Lewisville Noon Rotary is sponsoring a blood drive next month at the Cross Timbers YMCA to help meet the urgent need to provide area hospitals with life-saving blood donations. Please visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter: LEWISVILLEROTARY to schedule an appointment, or click the image above to go straight to the registration page.
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Rotarian Sally Quezada (above right) last week presented Lewisville Police Sergeant Matt Collins with the March 2023 service award for his steadfast commitment to keeping local citizens safe.
Sergeant Collins began his employment with the Lewisville Police Department in January 2013. He served the community as a patrol officer and field training officer in the patrol division and was a standout employee from the beginning, receiving numerous commendations and awards. In June 2022, he was promoted to sergeant and selected to be the project manager as the department implemented a new records management and dispatch system. He was chosen not only for his normal outstanding work, but also his technology skills.
Since he began this project last year, Sergeant Collins has done a stellar job managing a very difficult project that involves many key departments throughout the city. While this project will not be completed until the end of the year, it is scheduled to be on track and configured properly because of his ability to work under pressure and keep everything on task. Although is is not a glamorous assignment, his superiors note, it is vitally important to the future of the police and fire departments, and will allow them to serve the citizens for years to come while using the most up to date technology and resources.
The members of Lewisville Noon Rotary commend Sergeant Collins for his ongoing commitment to providing the City of Lewisville with an exemplary level of service as he leads by example to pass his work ethic on to other employees.
LNR Club president Dennis Song is joined by Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County COO Marcus Hicks and Matt Sinclair. senior director of community partnerships. Click photo above to open full-sized image.
Matt Sinclair walked into his first Boys & Girls’ Club in June 2007 as he made a career transition from working at a children's shelter in Austin. During his tenure with the nonprofit, he has been part of programs for gang involved youth, worked in facilities, and served in administration. Today, he is the Senior Director of Community Partnerships for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County (BGCGTC), which last fall expanded its services into Denton County. In his current role, he looks for opportunities to get the nonprofit involved in communities that do not yet have a Boys and Girls Club to bring in resources that can direct young people toward a bright future.
Sinclair shared about the organization's mission as the featured speaker for the Lewisville Noon Rotary last week. The first club was founded in 1926 and BGCGTC is the largest club in Texas, Sinclair explained, with an annual budget of nearly $16 million. Much of the funding comes from government grants and partnerships, which helps the organization provide high-quality club experiences in the 5,000 locations around the U.S. and safe places in the community for youth.
Sinclair was joined by Marcus Hicks, COO of BGCGTC, who said he was drawn to the nonprofit's vision to do community differently. More than providing a snack and an opportunity to play games in an after school program, Boys and Girls Clubs look to help kids thrive in life. “How do we focus on academic success? On character and leadership and their ability to manage conflict?” Hicks asked. Through BGCGTC, more than 31,000 Tarrant County youth have access to a safe, positive environment with supportive relationships and opportunities tailored to nurture academic success, healthy lifestyles, and character and leadership
About 18 months ago, the nonprofit was researching areas outside its current footprint that had a need. They discovered the opportunity to branch out into Denton County, and Sinclair met Lewisville Police Sergeant Steve Dickens, who spoke to the Lewisville Noon club last week and himself was an alumnus of Boys and Girls Clubs. Sergeant Dickens helped Sinclair get plugged in with law enforcement and elected officials in Denton County so the nonprofit establish a presence in the area. Today, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County reaches youth in the local community around Lewisville and Flower Mound by providing a mobile clubhouse experience with a fully outfitted RV. The organization also partners with Lewisville Parks and Recreation to support the Thrive summer youth program and teen events and partners with Christian Community Action (CCA) to host a summer youth enrichment program in the area.
BGCGTC aims to continue expanding its presence to benefit more kids in Denton County and across North Texas, Sinclair said. The goal is to transition into a model where kids can access club resources every day through special events, after school programs, and daytime programming with school and childcare center partnerships, he noted, adding, “Ultimately, we want to serve the young people.”
L to R: Assistant Chief Chris Clements, Officer Rachel Roberts, and Sgt. Steve Dickens of the Lewisville Police Department. Click photo to open full-size image.
Guest speaker Sergeant Steve Dickens of the Lewisville Police Department last week shared about the city's efforts to better serve people needing psychiatric counseling through the department's CoCare Unit for People in Crisis.
Getting a mental health call, especially if someone was suicidal, was always very stressful for officers, explained Sgt. Dickens, who oversees both the Neighborhood Resource Officer and CoCare Units. Officers typically would spend hours sitting with an individual waiting for a social worker to come and feel frustrated because they could not offer any real assistance. Thanks to recent legislative changes, however, law enforcement officers now have authority to bring a person in a mental health crisis to an inpatient facility where they can get appropriate care.
Following the enactment of the legislation, Lewisville PD launched a team in June 2021 to help when dispatchers get a mental health call. Officers who volunteer with the CoCare Unit have undergone 40 hours of specialized training to be better equipped to meet the needs of people in a mental health crisis and also later follow up with them to ensure they are getting needed counseling.

“I’ve seen improvement in how we, as a community, view mental health” in recent years, said Sgt. Dickens, and the stigma has been significantly reduced. In the same way we don’t think poorly of individuals with diabetes, we are seeing a gradual mindset shift as people come to understand that mental health issues, like depression or anxiety, have both lifestyle and biological components and those in crisis cannot simply “fix” the problem without help.
To learn more, check out this article on the CoCare Unit from the Lewisville Leader, or email Sgt. Dickens at sdickens@cityoflewisville.com.