TCU Alumni Center to host the first-ever Horned Frogs Fair to support local businesses

The exclusive shopping event will raise money for the Greg Trevino Scholarship at TCU

TCU Alumni Association

A flier Saturday’s Horned Frog Fair. Photo courtesy of the TCU alumni association.

By Walter Flanagin
Published Feb 22, 2023

Nearly 400 people are expected on campus Friday and Saturday to support a shopping event that will benefit a scholarship for students who represent the ideals of diversity and inclusion.  The Horned Frog Fair will be held in the Dee J. Kelly Alumni Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. A VIP “Sip & Shop” — not open to students — is scheduled for Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets to the VIP event are $25. Admission to Saturday’s event is $10, although students with a valid ID get in free.   “We’re just hoping a lot of students come,” said Marissa Carrera, the event coordinator.  All vendor registrations and $5 from every ticket go toward the Greg Trevino Memorial Scholarship fund. Trevino (‘95) worked for the TCU Alumni office and Intercultural and Inclusiveness Office before he was killed in 2008 in a car wreck. In 2004, Trevino founded the Hispanic Alumni Alliance (HAA). Carrera, who serves as program coordinator for alumni relations at TCU, said the fair will draw people to TCU’s campus, promote philanthropy and create an opportunity to promote small, locally-owned and alumni-owned businesses.  “I wanted the community to be involved,” she said. “To feel invited and to come to TCU. It’s students, faculty, staff and alumni, yes. But even friends of TCU.” About 36 vendors including Kendra Scott and 16 alumni-owned businesses are expected at the fair. Every vendor will attend both days of the event.

Vendor registration fees have already brought in $4,000 for the Greg Trevino Memorial Scholarship fund; $5 from every ticket will also go to the fund.  According to the scholarship’s webpage, the Greg Trevino scholarship benefits a continuing TCU student who possesses “attributes associated with the character of Greg Trevino,” and “whose life reflects a commitment to the values of diversity & inclusion.”   Carrera said the HAA has grown significantly since Trevino started it.  “I can remember people telling me about events that they attended, and they were only about 20 to 30 people, and it was more of a come-and-go event,” she said. “In the last couple of years that I’ve been working with the HAA, we’ve had events that have sold out, like our tailgate this past fall.” Nearly 200 people attend the tailgate and it’s not uncommon for events to draw at 100 people, she said. 

A flier for the Greg Trevino Memorial Scholarship application from 2021.
(Student Affairs)
Carrera said she got the idea for the fair from a colleague who retired in March.  “It was kind of on a whim, the day she was leaving,” she said. “Everybody was gathered having lunch and she said, ‘I have an idea.’ And that’s when we had that conversation. We giggled and walked away and said she was crazy.”  Carrera said she didn’t think about it again until September, but then the wheels started spinning.  “I was spending more time at The Market at Ridglea doing more shopping and I was like ‘I think I could do this,’” she said. After some businesses she reached out to individually were hesitant, Carrera sent out an email to all of DFW asking for interested vendors. “I think we got nearly 100 responses just right off the bat,” she said. “From there it was, okay, now we have to tell people ‘No.’ We’re pretty near capacity, and that’s just for fire marshal reasons, and, you know, we really want to have (space for) shoppers! So the building really did say how many vendors we could let in.” Carrera is already planning to host another fair during family weekend in the fall. “A lot of times parents may bring their kids to TCU and then not see them again until family weekend,” she said. “And a lot of these (vendors) may not have an online shop, so this may be a chance for them to get exposure to the parents or the families, but then vice versa.” Tickets to Friday’s VIP event are sold out, but tickets to this Saturday’s fair can be purchased here.