spotlight 2012 on the rebound: from recession to recovery

On the rebound:from recessionto recovery

SpotlighT2012

1HSunday, March 25, 2012 the lufkin news

2H Sunday, March 25, 2012 the lufkin news lufkindailynewS.coM

By STEVE KNIGHTThe Lufkin News

Lufkin and Angelina County haven’t seen that breakthrough moment

for the economy and employ-ment figures that would allow everyone to breathe a collective sigh of relief. But in comparison with other parts of Texas and the country, Workforce Solutions Deep East Texas Executive Di-rector Charlene Meadows said, Lufkin and Angelina County seem to be holding their own.

“We’re seeing what we’ve his-torically seen, and a lot of that has to do with the health care industry and office and adminis-trator support,” Meadows said. “There are a lot more of those (jobs) compared to other occupa-tions. That’s where are highest number of job openings are.”

Last week there were about 21 jobs in construction and extraction available listed on the Texas Workforce Commis-sion’s database, Meadows said, and although positions in health care have declined slightly in the last year, there are still plenty of openings available.

According to data from the Texas Workforce Commission, 5,570 people were employed in construction in the 12-county Deep East Texas area in the third

quarter of 2011, up about 276 from the quarter before.

There were 16,270 people employed in education and health services in the 2011 third quarter, down about 29 from the previous quarter.

The biggest decline was in lo-cal government, which includes school districts, according to the data, with 17,422 people employed in the Deep East Texas area, down about 1,319 from the quarter before.

The 12-county Deep East Texas area includes Angelina, Houston, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Newton, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity and Tyler counties.

There were fewer continued unemployment insurance claim-ants in January, about 2,065, than in December, when there were 2,111. There were also 477 fewer claimants in January com-pared to the same month in 2011, according to TWC data.

“It says one of two things: Either the labor force is shrink-ing or people are going to work,” Meadows said. “The labor force does go up and down, and they may have gotten jobs somewhere else. (The unemployment rate is) down from a year ago. We continue to stay at our relation-ship to the state’s (unemploy-ment rate), about two points

apart. We’ve been doing that for years and years. We’re holding our own with the state; we just have a higher rate than the state. That doesn’t take away from the people who aren’t employed or can’t find a job for whatever reason.”

She doesn’t have a crystal ball in her office to predict what the future will be like, but Meadows

said the Lufkin economy, in comparison with other parts of the country, is healthy.

“I know that some places close, but we have not had a large one in a while,” she said. “Nacogdoches is reaping the benefits from the energy fields. It actually benefits both cities.

“I think that given what’s going on in the world, we have

been somewhat fortunate and will continue to be. Our housing market is better. At least, they don’t seem to be losing their value like in some parts of the country.”

For Deep East Texans needing employment assistance, Work-force Center offices are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or by special

appointment.“We do have services available

for anyone,” Meadows said. “If you’re currently employed and looking for something else or unemployed and looking for a job, we welcome you to come in and take advantage of our ser-vices. We don’t have any magic wands, but we do have people who know how to help you decide on a direction to go.”

Workforce Center locations in-clude 210 N. John Redditt Drive in Lufkin for Angelina County residents; 799 W. Gibson in Jasper for Jasper, Newton and Sabine county residents; 2103 South Street in Nacogdoches for Nacogdoches County residents; 1241 W. Church, Suite 300, in Livingston for Polk, San Jacinto and Tyler county residents; 1121 Hurst St., Suite 2, in Center for Shelby and San Augustine county residents; and a satellite center for residents of Houston and Trinity counties at 1505 S. 4th Street in Crockett, which of-fers many of the same services, although some services and programs are limited or offered off-site.

For more information on em-ployment services, call 639-1351 or toll-free (877) 639-1351, or visit www.detwork.org.

steve knight’s email address is [email protected].

Lufkin, Angelina County holding their own as far as the economy goesWorkforce Center: Jobs available in construction, extraction, health care

By mIcaH powEllThe Lufkin News

It’s unlikely that in 1902 J.H. Kurth’s and Frank Kava-naugh’s vision for Lufkin

Foundry and Machine Company would match what it has become today.

From a company built to service the logging and rail industry that once paid bills with no money in the bank to cover them, to a global leader in the oil field and power transmis-sion business that brought in $932 million in revenues in 2011, Lufkin Industries has seen many changes in its 110 years.

According to the book “Lufkin: From Sawmill to Oil,” Kurth, who owned Angelina County Lumber Company, would purchase parts needed for repairs for sawmill and locomo-tive equipment from surround-ing areas such as Tyler, Rusk or Houston. In the event of major breakdowns, the company would be forced to do business with firms as far away as St. Louis or Milwaukee, forcing mills to shut down for weeks at a time. In 1901, Kurth and Kavanaugh, who operated a small foundry and machine shop, began working on an idea to build a foundry that would serve the sawmills of Angelina County and alleviate the drop in production from long repair times.

In February 1902, Kurth and Kavanaugh, along with three others, signed the company

Now 110 years old, Lufkin Industries looking to expand here and beyond

Company had modest beginnings but now stretches over six continents

mIcaH powEll/The lufkin News

Ramundo Tovar welds a part to an artificial lift unit. with 94 percent of oil being produced globally using artificial lifts officials project that revenues will break the $1.2 billion mark in 2012. SEE 110 YEARS, paGE 8H

JoEl aNdREwS/The lufkin News

workforce Solutions deep East Texas Executive director charlene meadows.

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Woodland Heights Medical Center

As the first hospital in Lufkin, Woodland Heights Medical Center has been at the forefront of healthcare in East Texas, continually providing the best in care and technology. A key focus is working closely with physicians, employees and the community to provide the best possible patient care. From opening the first cardiovascular center in 1987 to being nationally recognized for quality and safety, Woodland Heights’ team of phy-sicians and staff are committed to staying on the leading edge of healthcare quality, innovation and technology.

As the first and only Accred-ited Chest Pain Center in the Deep East Texas area, Woodland Heights continues that commit-ment. Building on its long-estab-lished reputation as a leader in cardiac care, Woodland Heights applied for and was granted full accreditation by the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC) — a designation held by only 12 per-cent of hospitals in the United States.

To receive accreditation, Woodland Heights has dem-onstrated its expertise and commitment to quality patient care by meeting or exceeding a wide set of stringent criteria and completing on-site evaluations by an SCPC review team.

“This is momentous not only for our hospital and patients, but the community as well,” said Woodland Heights CEO Casey Robertson. “It’s another step in our commitment to providing superior emergency and cardiac care to the residents of Lufkin and surrounding area. While the focus is on our emergency department, this accreditation is possible because of the work and commitment of a multi-disciplinary team that includes employees, physicians and local EMS.”

The American Heart Associa-tion has recognized the quality care Woodland Heights offers and honored the facility with two awards — the Stroke Gold Quality Achievement Award and the Heart Failure Silver Quality Achievement Award. These awards recognize Woodland Heights’ commitment and suc-cess in implementing higher standards of care.

In September 2011, Woodland

Heights was named one of the nation’s top performers on key quality measures by The Joint Commission, the leading accredi-tor of health care organizations in America. As one of only 405 U.S. hospitals and critical access hospitals earning the distinc-tion of top performer, Woodland Heights was recognized for achieving these thresholds for heart attack, heart failure, pneu-monia and surgical care.

“We understand that what matters most to our patients is safe, effective care. That’s why Woodland Heights has made a commitment to accreditation and to evidence-based care processes. We have earned this recognition through the dedica-tion and skill of our medical staff, nurses and other clinicians

who care for our patients each day,” said Robertson.

As recently as February of this year, Woodland Heights was awarded a three-year term of accreditation in computed tomography (CT) as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR). CT scanning — sometimes called CAT scanning — is a nonin-vasive medical test that helps physicians diagnose and tailor treatments for various medical conditions.

The ACR gold seal of ac-creditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting ACR Practice Guidelines and Techni-cal Standards after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physi-cists who are experts in the field. Image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facil-ity equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assur-ance programs are assessed. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice with a comprehensive report they can use for continu-ous practice improvement.

With this accreditation, Woodland Heights now has all

advanced imaging services that are offered at both the hospital and outpatient diagnostic center accredited by the ACR.

As we have settled into the new year, we look forward to continued success in serving the residents of East Texas and providing them with healthcare options that can compete with larger cities like Houston or Dallas. In addition to the quality care Woodland Heights provides,

Woodland Heights Medical Center recognized for stroke, heart care


Lufkin voters in 2004 approved a one-eighth-cent sales tax to create

the Lufkin 4B Economic Development Corporation. One of the corporation’s first moves was to purchase land and create a business park with the idea of putting the city in position to recruit new industry and create jobs. Located near the con-vergence of state Highway 103 and Loop 287, the 156-acre park welcomed its first tenant, Innovative Metal Components, in December 2010.

Jim Wehmeier, director of economic development for the city of Lufkin and presi-dent/CEO of the Lufkin/An-gelina County Economic De-velopment Partnership, said companies don’t have time to negotiate with multiple land owners and don’t want to get into bidding wars, so

communities have to have access to land to be competi-tive in today’s challenging economic environment.

“This really puts us in a position to be competi-tive,” Wehmeier said. “One of the first priorities was to identify a piece of land and develop it as a business park. We were really lucky. Because of the location of the Abitibi paper mill, the parcel of land we were able to cobble together, which was made up of about five different owners, is about 160 acres. It’s just a prime location. It’s got a rail siding that goes by the back side of the park that was there to serve Abitibi and further east of us. It’s got utilities — water, sewer, telephone, gas — and all the utilities in this area are oversized because they had to serve one of the biggest utility users in Texas. We got the benefit from the infrastructure that had to be overbuilt to serve

the mill. That’s why we designated this and worked so hard to put that deal together.”

A $4 million grant from hurricane recovery money set aside specifically for economic development as-sisted with funding the park project.

“After Hurricane Ike (in 2008), a portion of the recov-ery funds were run through the (Economic Development Administration) instead of (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Devel-opment). They were specifi-cally to assist communities in recovering that were affected by the hurricane,” he said. “We were affected multiple ways. We were a major hub for evacuation, which has a huge financial impact, and we were hit by the hurricane. We also had physical damage, and the hurricane affected a lot of

lufkin 4B ready to woo prospective business park tenantsfirst occupant of 156-acre industrial area hires 33 people in first six months

JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin News

The entrance to the City of Lufkin Business Park on Farm-to-Market 842.

SEE PARK, PAGE 8H

SEE WHMC, PAGE 8H

CONTRIBuTED PHOTO

Hospital administrators are pictured with the certificate naming Woodland Heights one of the nation’s top performers on key quality measures by The Joint Commission. Pictured from left are Kathy Busbee, Chief Nursing Officer, Casey Robertson, Chief Executive Officer and Jannett Fowler, Chief Quality Officer.

CONTRIBuTED PHOTO

Lead technologists display their respective certificates, illustrating that Woodland Heights now has all advanced imaging services that are offered at both the hospital and outpatient diagnostic center accredited by the ACR. Pictured back row from left, Rebecca Petty, Radiology Director; Dana Reynolds, Lead MRI Technician; Kim Lovelace, Lead ultrasound Technician; Charlotte Bush, Lead Nuclear Medicine Technician; front row, Sherry Rush, Lead Mammography Technician; and April Smith, Lead CT Technician.

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Memorial Health System of East Texas

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Five years ago, Memorial Med-ical Center-Lufkin introduced the first da Vinci High Defini-tion Robotic Surgery System in the state of Texas. Since 2007, multiple surgeons have taken advantage of the new technology and have successfully performed hysterectomies, prostatectomies, thoracic and cardiovascular procedures and nephrectomies with robotic assistance.

Most recently, Dr. Gregory DeArmond performed the first robotic gallbladder surgery in Lufkin. Assisted by local urolo-gist, Dr. David Price, who served as the proctor, or someone who has significant experience with the robot, the gallbladder was removed in just 34 minutes. The 20-year-old patient was then able to return home after only a few hours at the hospital.

Dr. Price, who has performed more than 1,000 robotic pro-cedures, is not the only physi-cian with an immense amount of experience on the da Vinci Surgical System. Dr. Kaywin Carter, a local obstetrician and gynecologist, has also performed hundreds of robotic surgeries in the past three years. Today she is a hysterectomy proctor for the da Vinci High Definition Robotic Surgical System, meaning she has performed enough cases and received certification to teach other physicians across the coun-try how to use the robotic system to perform hysterectomies.

Memorial utilizes the only specialized robotics team of surgical nurses and techni-cians in East Texas which has assisted in performing hundreds of cases during the past sev-eral years. Currently, there are eight local physicians trained in robotics: Michael Arnold, M.D., Brent Campbell, M.D., Kaywin Carter, M.D., Joseph Dean, M.D., Gregory DeArmond, M.D., Jerry Johnson, M.D., Carolyn Moyers, M.D., and David Price, M.D.

Using the most advanced tech-nology available, the da Vinci Surgical System enables sur-geons to operate through a few tiny incisions with breakthrough vision, precision, control and improved access to the affected area. By overcoming the limits of both traditional open and laparo-scopic surgery, da Vinci is chang-ing the experience of surgery for people around the world.

Advantages of robotic pro-cedures for the patient include smaller incisions, shorter hos-pital stays and faster recovery time.State-of-the-art Outpatient Therapy Center

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eran’s Administration) Clinic. The center was completely renovated and designed with therapy in mind. In fact, the cen-ter was designed to enhance the overall healing process with the use of soothing colors and soft lighting. The Memorial Outpa-tient Therapy Center features a 5,000-square-foot gym and hand therapy clinic equipped with the latest in therapy equipment and a heated therapeutic pool.Looking toward the future

Memorial is home to the area’s only Joint Commission Certified Primary Stroke Care facility. The Cardiovascular and Stroke Center was completed in 2009 with expansion and community education in mind. Through a partnership with The Methodist Hospital in Houston and the T.L.L. Temple Founda-tion, stroke education continues in Angelina County, where the mortality rate from stroke is almost four times the national average. The $5.8 million grant from the T.L.L. Temple Foun-dation was initially funded for three years, but was extended for another two years due to its overwhelming need in the com-munity. So far, more than 13,000 individuals and local entities have been educated about the dangers of stroke and preven-tion methods.

