Lake Como Gets a Boost from Ellen DeGeneres and Riverside Homebuilders

An area of Fort Worth has been getting some well-deserved love and attention recently. Lake Como got a boost from both Ellen DeGeneres and Riverside Homebuilders. Our team spent a day cleaning up the lake and shore. Meanwhile, the elementary school received a very nice surprise from Ellen on April 16..

Let’s start with Lake Como Elementary School. Four years ago, when Valencia Rhines took the reins as principal of the school, it was one of the lowest-performing schools in the district. She promised to do everything in her power to advance the school for the kids. Within 3 years, the new and improved Leadership Academy at Como Elementary moved from an “F” ranking to a “B” and Valencia says, “we’re knocking on the door of an A”.

Math teacher Thomas Mayfield worked with students to produce music videos, which they sent to The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “I relate to kids through music, and I wanted to show that our kids are doing what they need to do to be better individuals.”

Ellen and her staff were impressed and invited Valencia, Thomas, and the school’s guidance counselor, Tomeka McGee, to appear on the show.

“A lot of times, the perception is, those kids can’t do it, that they are not going to perform well.” Valencia told Ellen. “I was one of those kids. A lot of our students have dealt with much more than we as adults could ever imagine.”

A very emotional Tomeka added, “I call all of them my sons, my daughters. They are me. They are exactly how I was growing up. When I think about everything they go through, words can’t even describe how much I love those children.”

The Leadership Academy provides more than education and support to their students. The teachers and staff started a food pantry. On Fridays, they send bags of food home with some kids to make sure they haved food to eat on weekends.

Cheerios, one of the show’s partners, contributed $20,000 to pay for food for Como Elementary’s food bank. The company donated another $30,000 to purchase laptops for the students.

We’re so proud to be part of a community that takes pride in itself. The staff of the Leadership Academy at Como Elementary is working hard to contribute to the present and future of this area!

Riverside Homebuilders’ contribution to this area was a clean-up day at Lake Como, headed up by one of our sales counselors, Jim Steele. Our crew picked up trash and raked debris to get the parks and beach ready for the spring and summer visitors. Kayakers took to the water to clean up anything they could gather from there. Even some of our kids came out to help the Riverside team (thanks, Savannah!).

Jim also arranged to feed all the volunteers and brought in the Sassy Hot Dogs food truck. The hard-working clean-up crew feasted on Sassy’s gourmet take on burgers, hot dogs, tacos, and other fantastic fare.

Now that you know that the Lake Como area is blossoming, here’s your chance to buy a new, single-family home here. We have a variety of move-in ready homes and homesites available. Imagine living within walking distance of Lake Como and sending your children to The Leadership Academy at Como Elementary School. Even better, move into a brand new home with modern features and quality construction—where everything is covered by a warranty, so it’s worry-free living! Our new construction homes offer 3 to 4 bedrooms and range from 1,486 to 1,693 square feet. Prices start at only $176,900. Any of our preferred lenders can provide information about mortgages, low down payments, and everything else that helps you make this important move. Riverside Homebuilders have a limited number of homes in the Lake Como area, so talk to Rachel now to find out what’s waiting for you here.