The new logo. Kind of makes you want to put your hand over your heart and pledge allegiance, no?

When Joseph Guinto wrote about Ron Johnson, the new CEO of Plano-based J.C. Penney, in the September issue of D CEO, he raised a number of questions about what the former Apple and Target executive could do for the department store. On Johnson’s branding expertise:

If an executive from Apple is supposed to know anything, it is what the kids (under 35 counts, right?) want these days. And, anyone at Apple—where products launch with a similar look, feel, and level of hype—should have a solid understanding of branding. But Apple products cost a lot of money. The average price for a women’s blouse at J.C. Penney is $15. And, besides, is it fair to compare a shiny iPod to a pair of cotton underpants?

Well, J.C. Penney unveiled its big makeover plan this week, and it would seem that cotton underpants may be getting something closer to the iPod treatment. Stores will begin sporting a new logo (above), the company’s third in three years.

They’ve also unveiled new three-tiered, simplified pricing that they’re calling “Fair and Square Pricing,” which is meant to be represented by that subtly patriotic new logo. Ellen DeGeneres has been brought in as a spokesperson to “help bring the new jcpenney experience to life in her own fun-loving, sneaker-wearing, laugh-making way.”

But most remarkable of all? Johnson, the man behind the creation of Apple’s retail cathedrals hipster havens orgasmatrons shops is bringing some of that same philosophy to transform the staid department store design:

Mr. Johnson and (company president) Mr. Francis also outlined plans to entirely re-invent the jcpenney store experience, to include Main Street — the entire store merchandised in a series of 80 to 100 brand shops, rather than the confusing and seemingly endless racks common in department stores today. It will also feature Town Square — an exciting new place that replaces the traditional retail center core of a department store with a series of services, which customers will enjoy before they buy, while they shop and afterwards. And, throughout, the new jcpenney store experience will merge the physical and digital worlds, assuring the physical retail stores’ vital role as the centerpiece of retailing’s future.

Yep, sounds like J.C. Penney will soon sport its own version of Genius Bars. Just imagine it. One day soon you’ll be able to walk into “Town Square” at your local jcpenney (after you’ve made an appointment?) and ask for help with any number of issues, like “why can’t I fit into this pair of chinos,” or ”is my Liz Claiborne blouse compatible with this Gloria Vanderbilt custom-waist denim? Or do I need an upgrade?”

No wonder Forbes is calling J.C. Penney “the most interesting retail story of the year.”

Sheretta Bodem is shy—not bashfully shy like a child, but hesitantly shy like somebody who’s never been able to depend on anyone. This tough-skinned 25-year-old is about 5 feet 2 inches tall with a curvy figure that is usually hidden in t-shirts, pants, and sneakers. A baseball hat sits atop her braided black hair, slung so low that it just shades her dark brown eyes, as if to reiterate her don’t-mind-me timidity. She sits across the table from me in a back storage room at Dallas LIFE, as she tells me why she walked into the shelter’s doors last November.

She’s a woman of few words, most of Bodem’s answers to my questions are succinct and to the point, but the tall wall she’s built was how she learned to survive.

Bodem says she was spoiled growing up—she always did and got what she wanted. Her mother was a truck driver, so circumstance may have edited the scope of those desires. Nevertheless, her mostly absent parent gave her little in the form of life direction. When her mom would go on her three-month driving stints, Bodem and her younger brother would stay at their less-than-attentive aunt’s home in Richland.

With no discipline, Bodem dropped out of high school at 17 because, as she explains it, it just didn’t seem that important. So, she settled at her aunt’s house with no job, no schooling, and no desire for either. Bodem describes this time in her life as “nothing,” just doing nothing and no plans to change it. At 21, she had her daughter, and at 23, her son. Bodem ruled out living with either of her children’s fathers. “I didn’t want my children to grow up in that kind of environment,” she says. Her “nothing” life at her aunt’s lingered on for a few years until her aunt began clearly favoring one of her children. Bodem wouldn’t elaborate about what happened other than “some other stuff happened…just bad stuff.” She says she really had no choice but to move out. At this point, she had lost contact with her mother and brother. So, with no other place to turn, she sought out Dallas LIFE.

Tears well in her eyes as she tries to describe what the first few days in the shelter were like. She can’t verbalize those feelings, but the crumbling of her emotional stronghold shows just how scary the experience must have been. Right then, she proudly shows me her travel coffee mug that has a printed out picture of her pride-and-joys’ smiling faces on it. She wants a better life for them, but worries what they will think of their days in the shelter 10 years from now.

She may not have planned for her children, but they have given her purpose. At first, going to Dallas LIFE was her way out of the nothingness, but her plan ended there. Then, three months after arriving at Dallas LIFE, after the first few weeks sleeping on floor mats with dozens others in a large room, after the next few weeks of sleeping on cots with only a single dozen other people, after moving to the second floor of the facility into her own room with her children, her program counselor told her about a program called Back on My Feet.

