A & M-Commerce Associate Professor Received Grant for Rural Special Education Study
COMMERCE, TX— Dr. Brittany Hott, Associate Professor of Special Education, received a grant in the amount of $3,559. The award from the American Educational Research Association’s Education Research Service Projects (ERSP) Initiative will fund the study of rural special education programs. It will also identify the needs in their Individual Education Plan (IEP) procedures.
The ERSP initiative was launched in 2013 as a way of connecting education research to educational needs that exist in local communities. Dr. Hott’s team developed the project, “Supporting Quality Individual Education Program Development and Implementation in Rural East Texas.”
Dr. Hott noted that the project will support the development of data-based professional development plans for special education teachers and administrators.
“We are excited to continue our partnership with Lamar County Shared Services Agreement Schools (LCSSA), and the opportunities for A&M-Commerce STRIDE Lab student researchers to begin working in districts that they will serve in the future,” said Dr. Hott. The Strategic Implementation and Dissemination of Evidence-based Practices (STRIDE) Lab develops interventions for students with exceptionalities (sic).
SSISD Sports Summer Camps Set
Sulphur Springs ISD Athletic Director Greg Owens released the schedule for athletic sports camps coming up this summer on Friday. Camps begin the first full week of June with softball and baseball camps.
Lady Cats Softball Coach David Carrillo’s Softball Camp is June 4-6 and the Wildcats Baseball Coach Jerrod Hammack’s Baseball Hitting Camp is June 5-7.
The following week Lady Cats Basketball Coach Jeff Chapman will have his Girls’ Basketball Camp June 11-13.
Wildcats Soccer Coach Nicky Wiggins and Lady Cats Soccer Joel Bailey will have their evening Boys and Girls Soccer Camp on June 25-29.
That same week, Lady Cats Volleyball Coach Justin Maness will have his Girls’ Volleyball Camp June 26-28.
After a week off during July the 4th week, Wildcats Basketball Coach Clark Cipoletta will have his Boys’ Basketball Camp July 9-12.
In late July and early August, Wildcats Tennis Coach Tony Martinez will have his Tennis Camp July 30 through August 2.
Wildcats Football Coach Greg Owens will have his Wildcat Football Camp and Freshman Football Camp July 31 through August 2.
For more information or for camp forms, go to the SSISD website at www.ssisd.net or parents may also sign up kids on the first camp day at the camp site.
A & M-Commerce Chorale Performs at Cathedral Shrine
COMMERCE, TX— The A&M-Commerce Chorale will perform an a cappella concert at the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Dallas on April 22. The performance will include a selection of music by composers such as Palestrina, Roger T. Petrich, Hyun Kook, Daniel Elder, Hyo-Won Woo, and Herbert Howells.
The University Chorale is the premier choral ensemble selected by audition from undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Music and the campus at large.
“The Chorale will be performing some of the most beautiful a cappella music written for choir,” said Dr. Randall Hooper, DMA, Associate Professor and Director of Choirs and Vocal Activities. “The literature ranges from ‘Light of Clear Blue Morning’ by Dolly Parton arranged for choir by Palestrina, to Herbert Howells, to spirituals.”
Choirs under Dr. Hooper’s leadership have performed in Carnegie Hall, been invited to the International Anthony Burgess Foundation Symposium in Liverpool, England and toured Germany, Austria, England and France. In 2016, the A&M-Commerce Chorale was invited to perform at the Festival Internacional de Música de Campina Grande in Brazil.
“The Department of Music is working to perform more in the Dallas area to increase our presence,” said Dr. Hooper.
The concert starts at 7:00 p.m. and is free to the public. The cathedral is located at 2215 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas.
Rain Causes Postponement of Wildcat Baseball, Lady Cat Softball; Games Reset
Mother nature wins again. The Wildcats’ baseball game and the Lady Cats’ softball game, both scheduled for Friday at Texas High were postponed by rain.
The schedule now calls for the Wildcats’ baseball team to play Texas High Saturday at 5 p.m. Before that there will be a JV contest at Texas High at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Wildcats freshman team will play a doubleheader,against Texas High, instead of Van, beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday at Wildcat Park. The Wildcats’ varsity is 7-1 in district play. They are one game behind Hallsville but several games ahead of Texas High after Marshall upset the Tigers last Monday.
Meanwhile the Lady Cats’ softball team and Texas High will now play a varsity only game on Monday beginning at 5 p.m. in Texarkana. The Lady Cats are 9-1 in district play and they are in first place. Lady Cats Softball Coach David Carrillo says his team still controls their own destiny adding if the Lady Cats win their last two district games, they will win the district championship.
Significant Storm Advisory for Northwestern Hopkins County
A significant weather advisory for Northwestern Hopkins County, Eastern Hunt County and Southwestern Delta County has been issued until 1:30 p.m. Doppler radar is tracking a strong thunderstorm near Campbell moving Northeast at 55 mph. Dime sized hail is possible in the storm. Cumby, Tira, and Cooper Lake Park South Sulphur are included in the advisory.
Brown Clarifies Statement
Marty and Tamara Brown, owners of Double Insanity Investments, LLC and property at 206 Main Street in Sulphur Springs visited KSST Studios Friday morning to point out that he did not say the information regarding a Sulphur Springs city council member had been told to him by a candidate for the city council but that he had read the information on a Facebook post. Mr. Brown could not readily remember whose Facebook post had provided the information.
His clarification was in response to a city council story posted April 5, 2018, on ksstradio.com.
