Becca Gutierrez Schafer is a mother, activist, public speaker, luxury event planner, and was an award winning chef.
Becca and her daughter have called Austin home since 2021, but she lived in the Marble Falls community for 16 years, where she owned an boutique catering company and had the pleasure of entertaining celebrities, and was featured on Food Network as a celebrity judge herself.
Volunteerism has been part of the foundation of Becca's life.
Becca founded The Marble Falls Mom Squad after the catastrophic flood in the Highland Lakes in October 2018, which effected 1700 homes. The group grew to include over 300 “mom volunteers” who achieved washing over 700 loads of laundry for flood survivors across the Highland Lakes and Austin. The good news of the group's work caught the attention of Austin news stations, and Becca became an accidental spokesperson for the community, being interviewed by several Austin news stations, various newspapers, and highlighted on national news and the Marvelous Falls podcast for this work.
The group later worked to stock pantries for flood survivors when they were able to return home after their houses are rebuilt or refurbished.
In 2019 Becca was named the Volunteer of the Year in the Highland Lakes by the Legacy Fund for her work with the Marble Falls Mom Squad, and public speaking and advocacy for The Phoenix Center and Candlelight Ranch, two organizations that helped her and her daughter after they experienced abuse and trauma. She has been a keynote speaker for those organizations and other groups. Her audience has included law makers, law enforcers, and the First Lady of Texas. She was also a frequent volunteer in other community endeavors, and helped organize a large Black Lives Matters Peaceful Protest in Marble Falls in 2020. The organizers were undeterred by death threats they received from local citizens, and the day was a huge success of bridge building.
Becca’s greatest joy is her daughter, Izzy, who is 16 and will be a junior at Vandegrift High School. Izzy has been her constant companion in volunteerism, and now Becca loves paying it forward to Izzy through her volunteerism as a "Band Mom".
Becca believes that each moment is an opportunity to gain wisdom, and that gratitude can be the key to survival.
Rotary International has helped shape Becca's life. She grew up in the small South Texas town of Pleasanton, where she was "adopted" by her local Rotary Club. After Becca attending weekly meetings for a year, the Rotarians urged her to apply to be a Rotary Youth Ambassador, and she given the opportunity to live in Italy for a year after high school. Becca served in the Marble Falls Noon Rotary Club for a few years, and considers the Four Way Test words to live by.