The stroke education program has been recognized by Get With The Guidelines’ Bronze, Silver and Gold Plus awards for core measure compliance, the Texas Council for Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke’s Outstand-ing Program Award two years in a row, and the International Stroke Conference’s Poster Pre-sentation award.

As a leader in cardiovascular medicine, Memorial’s advance-ments in cardiovascular and cardiothoracic care is allowing patients to stay close to home for most of their heart health needs. Recently, Memorial welcomed Dr. David Ladden, a cardio-thoracic and vascular surgeon trained under the renowned Micheal E. DeBakey, to treat the unhealthy hearts in the com-munity. Prior to Dr. Ladden’s arrival, Memorial completed construction on the area’s first dedicated heart facility that houses the most technologically advanced operating suites and catheterization labs.

Memorial Health System touts its robotics, therapy programs

Contributed photo

dr. Kaywin Carter has performed hundreds of robotic gynecological procedures in the past several years.

Contributed photo

the Cardiovascular & Stroke Center was completed in 2009 with expansion and community education in mind.

Contributed photo

physical therapist elisa harris works with a patient in the new Memorial outpatient therapy Center gym. the Center opened its doors in 2011 offering a wide range of rehabilitation services, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy for adults and children.

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By DENISE HOEPFNERThe Lufkin News

It has been nearly a year since the Young Profession-als Network held its first

meeting, and Chairman Hilary Haglund says since then the response and the results of be-ing part of the group have been excellent.

“In the last 10 months since our first meeting, the group has really taken off and continues to pick up steam,” Haglund said. “Members of the group have expressed that they are not only enjoying the fellowship of other East Texas young pro-fessionals, but also appreciate that the contacts they are mak-ing at the events have helped them build better business practices and more resourceful relationships.”

Haglund had been on the board of a Houston-based YPN group and found nothing simi-lar here when she moved back to Lufkin. After Lufkin/Ange-lina County Chamber of Com-merce President Jerry Huffman mentioned he was interested in starting one, Haglund volun-teered for the task.

“With the support of the Chamber’s Board of Directors and some early sponsors, we were able to get the group off the ground,” she said. “We aver-age 20 to 30 people at the month-ly networking happy hours and now have an advisory commit-tee of 12 YPN members who work to come up with new and exciting ways for young profes-sionals in our area to meet and make a difference.”

Huffman said he had heard from area businesses who had young people moving in that there was nothing for them to do. With a national trend of similar groups for young professionals, he had been wanting to start something for some time.

“We felt like we needed to create opportunities for young professionals that didn’t exist currently, to get together in a social environment and find out about some volunteering oppor-

tunities, as well,” he said.While the group has the

support of the Chamber, it is autonomous, Huffman added.

More than just social time, the group’s vision and goals involve a range of activities and purposes, Haglund said.

“The vision of YPN is to create an organization that will grow into a vast networking group with membership that includes representatives from all of Lufkin and Angelina County’s most well-known and prominent companies and organizations,” she said. “YPN will serve to promote local busi-nesses, support philanthropic activities, and plan social events all to encourage the profes-sional development of our members.

“The goal of YPN is to pre-pare our young professionals to be the next business and com-munity leaders by preserving, protecting and improving upon the foundation which has been laid by the good people of this community. YPN will promote the growth of young profession-als while supporting the devel-opment of a vibrant Lufkin and Angelina County.”

The group is currently work-ing on a voter registration drive and candidate forum, Haglund said, with other projects in the planning stages.

“There are plans to team up with the new SMILES outreach to help package food for needy Angelina County children,” she said. “We are also planning to hold regular ‘Lunch and Learn’ programs where members and the general public are invited to a presentation from various professionals on a wide range of topics.”

Also in the works, Haglund said, is a Health and Recre-ations Sub-Committee, which will strive to keep members informed on a variety of topics, including recreational opportu-nities in the area, exercise and health tips.

“This sub-committee has plans to participate in and volunteer with existing events such as the Neches River Ren-

dezvous, Pineywoods Purga-tory, and local fun runs,” she said.

While some members grew up in the area, others are new to town and looking for a way to become involved and meet people. YPN provides a way to do that, Haglund said.

“YPN is a great program for companies that are inter-ested in involving their young professionals in all aspects of our community and in provid-ing them with opportunities to meet and network with other like-minded individuals,” she said.

YPN meets for happy hour on the second Thursday of every month at various locations. Details can be found on the Chamber’s website at lufkin-texas.org or anyone interested can contact Haglund to join the email list. Membership is open to all.

For more information about YPN, call Haglund at 639-0007 or Jordan Strassner at 634-6644.

Denise hoepfner’s email address is [email protected].

young Professionals network is up and runningGroup relishes networking opportunities but also intends to be active in the community

cONtRIButED PHOtO

Pictured at a Young Professionals networking event are Lindsay christensen, Jennifer Stover, Holly Weems, Robin Bowers.

JOEL ANDREWS/the Lufkin News

People mingling during a Young Professionals networking event at Another Broken Egg.

Vince Lombardi once said . . .

“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work,

a society work, a civilization work.”

We think Vince would be proud of this community. Temple-Inland is certainly proud to be a part of it.


charter, and Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company was born.

By the 1920s, Lufkin Found-ry and Machine Company was the largest industry in Lufkin and began to set its sights on the emerging oil industry in Texas. In 1923, Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company built the first enclosed geared oil-well pumping unit on a Hum-ble Oil well at Goose Creek, Texas, according to “Lufkin: From Sawmill to Oil.”

Lufkin Industries’ current president and CEO, Jay Glick, said this was a turning point for the growing company.

“It really wasn’t envisioned that this would be an oil field company at all,” Glick said. “That (pumping unit) was sold to a company called Humble Oil, which, if you know any-thing about that company, you know it’s Exxon-Mobil now, and the field it was sold into was called Goose Creek, which is now Baytown. Everybody’s name has changed in the story except for Lufkin. Lufkin is the one constant in the whole thing.”

Since its inception, Lufkin Industries has become an international leader in the artificial lift division of the oil field business. With loca-tions ranging from Montana and Canada to Argentina and Romania, and with 94 percent of oil being produced globally using artificial lifts, the future of Lufkin Industries looks as bright as ever. Lufkin Indus-tries has acquired various companies in the past three years that has expanded its reach even further, and of-ficials project that revenues in 2012 will break the $1.2 billion

mark.“Our core business is grow-

ing at 12.3 percent annual rate, which is great. Companies get excited about 9 percent annual growth rates,” Glick said. “We’re not unhappy with 12.3, but what’s amazing is the acquired companies and the startups are growing at a 16.3 percent per year rate. That is a staggering rate over that pe-riod of time. We’re very happy we made the acquisitions we did.”

Through it all, Lufkin In-dustries has remained head-quartered in Angelina County, employing more than 2,200 workers in the region. In 2011 alone, Lufkin Industries added 584 jobs, with 500 staying in Angelina County.

“It’s unusual to have a com-pany this size in a town this size,” said Brian Gifford, vice president of human resources. “Many companies — and I’ve worked for some of them — big multi-nationals would just as soon close down and move to Houston because it’s conve-nient. We have stayed dedi-cated to the community, and I think that’s an important part of who we are.”

Lufkin Industries is not dwelling in its past success, but instead is looking toward the future. Glick said Lufkin Industries has a two-part strat-egy for expanding its business across the globe.

“We have two strategies for growing the business,” Glick said. “One is expanding geo-graphically the reach of the business, and then, secondly, broadening the portfolio of artificial lift products that we produce.”

Both strategies are visibly

in action as the company has manufacturing plants, service locations or sales locations on six continents, and the acquisitions of Zenith Oilfield Technology, Datac Instrumen-tation and RealFlex Tech-nologies, among others. Glick said the goal is to have the international aspect of Lufkin Industries equal the output of its U.S. business.

“We’ve been trying to grow this piece (international busi-ness),” he said, “but as fast as we can grow the international, the U.S. is growing at a much faster rate.”

Lufkin Industries is look-ing to expand even further in Angelina County. Gifford said it is proposing a fourth shift that would allow for greater production and produce more jobs while not working its workers to exhaustion.

“What’s happening is that a lot of our employees are work-ing very hard and many, many hours a week,” Gifford said. “What we want to get to is add an additional shift and change some of the schedule around so that people can get days off and we can get more people working.”

From humble beginnings to a multi-million-dollar indus-try, Lufkin Industries plans on staying true to its roots in Lufkin and Angelina County, the company officials said.

“We feel like we’ve had a great partnership here for a number of years, and I think that should carry on for a number of years into the future,” Glick said. “We like to think we’ve got at least 110 years in front of us.”

Micah Powell’s email address is [email protected].

110 yearsContinued from Page 2H

the local businesses because the whole area was affected.”

It was a great opportunity, Wehmeier said, but there also matching funds that needed to be available to finalize the grant, as well as a job-cre-ation plan.

“We ended up with a $4 mil-lion EDA grant, and we were able to use the money that we had spent acquiring the land as the match,” he said. “Three years ago, you were looking at a forest out where our business park is today. Today, you’re looking at a shovel-ready business park that is ready for a company to come in and say, ‘That’s the piece of land I want,’ and we’re able to say, ‘Here’s the engineering on the dirt. We’ve already got the zoning completed for you. These two roads are already into where we can extend them where they need to be. The infra-structure is in place — let’s go.’ It cuts tens of thousands of dollars off their engineer-ing costs, and it cuts months off the process. Time is money when you’re develop-ing a project. That puts us in a good position to be competi-tive.”

Innovative Metal Compo-nents is expected to provide about 80 jobs within the next five years, according to Wehmeier.

The aerospace company initially promised to create 20 jobs in the first year. They ended up creating 33 jobs within the first six months.

“We were truly blessed to have somebody to be an anchor-tenant and to lead the charge. It worked out well, and we were able to facilitate them. We’ve got all of our infrastructure. We’ve got

water lines and sewer lines to accommodate the entire park. We’ve got telephony, fiber and copper,” Wehmeier said. “All of the infrastructure not only is to the border of the park, but is extended to the interior of the park. It’s ready to tap into and ready to go. The site work has been done with the grant.”

And with a lot of collabora-tion and planning, Wehmeier believes he has a marketable and competitive product.

“We’ve got a building and sites committee that repre-sents the Economic Develop-ment Partnership and the 4B Corporation. A lot of planning from those people — very knowledgeable people — and a lot of planning from the city staff, engineering and management has really given us an extremely functional piece of land that we can mar-ket. We’re not in the business to make money selling these parcels. What we’re in the business of doing is using this land to create good-paying jobs for our citizens. It’s the only reason we do what we do, is to create good jobs and to add valuable tax base to our community. This puts us in a good position to do that.”

Those who believe the park will fill with tenants in the next year or so might be disappointed. Wehmeier said the 4B Corporation has always looked at the park as a long-term development op-portunity. There are prospec-tive companies out there, however, and conversations to bring those companies — new jobs and new industries to Lufkin and Angelina County — are ongoing, he said.

“We don’t expect to fill it in five years. It has already

helped to attract other com-panies that we’re in conversa-tion with now or have at least come into the community to see what we’ve got,” Wehm-eier said. “It gives us a way to market the community and gives us a competitive ad-vantage. We as a community have put ourselves in a great position, all the way around, through everything we’ve done as a community — from the county judge and commis-sioners, the mayor, council and city manager, the col-lege trustees and the school boards that affect Lufkin and Angelina County — by being very competitive and being extremely aggressive when it comes to economic development projects. We want Lufkin to have quality growth, and we’ll be able to do that. The business park will have more tenants in the not-too-distant future.”


the hospital also takes pride in the advances in technology and the procedures that are offered locally. In late 2011, Woodland Heights acquired the da Vinci Si Surgical System. This is a significant arrival because of the value it offers our surgical staff and those in the region we serve, as it is the only Vinci Si Surgical System between Tyler and Houston.

The da Vinci Si has several unique features designed to provide additional clinical benefits and efficiency in the operating room, many of which translate to patient benefits. Here are a few features of the da Vinci Si:

■ Enhanced 3D, high-definition vision of operative field with up to 10x magnification

■ New optional dual console allows second surgeon to provide assistance

■ Superior visual clarity of tissue and anatomy

■ Surgical dexterity and precision far greater than even the human hand

■ Updated and simplified user interface to enhance OR efficiency

■ New ergonomic settings for greater sur-geon comfort

Together, these technological advance-ments provide our surgeons with unparalleled precision, dexterity and control that enable a minimally invasive approach for many complex

surgical procedures. Commenting on the intro-duction of the da Vinci Si System, Robertson said, “We believe that the new features of the da Vinci Si System will help us provide the best possible outcomes and is proof of our com-mitment to provide our community access to the latest advancements in minimally invasive surgery.”

The system’s advanced level of technology takes surgery beyond the limits of the human hand. This acquisition compliments our goal of extending minimally invasive surgery to the broadest possible base of patients. It can be used for a multitude of procedures, including, but not limited to: prostatectomy, hysterectomy, myomectomy, hernia repair and colorectal surgery.

With a medical staff of more than 200 physi-cians, Woodland Heights offers a comprehen-sive list of medical and surgical specialties and treatment modalities and a commitment to quality patient care. The team of physicians and staff take pride in the care they provide and Woodland Heights looks forward to car-rying on the tradition of providing care with quality and compassion.

Contributed pHoto

Woodland Heights main entrance

whMcContinued from Page 3H

miCaH poWell/the lufkin news

daniel Hearne, right, and donnis minschew work in the oilfield division on u.S. Highway 69 near Huntington. in 2011 lufkin industries added 584 jobs, with 500 staying in angelina County.

miCaH poWell/the lufkin news

Jermaine Chandler paints a part to an artificial lift unit. lufkin industries has become an international leader in the artificial lift division of the oil field business.

