After this week, I am going on vacation. Cinco de Mayo Day was Tuesday and always occurs during the official Teacher Appreciation Week.
This Thursday, I am honored to present a breakfast celebration for the teachers to enjoy, and to say thank you for their dedication and hard work toward shaping the minds of tomorrow’s citizens and leaders.
Also on Thursday of this week is the Fine Arts Department’ 4th annual gala fundraiser at the Trinity High School campus. The fundraiser’s theme this year is a Western motif. If you didn’t purchase tickets before now, I will report the events’ success next week.
•TISD Senior Schedule
May 4, Senior Trip to Big Rivers
May 18, Blood Drive No. 3
May 20, Scholarship Award Night
May 27, Robing Ceremony
May 28, Senior Walk starting at LES with graduation practice to follow.
TISD Graduation Day is Friday, May 29, at 3 p.m. in Huntsville at the Sam Houston coliseum.
•The Trinity Community Fair Association’s Annual Crawfish Boil is being held Friday, May 8, at the Trinity Community Center. The gates open at 5:30 p.m. Dinner is served at 6 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. ID checked at the gate, coolers checked at the gate, no carry outs, no outside trays, and crawfish will be served from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Tickets are $65 at the gate.
The music this year is the Desert Roads Band, and the sponsor for this year’s event is Stevenson Beer Distributing Co. and E-Z Crawfish.
•This week there was wonderful news about the re-opening of the Trinity Boys and Girls Club. I do not know when the official date is, but the children and parents are happy to receive this news. There were even pictures of the club and volunteers working diligently in the old junior high school brick building on San Jacinto Street to get it ready to re-open this facility soon.
According to the information published about the Trinity Boys and Girls Club is that it will not be a stand-alone club. but under the auspices of Walker County Boys and Girls Club of Huntsville. Wonderful news.
At this point, I will reminisce about the start of the first Boys and Girls Club of Trinity. In 1999, Ann Pemberton, Superintendent of TISD, challenged Joe Farris, a lawyer from Beaumont, and me to find an after-school program for the children of Trinity.
As fate would have it, I had just read a copy of the Houston Chronicle Parade Magazine (Houston Post now) that had a picture of Denzel Washington on the front page testifying how the Boys and Girls Club of America had mentored his life growing up with his membership in the club in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Today Denzel Washington is still a spokesman for the Boys and Girls club of America.
Attorney Joe Faris immediately called the nearest regional office to see what we could do to get a club started in Trinity. What a shock. We could have a franchise for only $50,000 or join under another club in the area and raise money to pay for their services.
So we got 20 residents to volunteer to be on the starting board, visited the Nacogdoches Boys and Girls Club, and agreed to pay for their services and membership.
Long story short, after several months, the board attended Boys and Girls Club Seminars in Austin and Galveston, and we learned how to manage and run the club based on our community’s needs, and we voted to raise the money to be a standalone club.
In March one of the principal players in this endeavor who made sure the club was afloat and managed properly passed away at 90 years old in Marble Falls. His name was L.C. Courtney.
He and his wife Cathy were major assets to the Trinity Community for 30 years. They were a generous couple and served the Lord with gladness. He loved the University of Texas Longhorns, and he loved the country style living in Trinity. He had a blessed life, and I am saddened by his passing.
I served many years with him on various committees and school board functions, as well as the Boys and Girls Club of Trinity, the Trinity Lions Club, and the Chamber of Commerce events. I am comforted by knowing his godliness and his honesty shaped many lives that he touched daily everywhere he went. He will be missed, but not forgotten, however, because his legacy lives on with his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
•In June, I have seen reports of the Juneteenth Celebration, Vacation Bible Schools, and of course summer school. I will tell you about the end of the year celebration for the Trinity Lions Club who will be to inducting new officers on June 3 at the Agavales Restaurant.
This year I received my Chevron Pin for 20 years of service to the Trinity Lions Club, and the Trinity Lions Club will celebration more than 100 years of service to the International Lions Club Organization. The origination was founded in 1917, and the Trinity Lions Club was founded in 1924.
It is hard for me to believe that men in Trinity would elect to help the blind by joining a non-profit organization that was started in Chicago in 1917 and who was challenged by Helen Keller to be her champions of sight in their first meeting at this time.
My Dad was only 10 years old then and today he would be 119 years old. Wow. Where did my 83 years go?
See you soon around town.
