Dean Highland Neighborhood Association

Author: Brandon Christensen

  • Our 6th Annual Gathering Recap

    Hey Dean Highlanders,

    Thanks to all who came out to our 6th (6th!) annual summer gathering at the police department parking lot. We even had a ninja attend:

    Check out the rest of the pictures!

    Don’t forget: there will be no conservancy initiative cleanups during June and July, so enjoy your respite! Our next cleanup will be August 8th. Keep your eyes on these pages for more details.

    If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for the “Voices from Dean Highland” oral history project. You’d be leaving a legacy for those you love, and you’ll also be helping Dean Highland to establish itself as the premier neighborhood of not only Waco, but Central Texas too.

    Please be sure to renew your membership with us if you haven’t done so since January of 2026. We are trying to revamp and synchronize our data collection tools to better serve y’all, and in order to do that we need the most up-to-date information available.

    If you have any questions, give us a holler. Stay cool out there!

  • Catch you all in the morning!

    For our 6th Annual Summer Gathering. May 30th is shaping up to be a heck of a day.

    The gathering will happen at our traditional spot: Waco PD’s parking lot. Here it is on a map:

    The address is 3115 Pine Ave, Waco, TX 76708.

    We’ll have coffee (from the fine folks at For Keeps Coffee), donuts, juice, some cool neighbors & non-profits, and maybe some other surprises waiting for you when you get to the spot.

    The fun starts at 9am and will go to 11am or so.

    If you haven’t done so already (since January of 2026), you can beat the line by renewing your membership here. We are trying to get a sense of what to tackle for the rest of the year, so your input matters a great deal.

    Don’t forget that we have two open board spots available. If you’re interested in serving, please let us know.

  • Don’t Forget: Our 6th Annual Summer Gathering is happening this Saturday (May 30th)!

    Hi Dean Highlanders,

    Don’t forget about our 6th (6th!) annual summer gathering in the Waco Police Department’s parking lot. Here it is on a map:

    The address is 3115 Pine Ave, Waco, TX 76708.

    We’ll have coffee, donuts, juice, some cool neighbors & non-profits, and maybe some other surprises waiting for you when you get to the spot.

    The fun starts at 9am and will go to 11am or so.

    If you haven’t already, you can beat the line by renewing your membership here.

    If you’re really a glutton for punishment, you can speak to the neighborhood association board members about joining the board. We lost two members (I’ll try to get “thank you” posts for Chelsea and Tinker out before the end of…June!) at the beginning of the year and haven’t found anybody to replace them just yet.

    Join the fun!

  • Don’t Forget: Our 6th Annual Summer Gathering is happening this Saturday (May 30th)!

    Hi Dean Highlanders,

    Don’t forget about our 6th (6th!) annual summer gathering in the Waco Police Department’s parking lot. Here it is on a map:

    The address is 3115 Pine Ave, Waco, TX 76708.

    We’ll have coffee, some cool neighbors & non-profits, and maybe some other surprises waiting for you when you get to the spot.

    The fun starts at 9am and will go to 11am or so.

    If you haven’t already, you can beat the line and renew your membership here.

  • Our Conservancy Initiative recap for Saturday, May 23rd

    Hi Dean Highlanders,

    Our last neighborhood cleanup before the summer break was a big hit. We didn’t find any guns (this time!), but we did do something different and tackled one of our streets directly instead of relying on the City to maintain the rubbish.

    Ten Dean Highlanders — that’s right, ten – showed up to pitch in this time: Austin from Pine, Tinker from Pine, and the Strietzels from Maple.

    Most of you will know Austin and Tinker thanks to their longtime service as board members of the Dean Highland Neighborhood Association, but the Strietzels are still relatively new so give them all a hearty greeting next time you see them (perhaps at our 6th annual summer meet-and-greet gathering!).

    We hit 27th Street with all we had, and did a good bit of work on it. I know many Dean Highlanders were, and are, grateful for our efforts.

    A conservancy for Dean Highland’s Hillcrest Memorial Park? Run by the neighborhood association? You better believe it, baby!

    Catch you all at Saturday’s (May 30th) sixth annual meet-and-greet gathering in the police station parking lot.

  • Let’s help out our teachers at Dean Highland Elementary School

    Hey Dean Highlanders,

    The Principal at Dean Highland Elementary sent out the following flyer:

    Along with the following ask:

    As some of you may know, this has been a challenging year for our staff with many unexpected changes and upcoming transitions. Through it all, they have done their best to love and support our students. 💙💚

    I would love to bless them with one final meal together for our End of Year Luncheon. If you would like to help donate toward this meal, any amount would be appreciated!

    Click here to get to Principal Whiting’s Venmo account.

    The Dean Highland Neighborhood Association has long been a supporter of our favorite neighborhood public elementary school, and as such, we donated to the special send-off for the teachers of Dragons:

    If you are able, can you help make the teachers at Dean Highland Elementary School feel a bit more appreciated?

    Catch you all tomorrow, at 10am at 27th and Cumberland, for our last conservancy initiative cleanup until the Fall!

  • Our Conservancy Initiative cleanup (this Saturday, May 23rd) will be…27th Street!