Joel andreWS/the lufkin news

the entrance to the City of lufkin business park on state Highway 103 east.

ParkContinued from Page 3H

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Since Austin and Tom Brook-shire opened their first grocery store on Sept. 21,

1921, near the Angelina County courthouse square, Lufkin has been home for what is now a 72-store Brookshire Broth-ers chain that has about 6,000 employee-owners.

The company acts as present-ing sponsor for some of the largest events in Angelina and Nacogdoches counties, including the Angelina Benefit Rodeo, the Texas Blueberry Festival in Na-cogdoches, Summer Fest Texas, Cinco de Mayo and the Texas Forest Festival.

Emily Watts, director of business development, said the company takes pride investing in its hometown.

“When you look at the five biggest things that take place in this area, we’re it,” she said. “We

take pride that we can do that, but at the same time, I wish that our customers and those that we hope to gain as customers would understand that some day may come that we won’t be able to do those things if we don’t have shoppers shopping with us. It’s really easy to say, ‘That other “big box” across town — I can get things much cheaper there.’

But is the big box presenting all the festivals going on? Are they even making a donation? We take great pride that we’re able to do that kind of thing, but it takes money to do that.”

Although the grocery business is a great business, Watts said, the economy affects it just like everybody else.

“We’re not going anywhere,” she said. “Nothing’s going to hap-pen, but our stores in Angelina County support a lot of what’s going on.”

In addition to their sponsor-ship activities, each of Brook-shire Brothers’ retail stores, including the five Lufkin-area stores and two Nacogdoches stores, maintain a budget for merchandise donations.

The store director reviews the completed donation request form and determines if the request will be approved. Approved requests for in-store donations are up to $100 in gift cards, and

recipients are limited to one do-nation per year. If the request ex-ceeds the store’s donation budget or requires special consideration, the form will be forwarded to the corporate office for processing and formal submission to the company’s donation committee, which meets monthly to consider requests.

“Anything that comes into us, we require a donation request form that comes from our web-site,” she said. “It’s easy to find from our home page.”

The company evaluates each request in the context of Brook-shire Brothers’ focus areas, company priorities, geographic relevance available budget and eligible activities and restric-tions.

The company is not able to consider donation requests for United Way-funded organiza-tions; individuals; advertising and promotions including signs, T-shirts and promotional print

materials; reducing debts or past operating ventures; political or partisan organizations or cam-paigns; endowment funds; talent and beauty contests; named aca-demic chairships or fellowships; research; religious organizations; generic requests that may have been sent to various organiza-tions; sports sponsorships; medical expenses and benefits for individuals.

Donation request forms are available in all Brookshire Broth-ers locations or by downloading from the company’s website at www.brookshirebrothers.com/misc/donationpolicy.aspx.

Then there’s the Brookshire Brothers Charitable Founda-tion, which according to Watts has donated about $1.3 million to charitable organizations since its founding about 12 years ago.

“That’s the money that we raise from two golf tournaments each year — one golf tournament in May and one in September. These are solely supported by our vendors,” she said. “Those vendors come in a big way, and we tell them each year which charitable organizations we’re

supporting. Those are sizeable donations. That’s besides the money that we give for festivals and everyday things.”

Six charitable organizations were recognized and honored with donations totalling $65,000 from on Feb. 28.

Recipients of the foundation’s funds included the Friends of Ellen Trout Zoo, the Angelina Al-liance for Children, the Boys and Girls Club of Deep East Texas, the Volunteer Services Coun-cil for Lufkin State Supported Living Center and two chapters of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association — the East Texas Regional Office and the Capital of Texas chapter.

The company also donates money and goods for school-re-lated activities, including Project Graduation at each Angelina County school.

Watts said investing in the home folks is something Brook-shire Brothers takes seriously.

“I feel a big responsibility to be a good steward of money from this company,” Watts said.


Brookshire Brothers makes big investment in communityCompany contributes to large festivals and small projects


STEVEN KNIGHT/The Lufkin News

Emily Watts, director of business development for Brookshire Brothers

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By NICK WADEThe Lufkin News

According to a report released last month by the Texas Forest Ser-

vice, an estimated 5.6 million trees that once shaded homes, streets and parks in commu-nities across Texas now are dead as a result of last year’s unrelenting drought.

With dead trees piling up in Lufkin (many forestry analysts said that East Texas’ trees were hit hardest by the

drought), tree service busi-nesses in the area are doing their best to keep up with a mounting workload.

“Laura Ingalls said in her ‘Little House on the Prairie’ that no great loss comes without some small gain,” said Steve Hulsey of A-A Tree Service. “The drought caused a great loss for a lot of us, but for tree morticians like me, there is something to be gained.”

After one of the driest years on record, many shade trees went into dormancy as early as August 2011, dropping their leaves and branches in a “des-perate act of self-preserva-tion,” the report stated. Pine trees with normally thick, green crowns turned red with dead needles, while foliage on cedar trees turned brown. Even though winter is the best time to remove trees, accord-ing to Hulsey, the workload is always heaviest in the spring.

“Most people wait until spring because they aren’t

sure whether or not the tree is actually dead,” Hulsey said. “During the drought no one cut hardwoods because they thought maybe they would come back. But the fact of the matter is that there are a lot of trees out there that aren’t coming back.”

Hulsey said that during Tex-as’ last comparable drought in the 1950s, trees became dor-mant and lost their leaves, but then came back to life once conditions improved. As for last year’s drought, and this

spring’s subsequent crop of dead trees, Hulsey said he has never seen anything like it.

“Business usually picks up every spring, because people can see what is dead or alive, but we have never had something like this,” he said. “There is a bumper crop out there right now and we are making a fortune.”

While business is booming, that means long days and little rest for the workers clearing away the dead trees.

“We are backed up right now,” said Melvin Walker of Timberland Nursery Tree Ser-vice. “I’ve been working until 8 or 9 every night. I haven’t seen anything like this in 30 years.”

Walker said deceased trees are everywhere in Lufkin, and that “driving down the road at any point, you can see patches where there are 30 dead trees just sitting there.”

Walker and Hulsey both said the huge crop of dead trees has also backed up the

timber mills and recycling plants where they usually haul their wood.

The number of trees killed

in urban areas may repre-sent as much as 10 percent of what constitutes as the state’s “urban forest,” ac-cording to the Texas Forest Service report.

The report also stated that these urban trees do more than just beautify commu-

nities. They also provide economic and environmental benefits that include lower-ing heating and cooling costs,

cleaning the air and water, and boosting property value.

The estimated loss of these benefits across the state is projected to cost roughly $280 million per year.

The Texas Forest Service also predicts the cost paid to Texas tree service business-

es, like the ones owned by Hulsey and Williams, will to-tal an estimated $560 million. That number could grow, as

the Forest Service says that many trees are still dying.

“This estimate is pre-liminary because trees are continuing to die from the drought,” said Pete Smith, Texas Forest Service staff forester and lead researcher. “This means we may be

significantly under-counting the number of trees that ul-timately will succumb to the drought. That number may

not be known until the end of 2012, if ever.”

The Forest Service also reported that over 500 mil-lion non-urban trees were likely killed as a result of the drought.

nick wade’s email address is [email protected].

Unrelenting drought revitalizes local tree removal businesses

“The drought caused a great loss for a lot of us, but for tree morticians like me, there is something to be gained.”

Steve hulSeyA-A Tree Service

“i’ve been working until 8 or 9 every night. i haven’t seen anything like this in 30 years.”

Melvin walkerTimberLANd NurSery Tree Service

ANDY ADAMS/The Lufkin News

Melvin Walker of Timberland Nursery Tree Service prepares his “moon walker” to begin cutting down a dead tree in the back yard of a home in the Crown Colony subdivision.

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On May 8, 1886, Atlanta pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invents

Coca-Cola, producing the syrup in a three-legged brass pot in his backyard.

In 1894, Joseph Beidenharn in-stalls bottling machinery in the rear of his store in Vicksburg, Miss., and becomes the first to put Coca-Cola in bottles.

In 1905, Lufkin Bottle Works, the forerunner of what is now known as the Lufkin Coca-Cola Bottling Company, is born.

And since 1911, when W.D. Newsome bought the plant, it has remained in the same Lufkin family’s hands. It is one of two remaining independent bottlers in Texas (the other is located in Crockett) and 68 in North America.

Newsome’s great-granddaugh-ter, Lynne Haney, has served as president since 2007.

“This has been part of our family as an independent bot-tler, and we’ve kept it family-owned and independent since that time,” she said. “There is

a big Coca-Cola family that is company-owned, but there are very few still left that are inde-pendent, and we are very proud of that fact. It’s passed through the family with someone with the family active in the business since that time period — my

great-grandfather, my mother and uncle, then my father, my sister (Ann Mackey) and I, and now my son is here. With the four generations — that’s an ac-

complishment in itself — but we were always hopeful, anticipat-ing and looking forward to a fifth generation, and now we do.”

Taylor Haney joined the family business last year after graduating from Texas A&M University.

Newsome built a plant in 1926 at Angelina and Dozier Avenue, now Frank Avenue, and purchased franchise rights to Dr Pepper in the 1960s.

“There were big pane-glass windows where you could walk on the sidewalk and watch the bottling process,” Lynne Haney said, referring to the old downtown Lufkin plant. “They were six-and-a-half-ounce glass bottles at the time, and it was the

best Coke. The best place to get a Coke was from that bottle. It was part of history. It was part of (people’s) daily routine was to go by, and kids would go and

just stand and watch that. It was a neat thing to see. The product is the same, but everything surrounding the product has changed.”

The family business no longer

family proud to have operated coca-cola plant for 100-plus yearsCompany became one of two independent bottlers in texas

“We’re in a pretty good place to have Coke and Dr Pepper, the two strongest brands in our region. We have great customers from a company perspective. We have great relationships with our customers, and I’m bullish about the future of our parent company, Coca-Cola Refreshments and about Dr Pepper-Snapple Group. They’re very healthy businesses and translates to us being on solid ground.”

JiM watkinSLufkIN CoCa-CoLa BoTTLING ComPaNy GeNeRaL maNaGeR


Coca-Cola mural at the corner of First Street and Shepherd Avenue in downtown Lufkin.

CONTRIBuTED pHOTO

STEVE KNIGHT/The Lufkin News

Lynne Haney and Jim Watkins of Lufkin Coca-Cola.

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By JESSICA COOLEYThe Lufkin News

Opening Lufkin’s first downtown cigar shop has been

a dream 10 years in the making for Lufkinite Ron Crocker.

Crocker and his son Chase are set to open the 1882 Tobacconist at the end of this month in downtown Lufkin. Crocker is the op-erations manager for Car-roway Funeral Home, so

the Tobacconist will be his side project. Cigars have been a hobby for Crocker for years, he said.

“I have enjoyed cigars for many, many years, and it has been difficult to get ci-gars in our area,” he said. “Due to the lack of places to enjoy cigars and pipe tobacco, I decided to open this up.”

From picking a location to helping design custom cabinets, Crocker said he’s enjoyed the entire startup process. He and Chase have been working tirelessly on opening the cigar shop for the past eight months.

“It was an enjoyable

undertaking,” he said. “A lot of time went into the theme. We ended up using more of a Texas theme for our look. I had a local cabinet maker make all of our humidor cabinets and accessory area. And then there’s working with

different companies in acquiring cigars and pipe tobacco.”

As for the cigar and pipe tobacco brands Crocker intends to carry, he said it will be an eclectic mix with something for everyone. In naming the pipe tobacco, Crocker is paying homage to the Lufkin cigar mer-chants that came before him.

“All of our pipe tobaccos are named in dedication to 10 different merchants who opened up stores and shops in the 1880s that sold tobacco,” he said, naming a few.

The 1882 in the name is also a historic nod, to the year Lufkin was founded.

While the shop will offer an assortment of cigars, it will also have a smok-ing lounge exclusively for members. At first, mem-bership will be offered by invitation only. Crocker said he intends to extend membership to about 65 people, but anyone can come into the shop to buy a cigar.

“We’re going to limit the number of people able to go into the lounge for the comfort and convenience of our members,” he said. “We’re really excited. I think it’s going to be eye-appealing and comfortable to our members and to people who come off the streets to buy cigars.”

The shop at 117 S. First St. will be open Tuesday-Saturday, noon to 9 p.m. For more information, call the shop at 639-1882.

Jessica Cooley’s email address is [email protected].


The Tobacconist is one of the more recent specialty businesses to open in downtown Lufkin.


The Tobacconist, one of the more recent specialty businesses to open in downtown Lufkin, is owned and operated by father and son Ron and Chase Crocker.

“I have enjoyed cigars for many, many years, and it has been difficult to get cigars in our area. Due to the lack of places to enjoy cigars and pipe tobacco, I decided to open this up.”

ron crockerco-owNer 1882 TobaccoNIsT

Pipe dream: lufkin man, son plan to open downtown cigar, tobacco shop

“we’re really excited. I think it’s going to be eye-appealing and comfortable to our members and to people who come off the streets to buy cigars.”

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Downtown Lufkin 2011


If you haven’t been to down-town Lufkin lately, there’s a lot you’re missing.

New shops, venues and hang-outs have opened in the past year, changing the look — and the energy — of the once-sleepy area.

“Blithe Boutique, Mama Tried, Angel-a-Mine, A Furni-ture Fetish, Images by Becki, Abram’s, Standpipe Coffee House, The Eleganté and The Grand have all opened in the past year,” said Main Street Director Barbara Thompson.

Because of the number of ven-ues that have opened up down-town, nights are more active than they used to be, Thompson said. Abram’s, The Grand on First and Blithe Boutique, which rents out its second floor as a party room, have joined The Lodge and Behannon’s as the go-to spaces for fêtes.

