It might have happened weeks from the NFL draft, but a Houston Chabad-Lubavitch center still transformed a hotel ballroom into a football field and tailgate party to celebrate its fifth anniversary.

Former Dallas Cowboys lineman Alan Veingrad addressed the Chabad of Uptown party at the Marriott Houston Westchase, during which directors Rabbi Chaim and Chanie Lazaroff presented leadership awards to several community members.

Echoing those touched by the Chabad House, Brian Hall noted in a video screened at the gala that the center happens to be in the right place at the right time: “It was a close place for me to go and get the Jewish experience I was lacking.”