Meet District 13 Park Board member Sally Pretorius

from a well-used two-pocket green folder, Sally Pretorius pulls out an annotated map of District 13. On it, she’s marked where each park and recreation center is located. Her plan is to visit each one, as one of the newest members of the Park and Recreation Board.

That particular day, she had spent the morning at a senior center where 30 women were participating in a workout class before having lunch together.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that the City does a ton of community building,” she says. “The best way to keep them going is to have people going to them.”

She’s San Antonio-born and raised, attended St. Mary University before heading to Southern Methodist University for law school.

“I have a special needs brother, and my mom had to fight for more child support for my dad to send my brother to a special school,” she says. “I remember she had a court on a day when we were off from school. So she’d have to take off from work, and then I just remember sitting there in the hallway, and she went and did it all by herself. She couldn’t afford an attorney, and I remember her coming out feeling really defeated. And after that I was like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna help people like her.’”

After getting her J.D. with a focus on family law, she had a brief stint in Austin where she met her husband, who was her neighbor in an apartment complex. When they came back to Dallas in 2014, Pretorius landed at KoonsFuller, where she became a shareholder.

A dozen or more publications, board certification, Dallas County Advocacy Center’s Chair of the Board, The Family Place’s Partners Card co-chair, President of the Texas Young Lawyers Association and State Bar of Texas Board of Directors director, adjunct professor at SMU, a 60-file caseload and a six-year-old daughter.

“I am too busy, is something a lot of people always say,” Pretorius says. “I think it’s finding efficiencies where you can.”

She prefers pen and paper to keep track of her efficiencies. Hence, a well-used two-pocket green folder with District 13’s park map.

Why’d you join the park board?

When we lived in Austin, we lived by the lake. And then we came here, I was like, ‘Hey, we got to be somewhere near trail.’ So we moved down by the Katy Trail, and then when we decided we had to be grown-ups and buy a real house and go somewhere we could afford. Northaven Trail had just gotten going, and it wasn’t even finished yet over there by us. So, I reached out to them. I was like, “Hey, if you guys need like volunteers, like trail captains on the side, I’m happy to help. And they’re like, “Actually, we need board members.” And then I phased off of that when I started the luncheon for Junior League. I kind of just took a break. And then when Council member Willis called me up and said, ‘We have a park board spot, would you be interested? I was like, ‘Yes.’ I’ve been doing it five months. It is eye-opening.

Why would you say the Friends of the different parks are important?

What they do is they create a unified voice for the community, and it gives an easy way to advocate for what they want, so they can partner with different people that maybe aren’t available to the City or if a local business would rather partner with a friends group. Joining a friends group feels so much better than saying  ‘I’m going to call up my board chair.’ It’s just an easy way to keep your hands in the community, I think.

How do you think Dallas residents can better utilize these types of resources?

Go, I think just go. Go see your local pools. I would be interested to see how many people know about if there was a camp going on at Marcus Recreation Center and to help with childcare during the day. Go use the after-school programs, the pools, the gymnastics programs. I know when I grew up, my mom made me do Folklorico dancing, because it’s big in our family, and the best place that I found it was Bachman Lake; they had it at the community center. I think a lot of people don’t realize that the City does a ton of community building. The best way to keep them going is to have people going to them.

How do you think the city could do a better job of letting people know?

That’s a good question. And I’m going to figure it out. I’m five months in. I’m going to work with them on it. Part of it’s my job, right? I need to go out there and figure out how to get some of the information out and work with my council members and other district reps to figure out what that is.

Do you think your childhood influenced being on the park board, because now you’re spending your summer visiting recs?

I mean, probably. And you know, my mom never dropped us off there like all day, but we definitely would do the half-day camps. I remember my brother going and playing basketball there, and I remember I was a lifeguard at our community pool for my sophomore year. Maybe you’re right. Now I’m going to go home and think about that, and maybe this is full circle?

Is your life the way you would have imagined it?

What’s funny is I don’t have any recollection of what I intended my life to be. If that’s weird. There was the top 10 things I wanted to accomplish. Be an attorney, be board certified, be president of Texas Young Lawyers. I created it when I first graduated law school. Run a marathon. There are two that haven’t been checked, but other than that, I did not really have a vision.

Do you see yourself leaving law to go into city politics?

This will probably be the extent of it. I’m really happy here. I don’t think that’ll be on my bingo card at all.

Have you filled your bingo card?

It’s just kind of fun to see what comes up right now. I didn’t see the parks on there. ‘Hey, let me think about it, see if it aligns with what I’m passionate about,’ and when I started thinking, I was like, ‘Man, it really kind of does.’ I was like, ‘I loved Northaven Trail, I love parks.’ These parks make such a big difference. It’s a small thing that I think people don’t recognize, but it’s something that we’ve recognized as a value for so long, right? Obviously, land was allocated to parks, and like it’s been in the budget, like New York has Central Park, Romans had parks, everybody had parks. Just a core value, I think, for most people. We just kind of maybe push it to the side sometimes.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

CORRECTION: This version has been amended from its print version to correct grammar and punctuation errors.