Pom Pom the cheerleader clown, and his wife is Koko. It’s fun for a great cause, and it’s a true family affair for mom, dad and the Akers girls …”

By Sally Crocker, freelance writer for the Tarrant Regional Water District, North Texas

Blog article published March 20, 2024, to TRWD online news page (trwd.com)

“At age 76, TRWD employee Banty Blair still believes that a full day’s work does a body good.

When his shift is over at the water district, Banty heads home to his 51-acre ranch near Azle to have dinner, feed the cows and manage other chores that sometimes take him up until 10 p.m. Four mornings a week, he’s back at TRWD before 7 a.m., ready to start the day. Banty works a schedule of 10-hour days each Tuesday through Friday.

Banty celebrates his 50-year anniversary with TRWD in March 2024. He retired once – taking time to travel the country with his wife, remodeling his house and spending time with his son in Florida – before deciding to return to the place where he had enjoyed working for so long …”