Sitting at the kitchen table in her Frisco home on a recent morning, Ann Harris recounted the story in the Bible’s book of Esther that follows the beautiful Jewish queen who persuades her husband, the Persian king Ahasuerus, to retract an order that would have seen Jews throughout the kingdom massacred.</p
p>“It’s the best story,” says Ann, who first became familiar with it during the late 1990s when her husband, former NBA basketball coach Del Harris, gave her a biography of Esther to read. The queen’s story resonated with her. “I read it and it was almost like Holy Spirit just hit me. If it wasn’t for her, all of the Jews would have been annihilated. This was such a God thing.”</p
p>Her deepfelt connection to the story may have something to do with the fact that for the past decade, Ann Harris – who is Frisco STYLE Magazine’s 2022 Person of the Year – has herself been on a similar quest to assist and protect an at-risk population: Frisco’s homeless.</p
p>Also a tireless advocate and supporter of dozens of area charitable organizations, Ann is the co-founder of The Frisco Giving Tree and StepUP Frisco, an organization and initiative, respectively, that are dedicated to helping those in need. She is also a founding board member of the North Texas Community Giving Foundation, which supports local nonprofits.</p
p>Ann is also active on the local political scene: In 2021, she served as campaign manager for Angelia Pelham in her bid for Frisco City Council Place 3 and returned to the role earlier this year in Tammy Meinershagen’s short-but-successful race for Place 2. Over the years, she has also volunteered with the campaigns of other Frisco City Council and Frisco ISD Board of Trustees candidates. </p
p>“I’ve always believed you’ve got to give back,” Ann explains of her philanthropic and political work. “It just feels like God has blessed us, and now we have to help other people.”</p
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