“Downtown Café and Man-hattan’s also host parties, and we have ‘the little Alamo’ that’s owned by Joe Lowery that people will rent for weddings and parties,” Thompson said. “Because of the venues we have downtown, they’re bringing the crowds. There’s always pretty much something going on.”

Also drawing a growing num-ber of nighttime visitors down-town are Standpipe Coffee House and The Eleganté, which both feature live music on weekends.

The Eleganté, a jazz and blues club located at 122 S. First St., is quickly becoming a weekend hot spot for music aficionados. After paying a cover charge, custom-

ers can provide their own drinks and enjoy a free buffet until midnight. In addition to music, the club also features poetry readings and comedy, depending on the entertainment lineup.

Just across the street, Stand-pipe Coffee House has already gathered a faithful crowd of regulars who pop in for a coffee drink, to visit with friends, to check out the latest art, catch a classic movie or to hear the ro-tating lineup of performers who stop by on any given night.

Recent Lufkin Convention and Visitors Bureau events have also helped the district, particularly Lufkin’s Bistro, a food and wine event which was held outdoors on First Street, and Corks and Forks, a wine-pairing event which drew a crowd to Abram’s.

“I think the things the CVB does brings a mixture of young and old,” Thompson said. “I think Tara (Watson-Watkins) has done an excellent job of that.”

There have also been some little changes that are meant to help locals and visitors learn more about the history of down-town, and about the businesses they can find there.

“In Cotton Square Park, we put up information boards, and we’re working on some ‘You are here’ signs to present to the Main Street advisory board,” Thompson said. “It will be a Main Street District map with the names of the businesses on it.”

And other projects, when finished, will also benefit the downtown area, such as the renovation of Pitser Garrison Civic Center into a convention

center, Thompson said.“The expansion of the civic

center is most definitely a plus,” she said. “It’s going to bring more traffic in and more people from out of town, and that’s an-other time for downtown to show off. When they leave that event, maybe there will be something going on downtown the day before or after. It will be a benefit for our entire community.”

The Pines Theater renovation is scheduled to be completed by fall and will offer another option for downtown entertainment and events.

“We can have small concerts — we can seat 300 to 400 people there — and people can rent it for weddings or receptions or small conventions,” Thompson said.

With all the new additions and traffic, Thompson said, other businesses have become interested in what’s happening downtown.

“I think with all the growth we have, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got another restaurant chain downtown,” she said. “There is someone who has been talking to me about it and of course, I can’t say who they are, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened. There have also been people coming downtown to meet with some of the build-ing owners.”

Next up for Main Street is the annual Hoedown, a street festi-val that will kick off Saturday, Apr. 21, with a parade at 10 a.m. and last until 5 p.m. This year, Thompson says, visitors to the Hoedown will find more attrac-tions than they have in the past.

“We’re working on two enter-

tainment stages, with the possi-bility of three,” Thompson said. “We have a lot of new things and are bringing back others we haven’t been able to have for a while, like the petting zoo and pony rides. New this year is a bungee jump.”

The Hoedown is just one an-nual event that brings families downtown. Others include

Downtown Trick-or-Treat, Entertainment in the Park, the Heritage Festival and the lighted Christmas parade. Year-round attractions include historic walking tours.

As interest grows, Thompson sees a return to downtown as the hub of the city — a place to gather, shop and dine.

“I think people love down-

town,” she said. “It’s just a part of us; it’s the heartbeat of the city. It’s more quaint, and with everything we’re doing, people feel more comfortable walking downtown and being a part of it. We have more lights and more traffic and more music and more people talking.”


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In late summer and fall, when tropical winds start blowing in the Gulf of

Mexico, many coastal resi-dents look towards the north.

Many of those residents look to Lufkin, about a 120-mile trip from the coast — far enough to provide safe hous-ing, but still close enough to experience a hurricane’s powerful winds and flood-ing rains, as Hurricane Ike proved in 2008.

The city hosted an esti-mated 4,500 evacuees during Ike and an estimated 17,000 evacuees during 2005’s Hur-ricane Rita, according to officials.

“We get a double-whammy every time we get a storm,” said Angelina County Emer-gency Management Coordi-nator Don Morris. “We get the storm, the wind damage and the flooding. And we also get the people who leave the coast for safety.“

With the help from the Texas Department of Rural Affairs and the General Land Office with funds allocated by HUD through the Develop-ment Block Disaster Assis-tance Grant Program, the city will be better prepared for the next big storm, espe-cially for the most vulnerable evacuees.

Lufkin and Angelina County continue their efforts in constructing a $6.8 mil-lion expansion project at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin, a 35,000-square-foot facility that city employ-ees, local volunteers and other professionals can use to house and feed evacuees.

With an expected comple-tion date of December, the expansion project doubles the size of the facility by

adding a shelter section to the south side of the existing civic center, with an enlarged lobby and a large conference room. The shelter facility will also come equipped with a full-sized kitchen, showers and laundry facilities.

“We’ll be able to help 1,400 people at the shelter,” said Assistant City Manager Keith Wright. “That includes 400 with special medical needs. Unlike any other current shelter, the new one will have rooms for family members who want to stay close to their medically dependent loved ones, many of whom have been evacuated from nursing homes.”

Lufkin’s role in housing evacuees is part of the state’s emergency planning struc-ture, and according to City Manager Paul Parker, the city can take care of about 8,000 to 9,000 evacuees. With the experience of Hurricanes Rita, Katrina and Ike, offi-cials have learned something each time the city has hosted evacuees.

“As long as Highway 59 and Highway 69 come to Lufkin, we’re going to shelter the whole coast. We’ve made a lot of improvements,” Parker said. “We’re so much better than we were four or five years ago, it’s night and day. When you do it three times, you start getting pretty good at sheltering people. Right now, with the shelter, we’re as prepared as we can be, but with every event, we learn new things.’’

The Lufkin facility is simi-lar to one being constructed in Nacogdoches. Together, the two shelters will boost the capacity of Deep East Texas to handle an influx of coastal city residents.

“There is no question these shelter projects will be a tre-

mendous benefit for both of the communities and for the state,” said Walter Diggles, executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments, which is coor-dinating disbursement of fed-eral recovery funds. “There will be a lot of positives to

come from these projects.” Kansas City-based HNTB

Corporation was hired by the state to help local gov-ernments work through a complex engineering, design and environmental review process.

“We’re very pleased to be

part of this effort,” said Jerry D. Holder Jr., HNTB’s lead person in Texas. “Our job is to get projects efficiently through the process and ready to be bid out by local governments. We plan, we design, we permit — and then the project is ready to

be built. The process helps assure that the billions of dollars appropriated by the federal government truly help harden our coastal com-munities against the next hurricane.”


Experience, expansion prepareLufkin for next round of evacueesCivic center project expected to be completed by end of 2012, officials say


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By CHASITY MONSCHEINThe Lufkin News

Cooper Castleberry has worked in the furniture industry in

some way for over 40 years, and has held every job in the business from cleaning the trucks to being a retail floor salesman. This year Castle-berry Furniture Showroom, which his father Harry Castleberry began in 1962, is celebrating 50 years in busi-ness in Lufkin.

When Harry Castleberry’s house caught on fire, he used the insurance settlement money as an opportunity to open his own store at 113 W. Shepherd Ave. His father continued to own the store until his death in 1998, but Harry took Cooper under his wing a long time before he passed.

“I’ve been in my father’s stores for 50 years, even though I was too young to work at them at the time,” Castleberry said. “I didn’t work when I was really small, but he’s always had me around whatever job he had at the time. I remember when I was a kid, before my dad opened the store, he used to sell appliances. I climbed into a refrigerator box and couldn’t climb out. The adults thought it was funny.”

Cooper Castleberry said his father’s influence and knowledge are still used in the store.

“My father taught me ev-erything I know about busi-ness,” Castleberry said. “At about 15 he started training me. Back in the day, if your family owned a business you were expected to continue it. That attitude has changed. We’re dinosaurs now. There’s not a lot of us local guys left; instead it’s all chain stores.”

At the beginning of his career in the furniture busi-ness, Castleberry said he had to do the jobs no one else wanted to do.

“I was the runt employee who had to clean the bath-rooms and the trucks,” he

said. “My father was teach-ing me what employees should do. I’m not afraid to ask my employees to do anything, because I’ve done it all.”

Over the years, Castleberry said the retail business has changed a lot and it’s not for the better or worse.

“I think the big chain stores, like Walmart, have changed the way things are done,” he said. “They don’t give the kind of service that was expected when my dad first started the store. It’s not good or bad; it’s just differ-ent. But my customers don’t get the experience they do at a big chain store. They get the type of service they would have 50 years ago.”

When the store caught on fire on Frank Avenue in 2005, Castleberry Furniture Show-room had to downsize, and it changed the way they did business, Castleberry said.

“Up to that point we were just a furniture store,” he said. “But when we down-sized we became a furniture store and an interior design business. We go into homes and design a space. It’s some-thing we wanted to do for a long time and weren’t able to until then. It gives us the ability to really be creative and help someone make their home one-of-a-kind.”

Once someone makes a furniture purchase from the store, he said, they will visit the customer’s home and take measurements and cre-ate a to-scale drawing of the room.

“We discuss the cus-tomer’s ideas for the room, the room’s use, and suggest furniture arrangements,” he said. “We’ll coordinate the fabrics, woods, rugs, and help select flooring and window treatments.”

Castleberry Furniture Store is at 1702 S. First St. For more information about the store, visit its website at www.castleberrys.net or call 632-8000.

Chasity Monschein’s email address is [email protected].

Castleberry’s Furniture celebrates 50 years hereFire in 2005 causes company to change the way it does business

bottles its product, but with 75 employees at its Webber Street location — home since 1978 — the company sells and distrib-utes 1.6 million cases of drink products each year in Angelina, Polk and Trinity counties.

“It comes with its set of chal-lenges being an independent, and especially one of two in the big state of Texas,” Haney said. “It’s a lot of area that’s covered by someone else in the parent company. These are challenges we’re embracing and meeting head-on and doing a good job with.”

Part of the challenge is man-aging and distributing more than 380 brands, including Coca-Cola brands, Dr Pepper, V8 and Minute Maid juices, Big Red, Big Blue, Big Peach, Mon-ster, NOS and Full Throttle en-ergy drinks, PowerAde sports drink and Vitaminwater.

“I think that’s probably one of the biggest changes from 1905 to 2012, is the advent of those categories,” Haney said. “If you’re not a player in those, you’re left behind. The isoton-ics are one. The energy drinks are one, along with sugared drinks and the ‘zero’ versions of all of those. Then there’s the flavored — Cherry Dr Pepper, Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, Cherry Coke — it’s a constant quest for something new that

has value.”Tab and “New Coke” not

withstanding, the value of Lufkin Coca-Cola continues to grow.

In 1979, Lufkin Coca-Cola joined with other regional soft drink bottlers to form Southwest Canners Bottling Company, which produces and distributes 22 million cases annually.

The company established Vend-Buffet, a full service vending operation, in 1984. It has grown to more than 400 ac-counts, according to company figures.

Jim Watkins, general man-ager since 2010, said the Coca-Cola product is not necessarily recession-proof, but is much more resistant to economic pressures.

“We saw a slight downturn in sugared beverages in the last two or three years,” he said. “I don’t attribute that to the economic woes of the country. I attribute that to a shift in con-sumer trends that still is and will always be our bread and butter, but some of the other categories — sports drinks, PowerAde, isotonics, Vitamin-water. We sell a tremendous amount of Daisani and smart-water — it’s a big product for us. The challenge comes with managing all of those individu-al products and packages. The other side of that, or benefit, is

when people go in to a conve-nience store, it doesn’t matter if gas is $3 a gallon or $4.50 a gal-lon, they’re going to buy a Coke or Dr Pepper product when they go into those stores.”

With Coca-Cola continuing its recognition as the world’s most valuable brand, according to Interbrand, and Diet Coke becoming the No. 2 soft drink in the country behind only its older brother in the red-colored can, according to Beverage Digest, the Lufkin plant is opti-mistic about its future.

“I see our industry continu-ing to be very competitive,” Watkins said. “I continue to see shifts in consumer prefer-ence. I think that we’ll continue to see more and more drink varieties, be it the sports drink or different waters. I’m very bullish on our local company. We’re in a pretty good place to have Coke and Dr Pepper, the two strongest brands in our re-gion. We have great customers from a company perspective. We have great relationships with our customers, and I’m

bullish about the future of our parent company, Coca-Cola Refreshments and about Dr Pepper-Snapple Group. They’re very healthy businesses and translates to us being on solid ground.”

That solid ground allows the company to support the community with significant financial contributions and products to 23 school districts in the three-county area. Numer-ous scoreboards, including the Panther Jumbotron, were provided by the company in

addition to countless baseball fields and basketball gyms.

They also support numerous community events and orga-nizations each year, including the Salvation Army, area Boys and Girls clubs, Junior Achieve-ment and Project Graduation.

But if anybody is looking to get on the Coca-Cola bandwag-on and purchase the company from this longtime Lufkin fam-ily, they are out of luck.

“Oh, no,” Haney said.steve knight’s email address is [email protected].

coca-colaContinued from Page 4I


MICAH POWELL/The Lufkin News

MICAH POWELL/The Lufkin News

Castleberry’s Furniture employees Jan Dickson, left and Martha Keller try out a sofa on display in the showroom on South First Street.

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By micah powellThe Lufkin News

A Lufkin insurance agency is celebrating its golden anniversary

of protecting and serving the people of East Texas.

Morgan Insurance was founded in May 1962 by Bob Morgan and has since grown to employ more than 20 agents, including Morgan’s son Terry, who joined in 1982. For five decades, the com-pany has worked to serve the insurance needs of Angelina County — from auto to home insurance and everything in between.

Operations manager Debra Cahill has seen the growth first-hand over the past 36 years. From doing every rate by hand to entering the age of Internet billing, Cahill has been a part of it all.