The national organization, Back on My Feet, opened its Dallas chapter last February. The program is simple: a running team for people experiencing homelessness—not homeless people, because BoMF maintains that homelessness is a temporary state. The implications for such a simple idea are incredible, but completely obvious in a why-didn’t-I-think-of that way to anyone who has ever been on a sports team. The beauty of BoMF lies in the intangible and is evident in its mission statement: “Back on My Feet promotes the self-sufficiency of those experiencing homelessness by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength, and self-esteem.”

Unlike many other programs trying to solve homelessness, BoMF doesn’t give any handouts or gifts to its members. Teammates earn their spot on the three BoMF teams that are organized through the Salvation Army, the Bridge, and Dallas LIFE. At each of these locations, shelter residents earn more and more privacy in the facility for consecutive days committed to the shelter’s program, and the rooms with the most privacy are above the first floors of the facilities.

To be an eligible BoMF residential member (res-member), a resident must have been in her respective program for at least 30 consecutive days, must have moved above the first floor rooms, and must come with the highest recommendation from her program counselor. But even these requirements do not guarantee an immediate spot on the team, as long waiting lists are exponentially growing at each shelter.

The Dallas LIFE men’s program director Hurel Booker says he has a list nearly 20-residents long waiting to join their facility’s BoMF team. “(The residents) see the team together and hear them in the mornings and want to be a part of that,” he says. Bodem also explained that the teammates seem to have the closest relationships among the people in the shelter. “We look out for each other and build each other up,” she says.

The three teams add three to five new members each month and retain 85 percent of their members from month to month. Velez says those res-members who have dropped out of the program have reasons that range from new jobs getting in the way of participation to relapse. The program aims for steady, not explosive, growth to make its mission sustainable, because for every res-member added to the team, the program must also recruit non-residential members to run alongside them.

Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 5:45 a.m. runs start with a team warm-up and huddle outside of the team’s respective facility. A prayer is recited, a goal set, and a question-of-the-day asked. Then, res-members and non-res members team up to tackle the morning’s one- to three-mile route and discuss what genre of book they would want to write, or who, living or dead, they would invite to dinner. Every member sets his own pace—some are training for marathons, while others simple want to get his heart pumping—but, everyone waits for the last runner to finish the race in order to do a post-run cool-down and huddle.

Even with their concerted effort to grow slowly, the Dallas chapter of BoMF is the fastest growing of the eight national chapters, currently with 47 members on three teams. The flagship Philadelphia chapter, launched in 2007, has 57 members on six teams. BoMF Dallas program director Lea Velez says their growth says a lot about the need for the program in Dallas, but a lot more about the people of Dallas. “It’s a powerful equalizer in such a simple and basic way,” Velez says. “And people seem to be drawn to that.”

A high school softball and basketball player, Bodem was excited to join BoMF when it came to Dallas. “Sports have always been such a positive stress reliever,” she says. “I needed some of that.” Having been at LIFE for three months, she immediately qualified for membership. After a res-member orientation, she attended the mandatory two successive team meetings for the pre- and post- run huddles to show her commitment and support. Her BoMF t-shirt, running shorts, and running shoes, all donated by Run On!, were delivered to LIFE on Saturday, and she was a full-fledged teammate the following Monday.

Every teammate, res and non-res, is required to meet 90 percent attendance for team runs. However, non-res members have the option to dedicate themselves to only once or twice a week.

Once Bodem met 90 percent of attendance for 30 days, she was promoted to Next Steps membership, which provides educational and job-training opportunities such as résumé building and job-interview seminars. Also available in Next Steps is up to $1,250 in financial aid; however, each request for financial aid must be evaluated by the program’s national leaders to meet strict criteria that ensure the money used is to further the res-member’s professional or educational career.

Since its inception, BoMF Dallas has placed 13 of its 47 members in jobs and seven in independent housing. While those numbers seem small, it’s incredible to hear that some of those members have felony records and haven’t been able to gain employment in years. The program is able to do so by providing an opportunity for res-members to exemplify and prove their accountability, responsibility, and commitment to success. Local businesses, like the Marriot, work with BoMF because the program has proven to rehabilitate people experiencing homelessness into successful employees.

Now in his seventh year with LIFE, Booker says that BoMF is the best thing that’s happened to the shelter. “It’s made my job a lot easier,” he says. Booker works with LIFE residents trying to get employment, but says BoMF has been the fastest road to employment for its team members.

Bodem has yet to find a job, but counts the fact that she’s looking a major success. Before BoMF, a career or education never crossed her mind. “I just didn’t think about it, I didn’t think it was for me,” she says. Now, she has dreams. Big ones. Her first goal is completing her GED, but she hopes to one day become a police officer. Like anyone, she wants a house and a car for her and her kids, but mostly she just wants to set a positive example for her kids.

I’ve met with Bodem several times, but the only time she takes off her baseball cap is when she runs with her Back on My Feet team—that’s when you can really see her dreams, hear that she would invite her great-grandmother to dinner if she were still alive, and that she’d write a thriller novel if she could.

