DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Terry Bax just passed a fundraising milestone: In his 16 years of raising money for local charities, he just hit — and exceeded — the $1 million mark.
And, he has declared, now that he’s reached that goal, he’s retiring from fundraising.
No one really believes that part, though. He’s just so good at it, and he enjoys it too much.
In 2007, Bax participated in LifeWalk for the first time and was so impressed with the event that, the next year, he created his own team.
“I started raising money under the name Team Shamrock in 2008,” Bax said. “The next year we became Team Clover.”
And Team Clover it’s been ever since, becoming LifeWalk’s most successful fundraising team in its debut year.
Then Bax’s dad, who lived in Kansas City, became ill, and he moved to take care of him. There, he became involved in that city’s AIDS walk.
He remembers the first time someone handed him a $250 check: “That was so much to me,” he said. “Now it’s crazy what people will give when I do a charity event.”
Bax remembers his first big event in Kansas City. He cleared out his house, asked friends to bring different pieces of a smorgasbord and invited 40 people over, hoping to raise $4,000.
He exceeded that goal, and that amount put him over the top for the AIDS walk. He remained the number one fundraiser for the four years he spent there.
“Then we had a big snowstorm, and I decided I’m moving back to Dallas,” he said. So he moved back to Dallas in 2012, picking up right here where he had left off.
For LifeWalk’s 25th anniversary, Bax took his fundraising up a notch, asking friends for $1,000 each with a goal of raising $25,000 for the 25th year.
“Twenty-eight people gave me $1,000,” he said. But he and his team raised $138,000 total, helping LifeWalk collect a record-breaking $600,000-plus.
For seven years, a putt-putt golf tournament through the bars on Cedar Springs contributed quite a bit of money to Team Clover’s annual total. Bax said it was a great event, but it took quite a bit of planning and organization. For now, the event is on hiatus, but Bax said he hopes someone will take over and revive the event.
The last LifeWalk with an actual walk through Oak Lawn took place in the fall of 2019. Then the pandemic hit. While everything was shut down, organizers tried a virtual walk, but that didn’t work. And once things opened up again, the walk just never got off the ground.
The Miss LifeWalk pageant is the last remnant of the fundraiser that has helped so many people living with HIV throughout the community.
But that didn’t put a damper on Bax’s desire to raise money to help people in the community who needed help.
This is the 19th year Bax has spear-headed a toy drive, an event that started small and actually became easier to run during the pandemic.
The toy drive began when Bax invited 10 friends to come over for a holiday party and bring a toy with him. Then he took his bounty over to Cathedral of Hope which distributed them.
This year, Bax collected 300 toys and gift certificates for three beneficiaries — ASD, Elevate North Texas and Mosaic.
ASD provides housing for people living with HIV and AIDS. One of its properties, Spencer Gardens, is a 12-unit facility specifically for families affected by HIV/AIDS.
Elevate North Texas addresses homelessness for LGBTQ youth ages 18-24 with emergency shelter and a reunification program. And Mosaic is a safe haven for survivors of human rights abuses including human trafficking and domestic violence.
Bax explained how the pandemic made his fundraiser easier: He does an Amazon tree. People at the three agencies put their wish lists online, and people purchase from the list.
That way, donors from all around the country can participate. Gifts are delivered to Bax’s home, and the agencies pick up the items.
Once the gift list is taken care of, Bax asks donors for Walmart and Target gift certificates, which clients of all three agencies can use as they’re putting their lives back together and establishing new homes.
That’s not all he’s done for one of the agencies.
This year we helped Elevate North Texas with a grill out that raised $70,000,” he said. “Two of their kids came and told their story that night.”
He said one of the young adults Elevate helped aged out of the foster system and, at 18, no longer had a place to live. Elevate provided him a place to live while he looked for work. He’s now working and has a place to live.
Another told her story of coming out as transgender. “Her family didn’t accept her,” Bax said.
“Elevate got involved. Nothing better than people talking about how the process in that organization helped them.”
Hearing those personal stories opened his friends’ hearts and wallets. The money raised that night allowed Elevate to help even more LGBTQ youth.
“Terry Bax exemplifies what it means to give back,” said Elevate founder Jason Vallejo. “His unwavering dedication to the community, especially the LGBTQ community, has touched countless lives.
“Terry’s compassion and leadership inspire us all to create a more inclusive and supportive world.”
Bax said his latest events put him over the $1 million mark. For a number of years, he kept a spreadsheet to track how much he helped raise, explaining, “I’m a tax accountant by trade.”
Now he’s not so formal about it; he just remembers his last total and adds the latest donation to it.
But Bax insists he’s retiring from fundraising. For next year, he said the Christmas toy and gift drive is all he has on his plate.
But somehow, he isn’t all that convincing about truly being done with everything he can to help his community.