We meet on the second Friday of the month at lunchtime and are located in the Fort Bend - Sugar Land, Missouri City area. For the annual bazaar, we host the white elephant, have baked goods, and the baskets. Our latest fundraiser was a Tea at the official residence of the British Consulate in Houston.

The chapter was formed in 1986 by 8 founding members. None of the original members are still in the chapter. However, Isabel Berry and Rhona Phillipson have the longest tenure in the chapter. Rhona has moved to the Conroe area and now belongs to the Yorkshire Rose chapter.  Isabel remains active in our chapter. 

One of the unique items in the chapter scrapbook is a souvenir photo autographed and a letter from the Captain of the US Navy battleship – USS Mississippi.   Apparently, in one of the earlier years, the Shakespeare Chapter sent home-baked cookies to the servicemen overseas.    The thank you letter tells how some of the very first seamen arrived during Christmas time and had no correspondence with their families just yet so the DBE gift of home-baked sweets was also used as a gesture to welcome the newbie navy seamen.

When the chapter was first formed, one of the members purchased a series of brasses and brass rubbing supplies and this was used to educate the American population about brass rubbings.    Most of these rubbings remain with the chapter today and have been used in many of the bazaars.

The membership of the chapter has varied and a lot of members have come and gone.   At our lowest point, we had 3 members in a chapter meeting.   At our highest point, we had 23 members in our chapter.    In the last few years we have held steady at approximately 8 participating members. 

Between 2007-2012  The major fundraiser was our  Jewelry Raffle benefiting MBH.   Over 5 years – we received from Shannon Fine Jewelry the following donations: a 14K Amethyst Ring, Marquise shaped diamond ring, a 14K, Peridot & diamond ring 14K, Diamond necklace  - all of which were the first prize offering in our annual raffle.  We were able to distribute raffle tickets through FedEx and DHL to other chapters in the southern district states and this became a very successful fundraiser.  This project was spearheaded by the late Frances Smith.

In 2014 Jackie Walker became regent and she created the Union Jack t-shirts and caps and COVID masks that were all manufactured by a local company to our design.   This also allowed the chapter to have a successful fundraiser.   These shirts were sold to all DBE chapters across the USA as members used the yearbook to contact DBE members in other states.   This project was created by Jackie Walker, lasted about 5 years, and was very successful.

The other contribution made by a member was to secure a venue for the bazaar at a Fortune 500 Corporation locally.    It is rare for a corporation to welcome a charity venue on their premises due to security and corporate protocol    However, it became quite a success.    This venue started in 2007 and ran until COVID.   During these years Ruby Cook was able to secure a cost-only fee which resulted in saving DBE Houston approximately  $50K over the years in venue costs.

At the 2023  bazaar, we held the basket raffle, white elephant, baked goods,  souvenirs, and wine-tasting classes, resulting in our largest profit ever – a total of $8,189.  This was quite a success when considering the small size of participating members. 

Our current fundraiser will be a Tea at the Consulate’s home in April and we are supported by the State, Commonwealth Lilies Chapter, and Sir Malcolm Sargent Chapter.

Although we are aging and life is harder, we continue to meet every month and remain committed to the cause.