“We got our first computer around 1980, and it would have just about filled up this room,” Cahill said. “There was no uploading of policies, no email, no cell phones, and we had rooms full of paper files. Little by little we started scan-ning all that into a system, and things kind of grew from there. Now everything we do is online and we’re pretty much paperless now.”

Morgan Insurance credits the lasting impact it has had on Angelina County to being there for its customers as well as staying ahead of the game when it comes to marketing and advertising. By embracing social media such as Facebook early, company officials said, Morgan Insurance has been able to take advantage of the wide variety of ways to con-nect with its clients to offer even better customer service.

“The main thing we’ve real-ized is that a few years ago, when we started working on our website and social media, we didn’t really know we were getting anything for it,” Cahill said. “It’s just something you

can’t hardly tell, but in meet-ings that we go to in the past six months I can’t tell you how many insurance companies that we represent are getting on Facebook and wanting you to be friends. It makes us look back and say we weren’t wrong.”

While customer service and marketing create business for Morgan Insurance, the economy has taken its toll on a

fair share of businesses. Cahill credits the people of Angelina County, and the importance they put on insurance, in help-ing the company weather the economic storm.

“We track our cancellations, and I really don’t see that our economy actually took any business away from us — we’ve still had some growth,” Cahill said. “The weather — the hurricanes and tornadoes

— probably had more of an impact on our business than the economy. It seems like ev-eryone in Lufkin understands that we weren’t hit as hard as some other places were. Its a compliment to the people of East Texas.”

Cahill acknowledges that online upstarts such as Geico have swayed many to their low-cost coverage, but she still thinks a good, local company

is the way to go for Angelina County residents who need someone to be there for them when times get tough.

“We’re more about service and protection than about slashing your prices,” Cahill said. “You can go online and compare prices with us and find we’re really competitive. We understand that people are going to compare rates online, they’re going to search on the

Internet. But we honestly feel like maybe they’ll come and sit across the desk from us.”

There is no big celebration in store for Morgan Insur-ance’s 50th anniversary except the company crawfish boil. Instead, the company said, it’ll be business as usual — serv-ing and protecting the people of Angelina County.


Lufkin insurance firm weathers economic downturn, celebrates 50th anniversary

micah powell/The lufkin News

morgan insurance is celebrating 50 years of business in lufkin. morgan insurance is, from left, leah willett, Trey moore, Jeanna Tatum, Jonanna mason, Debra cahill, monica posey, Donna arabie, layla Smith, Brandy Dunkin, michelle lyles, ellen hawkins, Tina callison, Velincia Dobrec, mitch ashley and Terry morgan. Not pictured is Toni murray, Jessica mann, hunter haglund, wade moore and mike haney.

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SpotlighT2012

1JSunday, March 25, 2012 the lufkin news

2J Sunday, March 25, 2012 the lufkin news lufkindailynewS.coM


DIBOLL — Earlier this month Diboll ISD opened its newest facility, H.G. Temple Elementary and Intermediate, as a result of a $22.5 million bond that was passed in 2009. The campus is equipped with state-of-the-art technology including wire-less Internet capability, rolling computer carts and electronic cards to open doors in the facil-ity. The new technology, along with a gym that holds 600 people, two music rooms, a band/choir hall and cafeteria tables that transform into benches, have the students and teachers excited about education, according to district Superintendent Gary Martel.

“We are extremely proud of the K-6 school, and with its opening we now have the ability to serve our students for years to come,” Martel said. “After spending time on the campus with our students and staff, I am firmly convinced it has changed our staff and student mindset to one of pride and accomplish-ment. The whole building just buzzes with excitement and potential.”

The opportunity to construct the new campus was something that Martel said reflected how important education is to the Diboll community.

“The bond passed by 70 per-cent in 2009, and now half of the district’s student body is now in new buildings with the ability to grow,” he said. “Diboll taxpay-ers showed they valued educa-tion and great facilities for our students and teachers.”

Martel said the community was instrumental in helping teachers and staff move into the new facility, with over 300 people lending a hand earlier this month at Diboll’s “Move Day.”

That kind of community support is something Martel is proud of, and wants to continue to foster.

“Our community is our school,” Martel said. “We are all on the same team. We expect people to look at the city of Diboll and Diboll ISD as a great place to raise their children. Like a family, we will have problems, but it is our intent to always work together to solve them. We have an open-door policy that has fa-cilitated the ‘trust factor’ both by parents and our educators. This is one of the reasons I am proud to call Diboll my home.”

With a tax ratification elec-tion that passed by 70 percent last year, Diboll ISD was able to increase its budget by approxi-mately $750,000 while lowering its tax rate by 8 cents. A $330,000 “Cools Schools” grant allowed the district to upgrade air handlers to improve efficiency in both the junior high and high school. These financial boosts are key for district progression during a time when state funding is questionable, at best, Martel said.

“Strong partnership and com-munication with our parents and taxpayers has led to recent new school bonds being passed and a successful TRE to maximize funds available from the state as we are faced with state funding cuts,” he said. “Our fund balance position has strengthened over the last two years through sound financial decisions that utilize

every opportunity to maximize state funding while keeping our local tax rate as low as possible. Our district pay scale continues to be at or above regional aver-ages in all positions, and we have upgraded to Skyward student software, which will allow for better data transfer with the state and better parent communica-tion online.”

With a dual language program under way, open enrollment in pre-kindergarten, a dual credit program for high school students and a robotics program initia-tive that will field teams at every campus, Martel said the district has “progressed every year, in every aspect.”

“I hope we can continue that trend,” he said. “The school board has been supportive, and we have really begun to work better as a team of eight. When a board has an agenda, it is very hard to move forward. We have had very little of that and very few issues. We agree to disagree and then we do what is best for the district and all of our students.”

Martel said the primary driv-ing force in accountability is student growth from one grade level to another, and ultimately equipping students with the tools to make them successful, produc-tive citizens by the time they reach graduation.

“We expect our students to grow at least one grade level each year,” Martel said. “Eighty-five percent of our students pass their standardized tests, and by graduation we expect — and have had — a 99 percent passing rate, along with having every one of our students accepted into college, technical schools or a military career. Our student at-tendance is up, our dropout rate is low, and we are getting them to the stage with the ability to be a successful adult.”

Thanks to what Martel described as the school board’s “commitment to being a 21st-century district,” Diboll ISD has wireless capabilities at district facilities and an upgraded tech-nology infrastructure capable of meeting the needs of digital learners.

Diboll Junior High received a Texas Rural School grant for mobile science carts, or COWs (computers on wheels), which can turn any classroom on cam-pus into a computer lab. The dis-trict is also on the verge of using a thin client server system that will keep its campus computer upgrade costs to a minimum in the future.

Diboll ISD has purchased seven school buses over the last three years and is planning to update the fleet each year. Two of those buses were bought without using taxpayer money, thanks to stimulus grants and a PTSA grant.

The district is also in the process of equipping its buses with security cameras, and plans to have a camera in each bus by July of this year.

“We truly believe in our vision to have a positive impact on ev-ery child, every day, every way,” Martel said of Diboll ISD. “We want to develop positive relation-ships with all students and set high expectations, because most of the time students will surpass those expectations.”


Diboll ISD celebrates opening of new campusesBond passed in 2009 provides $22.5 million worth of improvements

photos CoNtrIButED By JorDAN strAssNEr

Diboll IsD celebrated the opening of the h.G. temple Intermediate school with a ribbon cutting by the Lufkin/Angelina County Chamber of Commerce.

the new campus includes a state-of-the-art cafeteria that features lunch tables that have the capability of folding into benches for extra seating. the cafeteria, gym and media rooms join the elementary and intermediate campuses.

the new building is held by over 300 beams, which allows for maintenance to happen from below, in a climate-controlled area which stores the school’s electronic systems.

the campus features two music rooms, a choir/band hall and a plethora of technology features, including multiple computer labs.


Lufkin ISD uses GEAR UP grant to fill some holes left by state budget cuts


As part of the construc-tion covered by an $800,000 physical ex-

pansion grant from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, St. Cypri-an’s Episcopal School plans to add a Dyslexia Therapy wing later this year.

The expansion will include new classrooms and a new cafeteria to accommodate the school’s growing enrollment.

“This is without a doubt a monumental time for our

school,” said principal Brinn Williford. “We are so com-pletely overwhelmed by the generosity of the T.L.L. Tem-ple Foundation. We are also grateful for our school board and their vision to improve the school.”

Williford noted that the dyslexia therapy is something that has historic roots with the school.

A school press release stated that Father John Cas-key, the first headmaster of the school, was instrumental in bringing help to children with learning disabilities. In 1967 he became proficient in training children who could not read.

Today, the Dyslexia Therapy Department has three thera-pists and 22 students. The new Dyslexia Therapy Wing will provide more space and top technology for students with learning challenges. The students have individualized curriculum and study one-on-one with a therapist.

Among the new technology already being used by the de-partment are educational iPad applications.

“Kids these days love to keep up with technology, and having the programs available for them really enhances their excitement when it comes to learning,” said therapist Mary Gail McCarty. “Our boys love the baseball-themed word game, and there are pirate-themed activities where the kids get treasure for spelling a word correctly, and hand-writing programs that show students the proper stroke in

both print and cursive.” Using iPads has aided in ac-

complishing a teaching style that encompasses all aspects of the learning process, ac-cording to McCarty.

“Everything the students are doing is multi-sensory, and that is a huge word with us,” she said. “It is a method of learning that engages all of your learning senses at the same time. Most students are auditory, visual or kinesthetic learners, and if they are only exposed to one of those types of learning, then they may not

be getting the best opportu-nity to comprehend and retain information.”

The nontraditional learning methods are geared for dys-lexic students, and according to McCarty, those methods help bring out the potential that each of her students have.

“Dyslexic students are smart kids. Unfortunately, they often are labeled as lazy, because they are not progress-ing the way they are expected to,” McCarty said. “But in reality their intelligence is above average, they just haven’t been taught in the way that they are most capable of learning. So what we are able to do is expose them to that different way of learning that will help them as they move forward.”

The iPad applications assist in that progression, as well as giving the students a chance to become more comfortable with the technology toward which education is trending.

“This something that students need to familiarize themselves with moving for-ward, anyway,” McCarty said. “School is not what it used to be, and with the changes in education, technology is play-ing a major role. We are trying hard to move and grow with technology because when our kids move on in their educa-tional careers, we want them to be prepared.”

McCarty said the St. Cyprian’s dyslexia therapy program has produced a multitude of students who have gone on to be successful in middle school, high school

and college, including at least one valedictorian.

“It is so cool to watch a stu-dent who came in here with no self-esteem, struggling in the classroom, and see that kid walk away three years later as a confident reader and a confident student in all aspects,” McCarty said.

St. Cyprian’s invites former students to speak at a dyslexia awareness luncheon that the school hosts each year, and share their experiences with parents, students and the com-munity.

“We try to promote knowl-edge and awareness when it comes to dyslexia,” McCarty said. “We want people to be more educated about the topic. We have a great staff here, and we are able to catch it very early because we know what to look for with struggling stu-dents, and we are constantly monitoring. So we want to raise that awareness within the community as well.”

With cutting-edge technolo-gy, and proven teaching meth-ods, the only thing left for the dyslexia therapy department is the new wing, which is an exciting prospect to McCarty.

“We talked about what we wanted and then we presented that idea to Mr. Williford, who in turn presented it to the school board,” she said. “We are very excited to have the dyslexia lab included in the grant, because with the school growing so fast, the number of therapy students is grow-ing as well. This is going to be a great way to accommodate that growth.”

This will be the first time in 28 years for the school to increase the physical footprint of its facility. The grant will cover 80 percent of the cost to build the addition, with an-other 20 percent coming from the school.

According to Williford, the school plans to break ground as soon as the finances are in order. He has also let parents know that school tuition will not be increased to cover the expenses of the expansion.


St. Cyprian’s eyes future with a new wing and a prayer


While hovering near the bottom rungs of the state funding lad-

der, the Lufkin school district received a much needed boost this year when it was selected as one of only 46 cohorts nationwide (seven in Texas) to participate in GEAR UP.

GEAR UP is a federal grant program based on the economic needs of students, with a goal of increasing high school graduation rates, improving academics and preparation for post-sec-ondary education, as well as informing families of postsec-ondary education options and financing.

The program, in which Lufkin has participated twice in the past, follows and provides funding for seventh-grade students through their high school graduation and then one year into whatever post-secondary educational option they choose to pursue. The East Texas Cohort for GEAR UP, which includes Lufkin, Hudson, Central, Nacogdoches and Woden, will follow the Class of 2017, begin-ning this year.

The grant seeks to provide low-income, under-served and at-risk students with resourc-es and services that improve the likelihood of their post-secondary success. With more than 70 percent of students in the Lufkin school district be-ing on a free or reduced lunch program, GEAR UP director Vickie Evans said Lufkin’s need for additional funding probably played a major role in the district being selected to participate for a third time.

“People may be uncomfort-able saying that much of our area is in poverty, but that is the reality,” Evans said. “We

have a lot of kids who are on free and reduced lunch. There are people in our area that make a lot of money and are doing well, but there are also a lot who are economi-cally disadvantaged. I think that is one of the reasons we were able to be chosen for this grant again. Our district gets the low end of the state funding, but we have the highest student need for that support.”

In the midst of a school funding crisis that has resulted in multiple lawsuits claiming inequity against the state, Lufkin has been forced to reduce its budget to what Evans called “bare bones.” With state education standards rising, but funding

decreasing, and with universi-ties desiring students who are “college ready,” the GEAR UP grant has given LISD an op-portunity to make up some of the difference. With Stephen F. Austin State University being the fiscal agent, close to $7.5 million will be allocated to the five school districts over the seven-year period of the grant. With the money being dispersed on a “per student” basis, Evans said Lufkin will be given enough to revive some of the teacher training the district has lost to budget cuts.

