Fast Friends Become Community Champions Together In The Woodlands — Kristen Byrnes and Carrie Greenberg Are Ready To Walk

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series highlighting Interfaith’s Community Champions, who will take to the runway during The Walk, the nonprofit’s annual fashion show and gala in August.

Interfaith’s annual gala dubbed The Walk came onto The Woodlands scene in 2022. Kristen Byrnes’ friend Heather Samford served as a co-chair for the inaugural The Walk gala, so Brynes joined the event’s committee. Now look how far she’s come.

This year, Kristen Byrnes and her power pal Carrie Greenberg will walk the runway themselves as Community Champions.

This dynamic duo was introduced to each other more than 10 years ago when Byrnes moved to The Woodlands.

“When we moved to The Woodlands, I was pregnant with my youngest Chloe, and Kristen and I had a mutual friend Ali, who I had known from college and living in New York City,” Greenberg says. “And Kristen knew her because they lived in Singapore together. 

“Ali had sent me a message and she was like, ‘Can I set you up on a blind date? I only know two people in all of The Woodlands, and it’s the two of you, so you should probably be friends.”

The introduction worked. The Byrnes and Greenberg became fast friends, with Greenberg describing Byrnes as “the yin to my yang.”

Their partnership extended beyond friendship when they co-chaired The Walk for three consecutive years, helping lead the gala from 2022 through 2025.

“I think the power pairs thing might have come from us, because even as we were cheering for those three years, the joke was always ‘The second you stop cheering, we’re gonna make you walk.’ And we were like ‘OK, we do it together,’ ” Greenberg says. “So it was kind of fun this year that they chose pairs. Where in the past it’s been individuals.”

Bringing The Woodlands Together

For Byrnes and Greenberg what sets The Walk apart isn’t just the runway fashion show or the Community Champions. It’s the sense of real community it brings in The Woodlands.

“I think the camaraderie of everybody in our community coming together for such a good cause and having it be a fun event makes it different than all the other galas that we have here,” Greenberg tells PaperCity The Woodlands.

Although they’ve stepped away from chairing the gala, both women remain deeply committed to serving The Woodlands through a variety of organizations.

“We would always, always, be open to working with Interfaith again down the road,” Byrnes says. “We both belong to St. Anthony. Carrie’s kids go to St. Anthony, so we do some stuff over there. Carrie has been very involved with YES TO YOUTH and the American Heart Association.

“And so I think it’s kind of nice to have just like a world of opportunity ahead of us.”

Whether they’re organizing an event behind the scenes or walking the runway in front of hundreds of guests, Byrnes and Greenberg have spent years supporting organizations that make The Woodlands stronger. This year, as Community Champions, they’re simply taking that commitment to the runway. And walking. Together.