    Hi Dean Highlanders,

    Our bimonthly Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative cleanup will take place along 27th Street this Saturday (May 23rd). We are going to meet on 27th and Cumberland and then go all the way down and all the way up 27th, like so:

    We will meet at 10am on 27th and Cumberland. Just walk there. Ride your bike. Bring the kids. Bring the dogs. Oh, we will also need a pickup truck since our erstwhile president will not be able to be there this Saturday. This will be our last cleanup before we take the long, hot months of June and July off.

    That’s right, Dean Highlanders, we won’t be doing any guerilla-style conservancy initiative cleanups in June or July due to the heat. So be sure to get on out and join us this Saturday for our last cleanup before the Fall!

    Check out our past cleanup efforts.

    If you have any questions, you know what to do!

  • DHNA’s State Historical Marker Challenge: Tinker Kramer

    Hi Dean Highlanders,

    We have our first submission from the DHNA State Historical Marker challenge. Meet the one and only Tinker Kramer:

    Tinker has lived in Dean Highland (on Pine) for decades, and she worked at Hillcrest hospital when it was still active. She has played an important role in the neighborhood association for years before rolling off in 2025 (we have two empty seats on the board right now, actually; email us if you’d like to help carry the load). She was also the very first interviewee for our “Voices from Dean Highland” oral history project.

    She has a huge heart and is always giving valuable time to Dean Highland. I’ll have more to say about her when I put up her “Voices from Dean Highland” spotlight, but for now she’ll simply be known as the first contestant of our State Historical Marker Challenge.

    If you’re out and about Dean Highland, take a photo of yourself or a loved one next to our State Historical Marker and send it to us. We’ll post on here for you!

    Oh, and if you have an alleyway or a yard you’d like to nominate for our conservancy initiative cleanup this Saturday, click here and fill out the short form.

  • Fundraiser Friday

    Hello Dean Highlanders,

    It’s that time again. Your humble neighborhood association board has been hard at work.

    We’ve been serving others through our bi-monthly Conservancy Initiative cleanups. Will we see you at the next cleanup on May 23rd?

    We’ve been advocating for you. Don’t forget to head on over to the City Council meeting on May 19th (it starts at 6pm) if you’re concerned about the rezoning efforts for the northwest corner of Dean Highland.

    We love fellowshipping with you, too. Will we see you at the 6th Annual Summer Gathering on May 30th? It’ll be at the police station parking lot again.

    We have big plans for the summer and beyond, and we need your financial support as well as your physical and spiritual support. We won’t be paying ourselves a salary with your donations. We’ll be using it to assert a bit more independence from the City of Waco’s amazing grants program. We’ll be using it to further enhance our ongoing projects. We’ll be using it to throw another awesome Holiday Party in December. That’s it.

    Can you donate to the cause this Friday? If so, here’s our Venmo account. Just click on it to get started. There should be a spot for you to tell us why you’re donating this Friday.

    Are you giving because you support our ongoing history projects? Or perhaps you want to donate to the war chest we will need to fight for every acre of Hillcrest Park? Maybe you want to contribute to this years’ wild and wacky Holiday Party?

    If you don’t do Venmo, you can always drop off some cash or a check at our Treasurer’s house. Rick lives at 2925 Maple Ave. He says you can put the much-needed financial support right into his mailbox, without even having to knock on the door!

    Please, we need all the financial support we can get.

    (If you have any questions about taxes and donations to the neighborhood association, please shoot us an email.)

    Thanks, and enjoy your weekends…

  • “Voices from Dean Highland” spotlight: Jim SoRelle

    Hey Dean Highlanders,

    Please allow me to introduce Dr. James “Jim” SoRelle, a now-retired historian who worked at Baylor for several decades. He and his wife have also lived in Dean Highland for several decades, and are currently residing on Maple Avenue.

    Jim actually grew up in Dean Highland, and while he hasn’t stayed here his entire life, his memories of this neighborhood are absolute treasures. He continues, even in retirement, to be an active member of the DHNA and is a regular at our conservancy initiative cleanups.

    His heart is his greatest asset to the Dean Highland neighborhood, and we have been lucky to have Jim and his family as neighbors for so long. The SoRelles have given and given (and given) to Wacoans for a long time, and it’s always been done humbly, gracefully, and with a grateful heart. His efforts for our conservancy initiative reflect this “attitude of gratitude” time and again.

    Dr SoRelle contributed to the “Voices from Dean Highland” project on September 14, 2024. Given that the neighborhood association’s stated goals are service, advocacy, and fellowship, please be sure to give Jim a hearty greeting if you see him out and about at one of our service projects, advocacy efforts, or raucous quarterly meetings. If you would like to collaborate or fellowship with him, shoot me (Brandon Christensen) an email and I’ll try to introduce you.

    If you, or somebody you know and love, wants to participate in this project, shoot me (Brandon Christensen) an email and we’ll get started.

    You can read more about our “Voices from Dean Highland” project here. You (yes, you!) and your story are way more interesting and important than you think, and this project is something that your kids and grandkids and other loved ones will appreciate long after you’re gone. Check out some other “Voices” spotlights here.