“On the financial end, it is huge for staff development. We can’t make our classes

SEE GEAR UP, PAGE 8J


CONTRIBuTED PhOTO

Mary Gail McCarty, lead dyslexia therapist for St. Cyprian’s Episcopal School, uses an iPad with first-grader Madison Johnson.

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HUDSON — Both the middle school and high school campus-es in Hudson are using creative financing to improve their classroom technology.

Hudson Middle School students are using netbooks in the classroom, working on blog assignments at home and pro-gramming small machines in the hallway. Principal Richard Crenshaw’s campus is full of teachers and students who are taking advantage of the grow-ing presence of technology in education.

Teachers are recording science lab instructions on Youtube, study materials are being uploaded to the web, and the campus was featured on the cover of INSIGHT maga-zine, which spotlights different technologies being used around the state.

All the while, the financial inequity of school funding that has led to a highly publicized funding battle between public schools and the state legis-lature, has Hudson’s budget shrinking, not expanding, leav-ing Crenshaw and other school officials to “get very creative when it comes to funding.”

“With site licenses and replacing equipment, the technology budget doesn’t go far,” Crenshaw said. “We have 11 rolling carts of netbooks, and none of those were in the budget. We’re obtaining the majority of our technology funding through grants.”

“Grant” has become the magic word in Hudson, and other public schools trying to advance their educational value while not dipping into their budgets.

“All grant money,” Cren-shaw said as he pointed to a roomful of students using computer programs to work on vocabulary. “If anyone is wondering whether or not we are spending our money wisely, they should look in these classrooms and computer labs. We are doing all that we can to raise the bar and have an effect on the future.”

While grant money enables schools like Hudson to fund programs and keep up with technology, the problem with school finance at the state level is still looming.

“We are at 28 kids per classroom in our sixth grade,” Crenshaw said. “We’re under-manned, and we are really go-ing to feel it next year. Most of the state funding goes to your staff, and we need to be able to pay more teachers so that we can lower that number of stu-dents in the classroom, which will create a stronger learning environment.”

With the student/teacher ratio being driven up, the use of technology allowed Hudson teachers to clone themselves, in a manner of speaking.

“A science teacher records a step-by-step instruction video of how to complete a lab,” Crenshaw said. “The students pull up that video on their net-book, and they are able to work through the lab at their own pace. But the best part is, this frees the teacher up to walk around the room and answer questions or make sure no one is falling behind.”

Another hotbed of debate this year has been the imple-mentation of Texas’ standard-ized STAAR test, which has been met with resistance by school officials, including Hudson Superintendent Mary Ann Whiteker. But according to Crenshaw, Hudson educators are not going to teach to the STAAR test, they are going to teach above it.

“We are not going to say STAAR. We have a new nine-weeks exam system, and that is what we are concentrating on,” Crenshaw said. “We believe that our test standards are challenging enough to allow the students to perform well on the STAAR test if they are proficient with ours.”

Crenshaw said that despite any funding problems, and beyond any standardized test, the key to a successful campus (Hudson Middle School has continually been ranked as one of the top middle schools in the state and in the country, according to multiple education websites and magazines) lies in the mindset of the students and teachers.

“It starts at the bottom,” he said. “It is not an administra-tive accomplishment. Our success is about our teachers and their ability to impart their knowledge to the students. And with our students, it is a mindset to do the very best they can — not just pass — and to be eager to learn and to rise above expectations.”

Crenshaw said HMS has worked to tie UIL academics (Hudson has won 15 consecu-tive UIL academic titles in its middle school district) into its campus initiative, part of which included hosting academic pep rallies, and he has seen a direct relation in classroom perfor-mance.

As for the campus’ standard-ized test scores, HMS was in the top 3 percent of Texas schools, including private schools.

“It comes down to the goal of the district,” Crenshaw said, “and everyone knows the expectations when they come to work here. The work ethic of our teachers is something that

translates to our students, and one of the reasons we are able to be successful.”

High school robotsBeginning a high school

robotics team in order to keep students on the cutting edge of technology and make them more marketable in the work-force is a positive notion. Find-ing money for tools, supplies and equipment, not to mention a $6,500 contest entry fee, while in the midst of a school funding crisis — that becomes slightly more complicated.

Enter community support, in the form of $6,500 apiece, from J.C. Penney and the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Hudson High School robot-ics team was born.

“Without outside funding we couldn’t do this,” said team coach P.T. Walters. “There are grants and funding out there, but you have to search for those resources. We wouldn’t have been able to pay the entry fee, much less purchase the tools you need to start out with.”

Hudson found the resources, and with other sponsors that include Consolidated Com-munications, Angelina Steel, Lufkin Federal Credit Union and Walmart, the team of 10 students will compete at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston next month against teams that stretch from Hawaii to Spain.

Win or lose, the experi-ence has been something that Walters believes will benefit the students.

“Some of these guys had never touched a tool before this, and now they are getting to work with power tools, and having to build every part of the robot,” Walters said. “It promotes critical thinking and problem solving, and it em-phasizes those soft skills that we have gotten away from in today’s society. This stuff could help these guys get jobs in the future.”

While the team has had fun throughout the process, and is looking to compete at a high level in Houston, the advantag-es they have moving forward is

not lost on them.“Increasingly, companies and

other businesses in the modern world are using robots,” said team member Stewart Haas. “It’s good for us to have experi-ence with that, not just the technical experience but also the creative skills. This whole thing is like a giant puzzle with no instructions.”

The team only has two seniors, Cody Perez and Trevor Rudd, which means that returning members will have a better feel for the program going into next year.

“None of us really knew what we were getting into,” said Raymond Barringer. “We weren’t really sure what to expect, so it was definitely a learning experience, but a good experience. Regardless of how we do in Houston, it will still be a positive thing, because next year what took us two months

do accomplish we will be able to do in two weeks.”

Walters said he has been along for the ride with his team, through the trials and errors, and while he is look-ing forward to next year, he believes they can be a force at the competition in April.

“This has been a learning experience for all of us, myself included, and it has certainly been fun,” Walters said. “But I fully expect us to be able to

compete when we get to Hous-ton. I’m a competitive guy, and I think we will be able to hold our own down there.”

Team members include: Haas, Perez, Rudd, Barringer, Cole Meyer, Noah Brock, Blake Fountin, Tyler Law, Kyle Tram-mell and Kaleb Lee.

Sponsors from Consolidated Communications are Chris Smith and Danny Butler.


Grants, technology allow Hudson campuses to get creativeMiddle school finds a way to clone its teachers, so to speak

CoNtrIButED photo

Middle school students in Carla Ladner’s class work on programming a robot to complete obstacle courses.

CoNtrIButED photo

Members of the hudson high School robotics team figure out the best course of action for their robot to shoot balls into multi-leveled baskets.

CoNtrIButED photo

With an emphasis on technology, and a dedication to finding available funding, hudson Middle School is a prime example of the future of education. the campus was featured on the cover of INSIGht magazine.

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Earlier this year the Cen-tral Junior High Band won 40 medals at its first

ever UIL competition. Earlier this month the band members visited Stephen F. Austin State University and played alongside the Lumberjack Band. Later this year the band will march in com-munity parades, and the 2012-13 school year will see twirlers, more UIL events and basket-ball games added to the band’s expanding resume.

These achievements and fu-ture plans are beyond what band director David Lambert expected

when he stopped teaching math two years ago to begin what he assumed would be a small band program.

“I thought maybe someday we would get to where we are now,” Lambert said. “But this being our second year, and to see how far we have come, I am continu-ally floored by it.”

Lambert’s reaction is not sur-prising, considering the lack of funding and space, not to men-tion instruments, with which the band began.

“We had 130 students in the sixth grade, so we expected maybe 25 kids to sign up, and the old music classroom would be plenty of room for that many students,” Lambert said. “We started with a grand total of zero instruments, and we didn’t bud-get any money because we didn’t really expect a huge response.”

The response Lambert received was, as he described it, overwhelming. Eighty-five students participated the first year, and this year 90 more sixth-graders joined the band.

“There were kids knocking on the door constantly, every day, asking if they could be in band,” Lambert said. “It was at that point that I was excited, but growing concerned about possibly having to tell kids no

because we didn’t have enough instruments, or the instruments they wanted to play.”

The Disabled American Vet-erans of Lufkin donated $3,500 to help the band get started, and once the Central ISD school board saw the interest the pro-gram was garnering, it “tapped in” to some of its funding to help out, according to Lambert.

Next was a grant from the E.L. Kurth Foundation, then instru-ments began being donated by other schools and community members who heard about the program’s need.

“We literally went from having zero instruments to over 100 by the end of the first year,” Lam-

bert said. “It is really beyond explanation how much support we received and how well every-thing turned out.”

According to Lambert, with the state funding problems that exist in public education, during a time of economic uncertainty, starting the band program in 2010 did not make sense — just like the program’s instant suc-cess has not made sense.

“Logically, it should not have happened now, but it did,” Lam-bert said. “Someone is looking out for us.”

Lambert, a man of faith, said God was calling him to do something other than teach math in 2010, when his own son began talking about playing instruments. With his son still a few years away from junior high, Lambert wondered whether the school would have a band program in the near future.

“The timing of it is all still so funny,” he said. “I asked our administrators what it would take to get a program going, and Superintendent (Allen) Garner pretty much told me he had already been thinking about the same thing.”

Lambert, the first to ask the question, also became the first to get the job.

“With my interest and musical

background, I sort of became the guy who asked the right ques-tion at the right time and was the lucky one to have the opportu-nity to help start this program,” Lambert said. “I taught math for six years, and I would walk around campus and see kids with guitars, and kids that really enjoyed music. It’s like there was this need because the students love music, but there wasn’t an outlet for it.”

Lambert said seeing the needs of the program continually met at every turn has made him feel incredibly blessed.

“God was calling me, and I have seen his provisions,” he said. “On multiple occasions I

have had students come to me and want to play an instrument we don’t have, and right before I tell that student that they can’t do it, I get a call and someone has just donated that exact instru-ment. It is beyond explanation.”

Lambert said that during one those instances, a student who wanted to play the trumpet had come to see him. Just before hav-ing to tell the student that there was not a trumpet she could play, a man walked into the of-fice and brought a trumpet and a snare drum.

“At that point, this type of thing had happened before and I just smiled and was thinking, ‘Wow,’ but I remember at the time I wondered what the snare drum was for,” Lambert said. “The very next day a student came to me and asked if there was a snare drum he could play.”

Now, according to Lambert, the band program has become a place that students can call home during the school day. Groups of students eat lunch in the band room, then practice their instruments until it is time to go back to class.

“The biggest positive, for me, is that we created a band family for the kids,” Lambert

central band director marvels at program’s rapid growthContributions from lufkin DAV, other schools help group make big strides in first two years

“We literally went from having zero instruments to over 100 by the end of the first year.”

david laMbertCeNTraL JuNior HigH baNd direCTor


David Lambert directs the Central Junior High band.

See baNd, Page 8J

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Through Christian-centered teaching, instructors at Harmo-

ny Christian School attempt to integrate biblical prin-ciples in every subject. And with a seemingly resurgent economy, the Lufkin private school is hoping to reach even more students in the coming years.

Harmony Christian School was founded in 1995 as a ministry of Harmony Hill Baptist Church, under the leadership of Pastor John Greene, to offer non-denominational evangelical education to all who desire

it in the Lufkin area. The campus is at 1601 Rice Road, off South Chestnut Drive outside Lufkin’s Loop 287. Over the years, Harmony has earned accreditation with Association of Chris-tian Schools International and the Texas Private School Accreditation Com-mission and currently has 82 enrolled students from pre-kindergarten through seventh grade with plans of expanding to eighth grade next fall.

At the same time many public school districts in Angelina County have filed suit against the state of Texas for lack of funding, Harmony has to rely almost exclusively on student tu-ition and fundraising events to make ends meet. In an economy that has struggled in recent years, Harmony has felt the pinch in enroll-ment, as private education has stopped being an option

for many area families.“Our heart’s desire is to

give Christian education to as many families as possi-ble,” said Harmony Chris-tian School Head Admin-istrator Tracye Brashear. “For middle-class families that is hard. They desire it, but it’s hard because our economy has hit our middle-class families so much.”

Brashear estimates that it costs $5,000 per student for Harmony to function, with nearly 80 percent of that coming from student tu-ition. The school offers vari-ous fundraisers throughout the year, like Harmony Hoe-down and a Winter Bazaar, to account for the remaining

20 percent.With the economy looking

more and more promising, Brashear said enrollment has started to return to normal levels. She is hope-ful that will be a continuing trend.

“We’ve found that we have stabilized this year, when in years past it has been a little bit harder,” she said. “We’ve seen some declines, but now we’re beginning to stabilize, and I am hopeful that is because of the economy.”

The Harmony Hoedown, a silent and live auc-tion put on by the school, further emphasizes the economy’s impact on the private school. Community members bid on 50 items provided by local businesses and classes at Harmony Christian School, including a 90-minute session with History Channel’s Top Shot Season 3 champion Dustin Ellermann.

“This year we did see an increase, so I feel that shows the pump in the economy,” Brashear said. “In the past two years we have made $35,000 and this year we did $43,000.”

With an uptick in giving, the school hopes to expand its reach in Angelina Coun-ty by offering even more families a chance to experi-ence Christian-centered education.

“We try to use those funds to keep our tuition low so families can afford Chris-tian education — that’s our main purpose,” Brashear said. “Our tuition is under $4,000 and our pre-school is actually below day-care

prices. We are a non-de-nominational, evangelical school, and I think that sets us apart because our curriculum is designed to integrate God’s Word throughout every subject. It’s not just an add-on, it is something that is integrated in history, science, in their readers, everywhere God is a part.”

The school recently received accreditation through the Association of Christian Schools Interna-tional and the Texas Pri-vate School Accreditation Commission. Registration for the 2012-13 school year is currently available with discounts for families with multiple children enrolling.