My last Wednesday-morning run with the Dallas LIFE team had an ironically appropriate question of the day: “What do you like the most about Back on My Feet?” As the team circled up after the last runners finished the day’s three-mile route, the lighthearted air from a job-well-done became still as we told each other our answers. Nearly everyone mentioned the people they’ve met as their favorite part, but it wasn’t until most of the way through the circle that someone struck at the heart of the matter. A tall, lanky man by the name of Roger, whose wrinkles reveal his years and bald-head affectionately earned him the nickname “Q-Ball,” couldn’t crack his usual class-clown jokes as he began to choke up. “You guys are my family,” he says. “You’re what keep me going. You’re it.” —Kelsy McCraw

For Lynda Barnes of Double Oak, bowling is a family affair. Her mother was a program director at her local lanes growing up. “I went from the nursery to the lanes,” she says. “But, my mom wouldn’t let me bowl until I could hold a ball with one hand.” No bumpers or ramps for her.

She says the bowling alley was her second home, where she felt most comfortable. By high school, she was being recruited by San Jose State for their women’s bowling program. She went on to be a four-time All-American and a 12-year Team USA player, win dozens of championships and awards, and make her living playing the game she loved.

To bring it full-circle, Lynda then-Norry married fellow pro bowler, Chris Barnes. They have twin sons who she says are bowling enthusiasts, watching mom and dad practice and sometimes touring with them. They’re itching to start their own bowling careers, but they can’t yet hold a ball with one hand.

I met Lynda at the kick-off to the Bowling’s U.S. Women’s 2011 Open at AMF Euless Lanes last Thursday.  I was one of a dozen media persons there to cover the event and receive a free, custom-fit bowling ball from the Open’s sponsor, Ebonite.

The seven Team USA players on hand to meet-and-greet and offer tips to throwing our new, professional-grade balls would join 286 other women in the tournament. That’s record-breaking participation for the event.

The final four of those 286 bowled in Cowboys Stadium last night in the finals on portable lanes straddling the 50-yard-line. Barnes was one of them; her first top-four finish in the particular event.

The event broke another record, with 6,000 people in attendance to watch. If one of the bowlers had a perfect, 300-point game, they’d win a million dollars. The Team USA members said that it’s a much harder, but not impossible, feat for women bowlers because they lack the strength and hand size to contort the ball’s direction just so.

The Open is going for one more record when it airs on ESPN2 on Saturday night—it wants 10,000 viewers. Did Barnes take home the big enchilada? Is one bowler $1 million richer? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

So only because I needed a convenient excuse to post this reminder, I’m embedding the below video that Dr. Peay’s Booty Camp made for its campaign to be named the Best Fitness Program in Dallas. The short film’s artistic vision reveals just how exciting Best of Big D voting can be. Especially if you play a dance mix of the theme to Rocky III on your iPod while filling out your ballot.

VOTE NOW. And once an hour.

Part of the crowd headed to the after-party.

As I watched the incredibly dark, ominous clouds roll in Wednesday, I thought there was no way they’d clear up in time for the Katy Trail 5K. (I know what you’re thinking. The race was on Thursday, not Wednesday. Regardless, I was concerned). No need to worry. The weather for my favorite annual 5K was absolutely perfect. And all 5,000 participants seemed to be thinking the same thing. A few highlights of the after-party run after the jump.

The line for one of the beer tents.

But first, a rant. Listen. If you’ve been running Katy Trail regularly, you have seen the signs. You know there’s a 5K happening. You know that there will be 5,000 runners taking up the trail. Why would you plan on running the same evening as the 5K? Say you forgot, but once you saw all the people, could you not turn around and make up a different route? Why would you literally push yourself through the crowd? What do you gain from that? And, yes, this is all directed toward one particular gentleman who was so eager to get through that he ran into someone knocking his iPhone out of the carrier and onto the ground under the feet of hundreds of runners. So good to you, sir. Hope you got a great run in.

A runner who opted for a massage before beer and food.

Other than that, it was a great course with a lot of runners and walkers. But really, the reason you sign up for this 5K is for the after-party. The lines for the beer and for a hamburger station were about as long as In-N-Out’s lines. (Yes, we’re all tired of INO, but I just wouldn’t feel right if we didn’t mention it at least twice on our blog before 10 a.m.) Eric Paulson, the pr guy for Katy Trail, said that 45 restaurants participated, and they went through 60 kegs of beer. Logan Sherman came in first with an unofficial time of 15:22. D’Ann Arthur was the first female finisher.

Congrats to all the runners. I’ll see you again next year.

Krista,

First off, this is going to be a strange request, and I’ll admit that on the front end.  But, as you will see from the email chain below … [I'm trying to get] a (very brief) article published in local magazine/paper in order for me to meet a prerequisite for entry into an adventure race called the Death Race.  The race is held in Pittsfield, Vermont – it is crazy.

Anyway, the racers have been told that if we don’t get an article published about our entry into the race, we will face a “penalty” at the race in June – either shaving all of my body hair off or taking hay bales from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain…neither of which sound too appealing to me.

I’m not sure if you can help me out or if you have any suggestions on where I should turn, but please let me know if you have any thoughts.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Hope this helps!

Luckily, the forecast for the celebrity event on Saturday is predicted to be a scorching 52 degrees.