Jeffers Supports Nexus, Many Other Causes
Laura Jeffers’ passion for her work and causes shows on her face as she speaks about them, from smiles and laughter to tears.
Her late father, Buddy, revolutionized cattle auctioning with Superior Livestock Auction, featuring live video feeds worldwide in 1986.
“It took the selling out of the barn,” the Highland Park woman explained. “It was good for the cattle, it was good for the buyers, and it was good for the sellers.”
It’s also been good for the family’s ongoing philanthropy.
Laura, who grew up in Dallas and the family ranch in Ennis, often works with her mother, Harriet Jeffers, who she describes as “my best friend.”
“My mother and I are part of the Dallas Foundation, which includes the Women’s Philanthropy Institute,” Laura said. “That’s really who I’m with.”
Several nonprofits are picked yearly for support, she said. “Last year, the money kept growing, so we had three hundred thousand to divide up.”
New Friends New Life got $150,000, while Mosaic Family Services, Community Basket Mobile Farmers Market, and Braswell Child Development Center each received $50,000.
Laura also supports Broadway Dallas.
“Any nonprofit that bonds with children — and I really get to see them — then I’m really blessed to be a part of it,” she explained. “You know, writing a check is easy, but to me and my mother, it really doesn’t mean as much as being on-site. I light up.”
Community causes run in the Jeffers family. Apart from philanthropic work with her mother, Laura is also on the board of EBC Farms Rescue, an Oklahoma nonprofit rescue for dogs started by her sister, Elizabeth Cooper.
Her other philanthropic efforts have included Magdalen House, Patriot PAWS, Safer Dallas Better Dallas, Dallas Black Dance Theater, and Nexus Recovery Center.
“Part of Safer Dallas’ purpose is to bring back that relationship between the police officers and the kids,” she said.
Recently, officers invited her to sit in the van and watch as drones searched for the missing leopard at the zoo.
“My heart really went to the new drone unit, which started in June of ’21,” she said. “It’s amazing what they do and how important they are — from saving money, manpower, lives, children who are abducted.”
She takes Nexus’ work with women recovering from substance abuse personally.
“I’m a walking miracle with five years of recovery,” she said. “For me, recovery is being free in mind, body, and spirit. I guess that’s why I’m so involved with veterans and mental illness and women in recovery.”
“Nexus accepts the mother and the children. That’s a huge difference,” she said. “It’s a wonderful way to be interactive and to see these women and children together.”
“I always tell the women, ‘The joke’s on you,’” Laura said. “‘You think I’m helping you, but really, you’re helping me.’ At the end of the day, I get to get in my car and leave Nexus. And I just cry happy tears. It feeds my soul.”