For more information about Harmony Christian School visit its website at harmonychristianschool.org.


Christian school sees uptick in fund-raising as economy improves

“We’ve found that we have stabilized this year, when in years past it has been a little bit harder.”

Tracye BraShearHarmoNy CHrisTiaN sCHooL Head admiNisTraTor


harmony christian teacher Suzy harkness answers a question from student Brooklyn Sutherland.


members of the pca Drill Team perform at the charter school’s first-ever Spring Show.

By NicK waDeThe Lufkin News

The 2012-13 school year will be the first for Pineywoods Community

Academy to have high school seniors on its campus. With that important step ahead, the Lufkin charter school has focused on implementing a host of other “firsts” in the upcom-ing year.

With a first-year drill team, UIL academic team and Gifted and Talented program, PCA’s theme this school year has been expansion — something about which the charter school staff is excited.

“We have wanted these things for a long time,” said second-grade teacher and GT coordinator Rayna Smith. “This is an awesome opportu-nity for our students, and it is something that we as teachers find very exciting. I remember when we first started and were a much smaller school, so for us to be growing so quickly and to be able to add so many wonder-ful things for our students, this really means a lot.”

PCA students took home 19 first-place medals in 31 compe-titions at the school’s first ever UIL academic meet, the drill team performed during PCA’s first-ever Spring Show, and the school’s Destination Imagina-tion team competed in Mes-quite last month with schools from around the state.

The GT program, in its first year, is something of which Smith is particularly proud to be a part.

“This is something we have wanted for a while,” Smith said. “It is only our first year, but when we decided to take a bite, we took a really big bite. The students in the program are working on online projects through the state website, ef-fective and efficient research skills, a mock courtroom,

and they’re setting up for an antique roadshow that will help them learn about value and how things depreciate or appreciate over time.”

The GT program at PCA cur-rently serves qualified students in grades 2-6, with more expan-sion planned for the future.

Added to the excitement at

Pineywoods is the inclusion of the Timberwolves in next year’s UIL athletic competi-tions.

School Director Bruce Marchand said the growing opportunities at PCA mean a lot for the betterment of the

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HUNTINGTON — At the high school and middle school cam-puses in Huntington, students have their cell phones, iPads and a variety of other digital devices out on their desks.

They are not being disruptive. They are utilizing what district Superintendent Eric Wright calls virtual learning.

Both campuses are operating with wireless Internet capabili-ties, and rather than having cell phones taken up, the students are being encouraged to bring their digital devices to school in order to access educational and instructional websites and programs, use the Internet for research and follow along with videos that are recorded by their teachers.

“We have certainly embraced the technology that is out there,” Wright said. “Our school board was very proactive in allowing us to create a wireless infrastruc-ture, and what we are looking to do in the future — our vision — is to have our students become global digital citizens.”

While forward thinking played a huge role in implementing the new digital aspects of education, Wright said there were also lo-gistical and funding factors that made the decision a little easier.

In what is an ever-changing digital world, technology can become obsolete at a more rapid pace than in the past. That was leading the district to replace or update computer and technol-ogy labs and equipment every three years. With more than 70 percent of the student body hav-ing access to some type of digital device, Wright said he and the board believed it would be a wise investment to incorporate those devices into the classroom.

“We did some extensive re-search into this ourselves before we got started,” Wright said. “In-stead of telling to kids to power down as soon as they walk in the school, we want to embrace and seize technology in order to cap-ture the educational imagination of this first digital generation. By allowing the students to do this, we get the best of both worlds. We can have access to virtual learning, but without the cost of new purchases in technology

every year.”Another positive, according to

Wright, is that the students need little training in operating the devices and finding information on the web. Plus, he said, en-abling the students to use their own devices keeps them more engaged and can curb the fear a child may have to participate in class.

The addition of digital devices to the classroom has also had an effect on teachers, according to Assistant Superintendent Maria Betancourt-Smith, who said most instructors recognize that the students may know more about the technology than they do, but that those same instruc-tors have shown a willingness to expand their teaching styles.

“This is sort of a leap of faith for the adults who are not as comfortable with the new technology,” Betancourt-Smith said. “But our teachers have embraced the fact that we’re the immigrants to this culture and sometimes we are going to have to learn from the natives. Once the teachers saw how much more they were able to accom-plish in the classroom using these devices, they understood why this technology is revolu-tionizing education.”

Using EBSCO research and other online tools, Betancourt-Smith said, the students are learning to be consumers of information, finding reliable sources and separating fact from opinion on the web.

“When I was in school, if I wanted to research something, I would go to the card catalog in the library to find my subject,” Wright said. “It was a process that took forever, but now you can type in a concept or keyword and access information instantly. That is how problems are being solved now and how they will be solved in the future, so we want to make sure our students know how to efficiently use those resources.”

Wright said another function of the wireless-friendly cam-puses is to promote teamwork and idea sharing. Students who do not have access to a digital device are partnered with those who do, creating what Wright says are collaboration skills that

businesses want to see in their employees.

While some in education are doing everything they can to keep these Androids and iPhones out of the classroom, Wright said students in Huntington have not taken advantage of the system by causing disruptions in the educational environment.

“The kids feel respected, and that encourages them to do the right thing,” he said. “There will always be that one student who causes problems, but that happens with or without an iPad. Our philosophy is that the majority are using these devices the right way, and we shouldn’t punish them for what the minor-ity does. The students have been super excited about this, and it

has been a positive experience for everyone so far.”

Wright added that the teacher is still in control of the learning environment and determines what is appropriate in the class-room.

“I walked into one classroom and saw that some of the stu-dents had earphones in. They were listening to music while they work on research papers,” he said. “Some may see that as misuse, but that is what they do at home, what they will do in college and it is exactly what I do when I’m working on something. The way I see it, whatever works for them, as long as they are on task.”


iLearning: Huntington campuses don’t just allow smartphone use — they encourage it


Students using wireless devices as study aids at Huntington Middle School.

Pineywoods Community AcademyCollege Preparatory Charter School

Outstanding ACADEMICS• PCA is a comprehensive free public charter school serving students

in grades PreK-12th grade.

• PARAMUS Early College High School students grades 9-12 take Dual Credit courses at Angelina College and can earn up to 60 college hours or an Associate’s Degree

• PARAMUS is the only ECHS designated by the Texas Education Agency in the greater Angelina County area

Outstanding ACTIVITIES• UIL District 23-1A sports at the Junior High, Junior Varsity and Varsity

levels including boys and girls basketball, track, cross country, golf, and tennis.

• UIL Academics, Destination Imagination, and Robotics activities elementary through high school.

• Award winning choral music and theater program.

Outstanding ADVANTAGES• Class sizes of 20 students or less provide individualized instruction

and a student-centered approach

• $ 4.5 million dollar building expansion project slated to begin in Summer, 2012

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more rigorous and aligned with what colleges want with-out properly trained staff,” Evans said. “School, like any other business, spends the most money on salary. When resources are cut, the last thing anyone wants to do is cut people, because that doesn’t only hurt those people and their students, that hurts the entire community. So the first thing to go is staff devel-opment, supplies, resources, and that is where we are now. But this grant can pay for some of those things that went away. Things are chang-ing so fast with technology and it is having a huge impact on education, so our teachers need to know the best way to educate our kids. But we just haven’t had the money for that much needed develop-ment.”

The GEAR UP grant also provides funds for tutoring, summer programs, leader-ship and mentor programs, along with increasing the ability to interact with parents through meetings, information sessions and newsletters. Evans would also like to see some of the funds used to supply the students with the latest educational technology.

“We can also use some of this budget to purchase tech-nology for the students,” she said. “We did a good job in the past, as technology advanced, of equipping our teachers; now I want to get it into the students’ hands. Keeping up with technology is something that is going to be extremely beneficial to the students, but even beyond that, we have seen that when you put technology in their hands, the students really respond and it improves their outlook on education.”

Any technology that is purchased for the students covered by the grant will re-main in whichever grade level for which it is purchased, making it sustainable for future students. For example, if this year’s seventh-grade students received iPads for a science class, the iPads would stay in that science class for next year’s seventh-graders as well.

In the past, the program has been successful in promoting post-secondary education, be it a university, community college or techni-cal school. The number of applications to these institu-tions rose, but that alone did not ensure student success.

“We saw a big increase in the number of students who actually applied for some type of post-secondary education,” Evans said. “In fact, when the seventh-grade class that was part of the grant graduated high school, all the of the students were accepted to a post-secondary institution. But what we saw after the number came back the next year is that many of the kids didn’t actually enroll and at-tend these institutions.”

While school funding politics, classroom equipment needs and staff development all factor into the ability to ed-ucate students, there are also life-related realities outside of the classroom that Evans said has to be a focus to ensure post-secondary success.

“The feedback we got was a shot of reality,” she said. “One of the most common reasons why a student didn’t attend college or whatever else they were accepted into was that they didn’t have reliable transportation to get

there. Things like owning a car are not usually something that we have control of, but those responses give us a platform to approach finan-cial literacy with students and talk about the realities of post-secondary education and the things that students need to be aware of and be able to achieve in order to set themselves up to succeed. We did a good job encouraging students to apply for college and technical schools, and we succeeded in creating a college-going culture, but our focus now is going to include some of the more realistic things — like getting to and from class, attending classes and all the things it takes to actually be there.”

That success in post-secondary education, is something Evans believes is crucial to students being able to have successful careers.

Evans said that while a high school diploma was once enough to ensure employ-ment, now the country’s relentless engine of techno-logical development, fueled by increasingly fierce global competition, has required an ever-growing pool of workers savvy enough to integrate these sophisticated new tools into their work routines. As an outcome of these techno-logical changes, there has been a persistent and ongoing demand for more post-second-ary education and training.

“It is a global world and the job market has changed. Even things like manufacturing jobs have changed, because employers put so much mon-ey into these new machines, they want them operated by well-educated workers who understand their concepts. In terms of the job market, physical labor is now becom-ing mental labor,” Evans said. “With so many students com-ing from single-parent homes and low-income families, they may not have the same sup-port systems that other kids have. It is a different world, things have changed, and education is the key for these kids. I’m afraid they will be lost without it.”

GEAR UP is a program that is vital to breaking poverty cycles in communi-ties, according to Evans. She listed parent knowledge as one of the keys to student success. The rationale is that once parents are informed about financial aid and other educational options, it will be easier for students to navigate the college landscape. Evans said she hopes to set up a fund where community members can contribute to students who are planning to continue their education after high school. For now, she plans on maximizing the GEAR UP grant’s potential, which she hopes will increase the potential of the students and the community.

“This type of grant can go a long way and make a big difference in the community,” Evans said. “Look at how much it cost to educate a person, but then look at how much it costs if that person is not educated and they end up on federal aid, or in prison or rehab or any other social service that is paid for by taxpayers. If that investment is made in education, then it is more likely the person will be able to find a job and have the ability to contribute to the system, rather than be supported by it. That is what changes a community for the better.”


Gear upContinued from Page 3J

school’s students.“Our bread and butter is

academics, but we want to give our students chances to broaden their interest and their perspectives,” March-and said. “We want them to know what it means to excel in all areas of life. Our motto is that we are getting students life-ready.”

Marchand credited his staff with being the driving force behind the progress at PCA, saying that having teachers who care about kids is what makes everything else work.

Smith seconded the com-ment, saying the PCA staff is like a family, and they have all grown together.

“We have awesome teachers here, and one thing about our school is that as a staff we listen and consider every-one’s ideas for improvement,” Smith said. “This year has opened up into a lot of things for us. We have been working hard toward having the same opportunities that larger schools do, and to see it actu-ally happen is very exciting.”


SeniorsContinued from Page 6J

said. “They have a safe group of friends. They look out for one another, and they have healthy relationships with their peers. That is something that band encourages.”

Not only has the band pro-vided positive social results, but academics have improved as well, according to Principal Chad Smith. When Lambert asked Smith what stood out to him about the emergence of the

program, Smith said students in the band had seen improved attendance and grades.

“We haven’t had a single student fail a course for the year,” Lambert said. “Those that may be struggling during the nine-weeks period always turn it around, because they know that they can’t play if they don’t.”

Lambert attributed the program’s success to the desire of the students and the support of the community, the school board, the principal and the su-

perintendent. Moving forward, Lambert said he has a pep band in the works to play at basketball games.

“We don’t want the band to be an isolated entity, but rather a catalyst for school spirit and student involvement,” Lambert said. “We want to continu-ally enhance the community by marching in parades and being visible.”

Eventually, with the band’s size growing, Lambert hopes to be able to practice and store

equipment in a band hall that can accommodate the full group.

“Everyone understands that would be a huge commitment for the district, considering the state of the economy and the scarcity of funding for new programs,” Lambert said. “We have initiated an intensive search for grants, and we are doing everything we can, but we are getting a little bit beyond what we can accomplish on our own, without more com-munity help.”

Lambert said that he, as well as the district, is in uncharted territory at this point, but will trust things to work out the same way they have since the program began two years ago.

“As we add one grade each year, we don’t know what high school will hold,” he said. “We know we are going to have an even greater need for funding going forth and that any help would be greatly appreciated, but if there is a way for things to work out, I believe our com-munity, our district and our superintendent will make it hap-pen. There is not better advocate for student opportunities and involvement than Mr. Garner. This is new for everybody. We are out of the beginning stages and into the big leagues.”


Micah Powell/The lufkin News

along with the Drill Team (above), Pca has expanded its programs to include a Gifted and Talented program, Uil academic teams and new sports teams, as the school will be competing in Uil athletics this fall.

BandContinued from Page 5J

Joel aNDRewS/The lufkin News

central Junior high band students put away their instruments at the end of practice.


French horns, trombones and baritones of the central Junior high band.

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ZAVALLA — New buildings mean construction, and con-struction means money. No one understood that more than Zavalla ISD Superintendent David Flowers in 2009 when a bond construction election and a tax ratification appeared on the same ballot in Zavalla.