The Pulpwood Queen Visits Sulphur Springs, Adopts Local BookClub Chapter
KSST’s Enola Gay with Kathy L. Murphy, The Pulpwood Queen
I have finally met the tiara-wearing, book-sharing Pulpwood Queen, and now I see why she is so well-known and so well-loved! She and sidekick assistant Tiajuana came to my book club on April 10, 2018. Kathy L. Patrick Murphy, the Texas-born Pulpwood Queen and creator of the world-wide “Beauty and the Book” Club, visited the Literary Ladies Book Club in Sulphur Springs during it’s April meeting at the home of John and Sharon Feldt. Murphy was so impressed with the ladies that she “adopted” the existing club and made it the newest among 500-plus clubs in the world. She will hold her Pulpwood Queen “Girlfriend Weekend”event in Nacodoches, Texas during January 17-19, 2019 where hundreds of book-readers wearing tiaras and boas will gather for fun workshops as well as serious talk sessions. Kathy L. Murphy is an interesting and charismatic individual with a strong background in national book sales and well-known to New York publishing houses. Industry changes in 1999 caused her personal re-invention as The Pulpwood Queen. As Kathy Patrick, she wrote her first book in 2008 from her beauty shop/bookstore in Jefferson, Texas, which is pulpwood country, and titled it The Pulpwood Queen’s Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life. Read on to find out more about her!
Members of the Literary Ladies Book Club meet April 10 at the home of Sharon Feldt,, pictured in center with black hat.
While attending college—a total of seven universities, including Emporia State University and Texas A&M University—Patrick worked as a hairdresser, later landing work in the publishing industry. She opened Beauty and the Book in 1999 after losing her job as a book sales representative. Oxford American magazine sent author Carol Dawson to the shop to cover the grand opening, dubbed “Perms and Prose.” The resulting article, titled “Hairdresser to the Authors,” put Patrick’s salon and book store on the map. In 2008, she wrote her first nonfiction book, The Pulpwood Queen’s Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life.
In 2011, Random House announced it was planning a 12-episode season for an online book club talk show, featuring interviews with Random House authors. The company spokesman said the show was created “in response to increased demand for digital content from book clubs.”
Kathy Patrick Murphy appeared on Good Morning America’s “Recipe Show” with her chicken shish kabob recipe. She also appeared on radio on the Kacey Kowars Show in January 2008. For one season, she hosted her own talk show, Beauty and the Book, which debuted on HGTV in March 2009, and was listed in HGTV’s Top 10. Texas Monthly magazine featured Patrick in its January 2008 issue, after the release of her book. And the next month, she was interviewed for a feature article in The Debutante’s Ball, a blog about debut authors. She was runner-up in 2010 of MediaBistro’s Dancing with the Stars reader vote after it launched “Should Authors Dance?” for a writer to be cast on the popular reality show.
Patrick was a panelist at the Texas Book Festival in October 2010, and at the 2009 AJC Decatur Book Festival in Georgia. Also in 2009, she was a speaker at the Louisiana Book Festival as well as a speaker at the Author! Author! Book Festival in Shreveport, Louisiana, in June 2009. She has appeared on “Good Morning, America!” three times and was on an Oxygen Network episode of “Oprah!” filmed in Dallas about women breaking barriers. She shared that show with Beyonce and others breaking into their respective industries. She has appeared on television with Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson numerous times. She “picks” best books monthly, based on readership of her club members worldwide, and seven of her picks have been made into movies, including “Eat, Pray, Love” (2010) “The Help”(2011), and “Same Kind of Different As Me” (2017). Find out more at pulpwoodqueen.com.
Front row: Tijuana and Kathy (the Pulpwood Queen) Back row: Enola Gay, Sharon Feldt and Pat Lawrence
Sulphur Springs Country Club Establishes Reciprocal Relationship with ClubCorp
A reciprocal relationship between Sulphur Springs Country Club and ClubCorp Network will offer members of the local club access to more than 400 private clubs and special offerings at more than 1,000 hotels, resorts, and entertainment venues around the world. According to Logan Vaughan, General Manager of the locally owned club, the affiliate partnership relationship “…will offer our Members an amazing opportunity to enjoy hundreds of private clubs and other venues across the map.”
Sulphur Springs Country Club members and invited guests will have an opportunity to learn more about the relationship and benefits during a n upcoming Member-Mixer and event Thursday, May 3rd at 6 p.m. to learn more about the opportunity. A letter has been mailed to all members of the club announcing the member-mixer. In the letter, it is clearly stated that the local club will not be changing ownership and will not be managed by ClubCorp. Members of the local club will be eligible to participate in ClubCorp’s unique My Community and My World Benefits when traveling through the ClubCorp Network.
The relationship accessed through a local club member upgrading benefits to Signature Gold Unlimited level will provide:
- two complimentary rounds of golf at each participating country club each month
- Two complimentary four-course meals at each participating dining club each month
- 30-day advance tee time capability
- Complimentary TaylorMade rental clubs at a ClubCorp owned country club
- Unaccompanied guest passes for private dining clubs
According to Vaughan, the membership benefits allows one to save thousands of dollars on meals and great golf while enjoying a red carpet experience.
The Dallas based ClubCorp, founded in 1957, owns or operates a portfolio of over 200 golf and country clubs, business clubs, sports clubs, and alumni clubs in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and two foreign countries that serve over 430,000 members. Among properties owned are Firestone Country Club, Akron, Ohio; Mission Hills Country Club, Rancho Mirage, California; Capital Club Beijing; Metropolitan Club, Chicago.
The locally owned Sulphur Springs Country Club is a Family Oriented Country Club founded in 1928. Currently the local club features three restaurants, swimming pool, health and fitness center, and 18-hole golf course, and a yearly calendar of social, dining, and recreational events. Banquet facilities are also available for private, corporate, and charity events.
National Healthcare Decision Day Brunch Hosted by CIMA Hospice, At Home Healthcare and Carriage House Manor
