Free Airplane Rides at the Young Eagles Rally
The Sulphur Springs Aviation Association and the Civil Air Patrol are hosting a Young Eagles Rally and giving students FREE airplane rides on Saturday, April 16th from 9:30 until noon at the Sulphur Springs Municipal Airport. Students must be age 8 through 17 and must have a parent or guardian present to sign permission forms. Students 18 and older must call for an appointment.Participants will receive a signed Young Eagle Pilot Logbook and will also receive a certificate of completion along with a free online aviation ground school course.Call 903-850-8113 for more information.
Tira News By Jan Vaughn
Floyd and Martha Payton enjoyed a visit with their daughter, Regina. She arrived on Wednesday evening before Easter. Martha says, “We caught up on some small problems with an i-Pad, made a trip to the library and had lunch in Sulphur Springs. Floyd hasn’t been feeling well lately, so we stayed close to home. Brad Payton from Keller came on Wednesday and visited with us until Saturday afternoon, also our grandson, Eric arrived from San Diego on Friday and stayed until Monday afternoon. He will be returning on Thursday afternoon for an overnight stay and catfish dinner. The house was rather quiet by Monday night, just the two of us again.” She adds, “Enjoy this beautiful weather and spring. The bluebonnets are blooming on the roadways and are very pretty.”
The North Hopkins Cemetery Association will be having a business meeting on Monday, April 11th, at 7:00 p.m. in the cemetery chapel. Shirley Glossup would like to encourage all interested parties to attend.
The “My Hero’s” bowling party at the Weirs’, was a success, with lots of fun and food. Yvonne Weir informed me that about 30 people were there.
Danna Lewis, golf coach at North Hopkins School, reported that the boys’ golf team placed second and will advance to regional competition. Team members are Evan Lewis, Mason Virgel, Ryan Reed, Aaron Stanley and Samuel Stanley. Evan was 5th overall individual.
Jackson Dailey and his girlfriend Courtney traveled to Arlington on Monday to cheer the Texas Rangers on to an Opening Day win!
Our neighboring community, Birthright, has a new Dollar General store, located on Highway 19 North, just north of FM 71. They will be having their Grand Opening this Saturday, April 9th. Store employees commented, “Y’all come check us out.” The store hours are 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., seven days a week.
Chip and I met Garry and Gena Jordan in Sulphur Springs on Friday evening for a delicious meal and a wonderful time of visiting.
On Saturday, Chip Vaughn met the Sulphur Springs Middle School Destination Imagination teams at Anna High School for their state competition. Chip assists Clay Hansford in coaching the technical team. They were excited to win second place and have the opportunity to move on to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee in May.
Tiffany Vaughn met her friend, Stephanie Weaver of McKinney, on Friday evening, and then they spent the weekend in San Marcos, shopping and visiting with Stephanie’s mom, Debbie Simonton, for her birthday.
I always need and appreciate input from my friends to help keep me informed of news in our community. If you have any news pertaining to Tira residents, past or present, please contact me, Jan Vaughn, at 903-945-2190 or 903-438-6688 or [email protected].
SSHS FCCLA Teams Compete At State
The Sulphur Springs High School Family Career and Community Leaders of America Program, or FCCLA, sent two teams to state competition over the weekend; one for Culinary Arts and another for Job Interview Skills. FCCLA Sponsor Debbie Stribling said that competition was stiff with 30 teams competing in Culinary Arts and 29 teams in Job Interview.
The Culinary Arts team consisted of Autumn Hammans, Diego Perea, America Luna, Tyler Maloney, Ashley Franklin, and Chandler Eichenour and Mallory White was the lone competitor in Job Interview Skills. White said that the judges gave her recommendations to help improve her portfolio for future competitions.
Stribling, who is heading into her 26th year of teaching Family Consumer Sciences at the high school, said “we come back from state meeting on fire and ready to start next year bigger and better than this year.”
Memorial Hospital and Clinic Served by 42-Volunteers
by Lakan Johnson
We have 42 volunteers who worked at total of 11,361 hours in the last fiscal year. Our volunteers work in such areas as the Gift Shop, OB, Day Surgery, Wound Care and also at Memorial Clinic, the Information Desk and the Outpatient Desk filling important roles supporting our staff members and assisting our customers. The amount for Texas (average) that a volunteer’s time is worth is $24.66 per hour so the total amount in hours that our volunteers have donated to the Hospital District is $280,162.26.
In addition to their time, during the last fiscal year, our Volunteer Auxiliary donated at total of $46,356.76 in the form of scholarships, department requests, employee gifts and donations to the Lights of Life and Foundation. A few examples of much needed items that were purchased by our Volunteer Auxiliary include new patient tray lines/ domes/lids for Dietary, rocking chairs for the Pedi floor, additional AED devices to ensure all clinics have an AED, carpet for the EMS building, PT equipment, privacy screens for Admissions, and two telemetry units for Cardiac Rehab.
