People, Places & Events

Spirit of Christmas food drive started
Special to The Monitor
TYLER–The 26th annual Spirit of Christmas Food Drive, sponsored by Brookshire Grocery Co. and the St. James Episcopal Church, began Saturday, Nov. 17.
The food drive provides food for needy families in the Mabank area at Christmas.
“We have always had tremendous community response to the food drive, said Sam Anderson, BGC’s director of public relations. “This has grown into one of the largest privately sponsored charitable efforts in the region.”
Area residents may make donations by placing non-perishable food items in designated bins located in participating Brookshire’s or Super 1 Foods stores.
People are asked not to donate homemade goods or items in glass jars.
Bulk items, such as flour, sugar and corn meal, should be donated in smaller sizes to allow for more variety in the boxes given to the recipients.
In addition to the public food donations, each family will receive at least one roasting hen from Brookshire Grocery Co.
Members of the participating service organization will sort, package and distribute the food to the families before Christmas.
All food collected in the area will be distributed in the Mabank area.
Families assisted by the Spirit of Christmas Food Drive are selected by local relief organizations or government agencies according to need.
The Spirit of Christmas Food Drive began in 1982, when 92 families in Tyler received assistance.
 

Eustace FFA members compete in stock shows
Special to The Monitor
EUSTACE–The Eustace FFA has been very busy so far this school year.
Competing at the East Texas State Fair Breeding Beef Heifer Show were Brandi Baldwin placing third, Chad Tindel fourth, Cord Bailey and Brady Tindel placed fifth.
Results of the Prospect Steer Show: Brady Tindel place first and third, Chad Tindel placed first and third, and Arin Rhodes placed fourth.
Results of the Market Goat Show: Ty Browning placed first and fourth. Mallory Mobley placed first, second and fourth.
Also placing was Kade Graham second, Brady Tindel third and sixth place, Chad Tindel sixth place. Mallory Mobly also took reserve Grand Champion Percentage Senior Doe along with two other second places in the breeding goat show.
Dallas State Fair Poultry Show, Ty Browning received two first place ribbons and two second place ribbons in his division. Brady Tindel received two first place and two second place ribbons in his breed as well.
Chad Tindel received first and second with his Bantam poultry. Brodie Baker also participated.
Dallas State Fair Market Steer Show, Brady Tindel received fourth place with his prospect Maine Anjou steer. Chad Tindel received 14th place out of 32 steers in the progressive steer division.
Edgewood Jackpot, Billy Crocker placed fourth with his Brangus heifer. At the Alba Golden Sweet Potato Festival Billy Crocker placed first with Michael James placing fourth with his market goat.
Van FFA Jackpot, Billy Crocker placed second with his Brangus heifer. Mallory Mobly placed first and second with her Market Goat. Ty Browing received two second place ribbons with his Market Goats. Michael James also participated in the Market Goat show.
Leaders of the Future – Made in Eustace FFA
The 80th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana has come to a close as Eustace FFA returns home. The students represented Eustace ISD extremely well.
They participated in a community service effort at Maple Lawn Farms, went to many leadership workshops and attended the Nation’s largest student led organization’s opening session with inspirational keynote speakers.
The officers that attended were Colton and Canon Thomsen, Brandi Baldwin, Kristina Mast, Heather Bailey, Jaqlynn Bless, Jeff Melton, Arin Rhodes and Tanner Thomson.
In addition to the National Convention Nov. 6, Eustace FFA competed at TVCC in the Sandyland District’s Leadership Development Events.
The Sandyland district is composed of 16 different schools that are extremely competitive in all areas.
Ag Teachers Zach Tappan and Teresa Tindel led 23 competitors.
All competitors devoted countless hours of hard work towards their respective events and had a great time practicing and competing.
The Radio team, consisting of Matt Hickle, Jennifer Whitlock, and Chelsea Truitt, placed second.
In their competition, they are given minimum of six and maximum of eight minutes in which they discussed wildlife management and how it can be used to supplement income for the off season of livestock production.
The Public Relations team of Heather Bailey, Canon Thomsen, Alex Wadsworth, and Colton Thomsen also placed second in their event. Public relations centers on promoting the FFA to students and prospective members.
The team is allotted five to eight minutes to present their case to an audience of eighth graders and explain the multitude of options; whether it be recreational, financial, community involvement, or career developing, which are all available through the FFA.
Both teams advanced to Hillsboro where they competed against the entire Area 8, Nov. 17.
Additional participants and events included: fourth place – Ag Issues, Christen Roderick, Tabitha Tigrett, and April Fabri.
Fifth place – Farm Skills, Caleb Bailey, Holden Lane, J.T. Bane,
Sixth place – Greenhand Chapter Conducting, Mallory Mobly, Ty Browning, Ethan Grimes, Halley Lewis, Zach Stokes, Billy Crocker, Brody Baker .
Seventh place Jr. Creed – Austin Pogue.
Seventh place – Sr. Creed, Brandi Baldwin.
Eighth place – Job Interview, Adrienne Rhodes.
 

Eustace ISD receives Gold Performance award
Special to The Monitor
EUSTACE–Eustace ISD, High School, Middle School, and Intermediate School have each received Gold Performance Acknowledgements from the Texas Education Agency.
These coveted acknowledgements recognize districts and campuses for high academic performance on various indicators, such as commended performance on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, college admissions tests, and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate (AP/IB) examinations.
There are 12 categories in which a GPA can be earned at the district level and 14 at the campus level.
The high school and the district are especially proud of the acknowledgements earned in both English language arts and math for the Higher Education Readiness Component.
This indicator shows the percent of grade 11 students who are considered ready to begin college-level work, based on their performance on the TAKS exit-level examination.
For acknowledgment on this indicator the campus or district must have 50 percent or more of its examinees scoring at or above the established standard.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board set the standard of college readiness on the exit-level TAKS at a scale score of 2200 in each subject and also a score of three or higher on the ELA essay.
The district also received acknowledgement for high commended performance in writing. TAKS Commended Performance is the highest performance level set by the State Board of Education on the TAKS.
Students who achieve Commended Performance performed at a level considerably above the state passing standard and have shown a thorough understanding of the knowledge and skills at the grade level tested.
The middle school received two acknowledge-ments. These are for commended performance in reading and also for having an attendance rate of over 96 percent.
The intermediate school received an acknowledgement for every indicator for which it was eligible.
These included an attendance rate of more than 97 percent, commended performance in reading, commended performance in math, and commended performance in science.
In addition, the intermediate campus earned an acknowledgement for comparable improvement in math.
To earn this acknowledgement, the campus was compared to a group of 40 similar districts across the state and evaluated on student academic performance from one year to the next.
The campus had to rank in the top 25 percent to earn this honor.
Congratulations to the students, parents, teachers and administrators for all their hard work in achieving these Gold Performance Acknowledgements.