It got hot in the park Saturday afternoon at the end of the Cheeseburger Festival. Actually it was not so bad for most of the day, windy and even a little chilly when we set up the Noon Lions booth Saturday morning. The Lions sold fries and the Farwell cheerleaders sold their homemade ice cream again. I had two people tell me they liked to dip their fries in ice cream. First time I had heard that.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by for the Lions Club fries. We sold all 400 pounds of fries by 1:30 p.m. This is a fundraiser for the club to use to support local activities and scholarships.
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Congratulations to Xcel Energy for winning the first place Cheeseburger trophy. Former Friona grads Alex Gurley and Heath Gammon are Xcel employees and were on the winning team. It was another good day for all of the vendors I think. There were only six cook teams this year. That is not enough teams to feed everyone by 2:00 p.m. Chamber board president Gayla Quillin said the board would be discussing ways to attract more teams and improve the cook-off. If you have suggestions or comments about the Cheeseburger Festival please contact the Chamber and make them known.
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Our Coffee Memorial Blood Center council met Tuesday at Headquarters Restaurant. Attending were me, John Gurley, Teena Hughs, Clint Mears, and Gloria Brooks, our blood drive coordinator from Amarillo. The next Friona blood drive will be August 11 from noon to 7 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church. I think we decided the Noon Lions will cook fries and sausage on a stick for donors and each donor will receive a Boots and Badges t-shirt. More details on the blood drive later.
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FHS graduate and valedictorian Katie Osborn Allum is now a Certified Nuclear Medicine Technologist. She studied at West Texas A&M and nuclear medicine at Amarillo College. Congratulations and all the best Katie. She is the daughter of Robert and Jo Osborn.
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A special thanks to Donna Mears. She made a freezer of homemade banana nut ice cream for us Noon Lions working in the park Saturday. Thank you, thank you Donna and we wish you all the best in your soon to be knee replacement.
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Former Texas Tech Red Raider and Denver Bronco Manny Ramirez made quite a stir at the Cheeseburger Festival. Very friendly signing autographs and taking photos. They say Manny lives in Earth.
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The Friona volunteer firemen are selling $10 tickets for a drawing to win a Polaris Ranger S70 with dual overhead cam 4x4 with a trailer to haul it on. The drawing will be on Maize Days September 17 in the city park. Get your ticket from any fireman. They will be selling tickets that day too in the park too. Support our firemen. They are also looking for additional volunteer firemen. If you can serve contact Jim or John Taylor at 4-Way Pump or any fireman.
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The Friona Texas Federal Credit Union is now in their new digs on Austin St. next door to AgTexas. I stopped in Tuesday morning and it is a very nice new facility. Congratulations to the credit union and its members. The old credit union building on 6th St. will eventually become a new home for the Friona police department. Good to see Friona on the grow.
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We have a new elementary school principal. His name is Travis Victory and I believe he is coming to us from Kress. We will get more information and a photo later when he gets settled here.
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I met some of our new coaches at the football camp this Tuesday. Good to see Coach Tommy Deleon back in Friona. He comes back to the Friona coaching staff from Southland, a 6-man district near Slaton. Coach Adam Nix is here. He is the new Squaw head basketball coach helping with football too. Coach Nix and his wife have three children including a freshman daughter. New junior high football coach is a young man named Sid Sheffy. He lives in Dimmitt and went to school at Nazareth where he was on one of those state champion football teams I’m told. We will be featuring more about new school personnel later on.
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Speaking of school personnel, we are sad to lose our excellent FFA ag teacher Tracy Blount. The Blounts have accepted positions at Post ISD. Tracy has done an outstanding job rebuilding the ag program and was very cooperative to work with here at the newspaper. He was selected as the Chamber of Commerce Teacher of the Year a couple of years ago. All the best Tracy and Linda.
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Reta and Mike Martin’s grandkids will be in town next week. The kids have a Cousin Camp Lemonade stand at A-1 Service Center. It will be open Monday July 25 and Tuesday and Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. with lemonade and cookies. They have done this project for the past several years so stop by and make some kids happy.
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The Noon Lions fed the Kidz Camp burgers and fries Wednesday evening. We are off and running toward another school year and Maize Days. Hope you will come along. Until then!
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