Even though we have calculated their assistance into dollars, please make it a point this week to say “Thank You” to our Volunteers for their invaluable service.
PJC a National Leader in Student Success
PJC Regent Ginna Bowman speaking at a scholarship banquet in 2015.
Paris Junior College Regent Ginna Bowman recently traveled to the tenth annual Board of Trustees Institute to demonstrate to other colleges from around the nation how PJC is leading the way to further student success.
She, along with PJC President Dr. Pam Anglin, presented on a panel sharing what PJC is doing in the American Association of Community College’s Guided Pathways Project. The Greater Texas Foundation pays for trustees from colleges to attend.
“I was very pleased to know that we’re ranked among the leaders in the Pathways Program, which is sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,” said Bowman. “Everyone was very complimentary that PJC is a leader in getting this Pathways project started. Educating our students and seeing that they succeed is very important.”
This year the Trustees Institute focused on the role of college boards in enabling pathways to student success. Bowman and Anglin served on the panel, “How Boards are Creating a Climate for Change.” Also on the panel were Brenda Hellyer, Chancellor, and Dan Mims, Board Chair, of San Jacinto College, which has more than 23,000 students and is located in Pasadena, near Houston.
When selected to participate in the Pathways Project, PJC learned it was one of only 30 colleges nationwide and four in Texas – the other two are El Paso Community College and Alamo Colleges in San Antonio. PJC is the only college further north than El Paso or Houston to be selected, and the only rural college from Texas.
The Pathways project grew from research showing that too many choices produce indecision, procrastination, decision paralysis, and bad choices on the part of students. At its heart, Pathways is meant to provide a simplified set of options, with clear information on costs and benefits to help students make better decisions.
Colleges also help with reminders, assistance and feedback to keep students on track, and more clearly show students how what they learn will lead to success in future employment or further education that are important to the region.
“Dr. Anglin is very respected on her vision for this college and for our early participation in Achieving the Dream,” said Bowman. “I came back really pleased on how PJC is admired nationally for what we do and our innovations on behalf of students. We’ve got a long way to go, but we certainly are leaders in Texas and nationally in getting this project going. People are asking us questions on how to accomplish this goal. It was very encouraging.’
Bowman said she and fellow PJC Regent Louise Taylor also learned a lot from the many national experts at the conference on making this program – and PJC students – more successful.
Lady Cats JV Undefeated in District Play
A weekend tournament in Hallsville ended with Lady Cats Junior Varsity defeating Texas High 1-0 and secured the tournament championship and first place in the junior varsity district race. The JV Lady Cats remain undefeated in District Play.
The JV Lady Cats scored the only run in the championship game when Macee Hollins singled to centerfield late in the game against the Texas High pitcher some call the toughest pitcher in the district. Hollins was able to score shortly after off of a sacrifice bunt from Kate Potts. With stellar defense, the run proved to be the only run the Lady Cats would need to remain on top.
Lady Cats Edge by Texas High
The Lady Cats’ softball team picked up a huge district softball win on the road Friday night as they edge by Texas High, 4-3 in eight innings.
The Lady Cats opened the game with two runs in the top of the first inning. The Lady Tigers tied the game in the third. Texas High then took their first lead of the game with a run in the bottom of the fourth. It stayed that way until the Lady Cats tied the game in the top of the seventh. The Lady Cats went ahead, 4-3 in the top of the eighth and then retired the Lady Tigers in the bottom of the eighth to get the win.
Landri Bell opened in the circle for the Lady Cats. Sarah Womack pitched in relief and got the win. The Lady Cats outhit Texas High 13 to 8. The Lady Tigers made the only error. Womack and Brinklee Driver had three hits each for the Lady Cats. Kelsey Wallace had an RBI for the Lady Cats.
The Lady Cats are now 7-3 in district play and they are 23-5 for the season. They will play host to Mt. Pleasant at Lady Cat Park next Tuesday.
Texas High Remains Unbeaten at Wildcats Expense
The Texas High Tigers remained unbeaten in district play as they defeated the Wildcats, 8-0 at Eagle Stadium Friday night. It was the fifth straight district loss for the Wildcats who are now 2-6 in district play. They are 5-11-1 for the season.
The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. They added three more runs in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth. The Wildcats managed only two singles against the Tigers J.T. Morgan, who struck out 13. Heston Golightly and Tyler Follis had singles for the Wildcats. Golightly started on the mound for the Wildcats and he took the loss. Mason Buck and Ryan Humphries also pitched.
The Wildcats will travel to Mt. Pleasant next Tuesday.
Gotcher Sentenced to Five Years Without Parole
Kerry La Terry Gotcher, 28, was sentenced Friday April 08, 2016, in Eighth Judicial District Court to five years in the Texas Department of Corrections for two third degree felony charges.
He was indicted in March of this year for possession of a controlled substance under 4-grams. In November of last year, Gotcher was indicted for delivery of marijuana—five pounds—in a drug free zone.
In the plea agreement, he will serve the entire five years without opportunity for parole.