When the voting was com-plete, Flowers knew exactly where his community stood when it came to education.

“For the people in this com-munity to pass a bond con-struction and a tax ratification on the same ballot, that shows how much they care about this school,” Flowers said. “It also goes a long way in showing that we are all in this together,

100 percent. The community really blessed us by voting for that bond.”

One of the reasons for the bond was the need for a new wing that would combine the younger grade-level campuses with one another and with the cafeteria.

“All of our buildings here used to be standalone,” Flow-ers said. “There was no main entrance, and that was a safety concern for us. What we were able to do with the bond con-struction money was drop a wing right in the middle of the buildings and connect every-thing.”

This is the first year that Zavalla students have been in the district’s new building, and Flowers said the response has been extremely positive from both the school and the com-munity.

“It has been a great morale boost for our teachers and our students,” he said. “These parents are sending the prize possessions of their hearts to us, and they want those kids to

be in state-of-the-art facilities, using the best tools there are for education.”

Flowers said the district spent the bond money effi-ciently, completing all of the construction projects under budget, thus freeing up funds to remodel floors and rest-rooms that were more than 60 years old.

Zavalla was able to ensure that students were not using restrooms from the 1950s thanks to the support of the community. Flowers said he hopes school funding issues with the state will be resolved, and that the solution will take some of the weight off of com-munities like his own.

“Zip code shouldn’t matter. One of the big things that all of us, the superintendents in

this county as well as others in the state, have been push-ing for is equity and adequacy when it comes to funding,” Flowers said. “Every public school in Angelina County is toward the bottom in funding, and what we want is for our kids to have the same opportu-nity as everyone else. Hope-fully the state will change its stance when it comes to fund-ing, but the way it is looking, it is going to take the courts to make that change.”

Flowers added that while his, and other Angelina County schools, are low on the state funding end, they are more than adequate when it comes to producing quality students.

“With funding the way it is, we have relied on other things in order to give our students the best educational experi-ence and the most opportuni-ties moving forward,” Flowers said. “We have teachers and staff who care, and put in a tremendous amount of time and work to do everything

they can for our students.”Flowers also credited the

E.L. Kurth Foundation for be-ing he described as a “saving grace” for Zavalla and other schools in the county.

“They have blessed us with close to $200,000 in my short time here, and we cannot thank them enough,” Flowers said. “They have helped us purchase laptops for teachers, new projectors, and comput-ers for our labs and libraries. The Kurth Foundation is pro-education and pro-Angelina County, and has truly been a great friend to this school district.”

Zavalla ISD also finds itself as one of the leaders in a new educational trend called “note-booking,” a non-traditional way of encouraging students

to take notes.Notebooking is a concept

that combines foldables, 3-D pop-ups and various other shapes that are designed by students with whatever infor-mation they feel is important to remember about a particu-lar lesson. For example, the students folded and cut out an accordion shape, and then wrote notes on it about the “Bill of Rights.” When the lesson was over, the students folded the shape down to a compressed version and taped it in their notebooks.

“It’s a lot more hands-on, and more fun than just writ-ing what’s on the board,” said eighth-grader Hanna Eddings. She joined seventh-grader Makaela Eastwood and teacher Cathy Lott for a video conference with the East Texas Piney Woods Region VII Education Service Center dur-ing which the girls showed off their own notebooking skills and answered questions from other teachers around the region who were interested in

acquiring the craft.“It was a great honor for

Zavalla,” said Lott, who is a product of Zavalla ISD herself. “And we were happy to share and discuss notebooking with other teachers and students because it something that we have found is very successful with our students. It is a cre-ative way for them to organize and learn the material. It’s very visual, and the owner-ship aspect of their notebooks keeps the students engaged and motivated.”

The next thing on tap for Zavalla ISD is “Zavalla Reads.” The event will be held at 10 a.m. May 10, when the school will invite the entire communi-ty to devote 15 minutes to read-ing. School board members and other community figures will be on hand in the library to read with students, while the school is sending books to restaurants and other local businesses so that anyone in town can stop and read along.


Zavalla community invests in school construction

“For the people in this community to pass a bond construction and a tax ratification on the same ballot, that shows how much they care about this school.”

david flowerSZavaLLa ISD SuperINTeNDeNT

NICK WADE/The Lufkin News

With multiple stand alone buildings presenting safety and efficiency issues, Zavalla ISD’s new wing connected the buildings and created a main entry way.


The new library on campus will play host to “Zavalla Reads” in May, when the school invites the entire community to “read with the Eagles.”


Makaela Eastwood (left) and Hanna Eddings (right) joined teacher Cathy Lott during a video conference with the East Texas Pineywoods Region VII Education Service Center to demonstrate the concept of “notebooking” to other teachers and students in the region.


LUFKIN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

A WORLD CLASS EDUCATION BEGINS HERE

WORLD CLASS PROGRAMS

WORLD CLASS ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• 2 TEA Exemplary Campuses • 4 TEA Recognized Campuses • Partner with Purdue University

Engineering • Dual Language Magnet

Program • Gifted/Talented Magnet

Programs • Full Day Prekindergarten and

Kindergarten • Hewlett Packard National

Elementary Technology Campus

• Duke Talent Awards 7th grade • 46 AP & Pre-AP Course

Offerings • Dual credit with Angelina

College • National Champion Career/

Technology Classes • State Recognized Robotics

Team • Destination Imagination • IGNITE Mentoring program • Nationally Recognized

Reading Programs • State Renowned Performing

Arts, Band, Choral Music, Theatre, & Dance

Since 2000: • 26 National Merit Finalists • 39 National Merit Commended

Scholars • 3000+ Academic Letter

Jackets Awarded • 4 UIL Academic

Championships • 3 Bill Gates Scholars • LHS Alumni Association with

$4 million Scholarship Endowment

LHS Graduates Attend: Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Emory, Vanderbilt, University of Texas, Rice, Texas A& M, Texas Tech, Baylor, Tulane, Trinity University of North Carolina, TCU, Southwestern, University of Alabama, SMU, Annapolis Naval Academy, Stephen F. Austin, Texas State University

Visit LISD at www.lufkinisd.org

Lufkin IndependentSchool District

Welcome to the Lufkin Independent School District. The mission of the Lufkin Independent School District is to ensure student success through high expectations, a focus on student learning, creating challenging and engaging classrooms, and a commitment to continuous improvement. With increased accountability standards for all students and the demands of high stakes testing, Lufkin ISD embraced the need to be proactive in assisting all students in meeting increased performance standards. Lufkin ISD is proud to provide all students with world class educational opportunities. Lufkin ISD students are successful and the Lufkin ISD staff takes pride in that success. Lufkin ISD has two “Exemplary” campuses and four “Recognized” campuses. In 2010-2011, Lufkin High School was the only TEA “Recognized” 5-A high school in the entire East Texas area.

Like many districts, Lufkin ISD has wrestled with increases in population and the challenges of providing adequate facilities while being faithful stewards of taxpayer money. In November of 2007 this community passed a $49.5 million bond initiative to address three main areas of need in facilities and programs. These needs relate to campus safety and security, program and facility upgrades, and provisions for student growth. In 2011-2012 all projects, except the renovation of Garrett Primary, are complete. These projects guarantee that the students of Lufkin ISD have world class facilities, safe and secure campuses, and a positive atmosphere for learning. The community continues to demonstrate public confidence in Lufkin ISD.

Lufkin ISD offers successful, competitive, and challenging programs to include: world class dual language magnet programs, gifted and talented magnet programs, full-day prekindergarten instruction for three and four year olds, full day kindergarten programs, full day programs for students with autism, deaf education, and PPCD programs for early childhood. Lufkin ISD puts the needs of every student in the forefront. Lufkin ISD strives to recognize academic excellence and challenge every student to reach his full potential.

Come and experience what it means to be part of the Panther Nation on any fall Friday night and you will see an entire town turned out to support a world class football team, band, drill team, cheerleaders, to name a few. It’s a community event of massive proportions. It’s Panther Pride. For some towns, it might just be a slogan on a t-shirt. For Lufkin, it’s a great time to be a Lufkin Panther!


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While last summer cars were seen driving out onto dry lake beds

(something that’s actually against the law), Sam Rayburn Reservoir is on the rebound with a surge of rainfall this year.

According to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake manager Bart Dearborn, since March 1 the lake has risen three feet, to 160 feet above mean sea level. It is now only four feet shy of its nor-mal level of 164.4 feet, Dearborn said.

“We’re happy with where we’re standing today,” he said. “We’re still in a time of year where this region sees rainfall, so there is the possibility the lake will come up with addi-tional rain. There’s no deter-mination we’re in the clear yet, though.”

The record low was set in 1996 at 150.78 feet. Last November the lake level was just shy of that at 150.79, becoming a dry stump bed visible from the state Highway 103 east bridge.

Overseeing the lake’s daily operations, Texas Parks and Wildlife District Capt. Shawn Phillips said he’s beginning to

see lake traffic return to normal. “The lake has risen a lot. Even

with the drought, activity and traffic has been as busy as nor-mal,” Phillips said. “The fishing has been really good for crappie and white bass.”

Although the lake appears to be on the mend, its economic impact is still suffering. Under normal conditions, the waters in Sam Rayburn can be released through the two 26,000-kilowatt hydroelectric generators to pro-duce an annual average of more than 118 million kilowatts of electricity for users in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. Due to the lack of water, electric-ity production at the dam ceased in October and remained at a halt as of mid March.

With limited lake access, there is less boating and tourism on the lake, which means fewer po-tential customers for shops like Lowery’s and Brooks Grocery, both located near the lake’s 103 east bridge.

“I know recreation is a big piece of the local economy, and any time there is an impact to the recreation it affects our local communities,” Dearborn said. “The biggest impact to the public is where they can access the lake.”

As of mid March all primary boat ramps were open except for those on the north end of the lake. Dearborn said the Corps of Engineers is considering the reopening of two access sites on the north side of the lake.

“We’re optimistic, but we know they’re anticipating another dry year,” Dearborn said. “We’re headed in the right direction.”

Regardless of lake conditions, Dearborn reminded people to be cautious while out on the water.

“People need to be familiar with the reservoir and familiar-ize themselves with the area,” he said. “Wear proper safety equipment, play it safe and protect yourself by wearing a life jacket.”

Construction on the dam began in 1956 with deliberate impoundment of water begin-ning in 1965, according to the Corps of Engineers. A year later the lake reached its normal level. The project — authorized by Congress in 1955 for flood control, hydroelectric power generation and conservation of water for municipal, industrial, agricultural, and recreational uses — cost roughly $66 million.


Recent rains help Sam Rayburn Reservoir rise closer to normal


November 2011 the lake level was 150.79 feet, just shy of the 1996 record low of 150.78.


Sam Rayburn shoreline. Since March 1 the lake has reportedly risen 3 feet and is now at 160 feet above mean sea level thanks to recent heavy rains. Its normal level is 164.4 feet.


According to Wildlife District Capt. Shawn Phillips lake traffic is beginning to return to normal.

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If you bring it, they will come.That’s what Lufkin

Convention and Visitors Board Director Tara Watson-Watkins has learned after a series of new and successful sold-out events.

With Lufkin’s Bis-tro, Corks and Forks and Summerfest, Watson-Watkins has given local foodies and music enthusiasts a reason to turn off the television and head out on the town. Out-of-towners are taking notice, too.

Having lived in Ft. Worth, Dallas and Austin before moving back to her hometown, Watson-Watkins said she missed some

of the benefits of big-city life, namely the opportunity for en-joying a night out on the town.

When I moved back home, I really missed sitting outside, having a glass of wine and eat-ing good food with my friends,” she said.

After she took over the job as head of the CVB, she realized others were hungry for the same thing when she began receiving calls to bring back the formerly popular “A Taste of Lufkin.”

“I think people were just longing for something to do,” she said. “That’s really where Lufkin’s Bistro came about.”

With the “A Taste of ...” series of events copyrighted by the Restaurant Association, Watson-Watkins decided to instead create Lufkin’s Bistro, giving it her own spin by making it an outdoor nighttime event featur-ing live music held downtown.

“I think downtown Lufkin is really becoming a great, little fun spot,” she said. “The first year we sold 350 tickets, with a couple of hundred on a waiting list. This past year we sold more than 500 tickets, with a couple of hundred on a waiting list, as well.”

Because bigger is always bet-

ter in Texas, Watson-Watkins is looking to surpass those num-bers this year.

“We’re looking at going to two blocks,” she said. “We’re going to go with anywhere from 800

to 1,000 people, and I think we can sell that out.”

The popularity of the Bistro had people asking for it to be held more than once a year. Watson-Watkins answered with Corks and Forks, a smaller, indoor food and wine-pairing event held in February that also

incorporated live music and an art auction.

“People kept asking for a second Bistro, so we decided we would do it on a smaller scale and I knew we needed to do it

indoors because of the weather,” Watson-Watkins said.

Tickets for the event, which was held at downtown venue Abram’s, sold out quickly.

“We had 300 tickets that sold in a week-and-a-half,” she said.

While guests at Corks and

Forks enjoyed food and wine samples from various eater-ies and wineries, a trio of local artists worked on renditions of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” in various mediums. The finished paintings were auctioned at the end of the evening, with money raised for scholarships.

“We really wanted to show off our art community,” Watson-Watkins said. “We raised about $550 that night that went in our scholarship fund with the money we raised with the Bistro. This is our second year to give $1,000 scholarships to three graduating seniors.”

Summer Fest Texas, a music festival at the George H. Hender-son Exposition Center that in-corporates a barbecue cook-off with live entertainment, will be back for a second year, Watson-Watkins said.

“Robert Earl Keen is our head-liner,” she said. “It will be held May 19, the gates will open at 11

a.m. and tickets are $15 each.”For $150, teams can compete

in the annual Backyard Barbe-cue Cook-off in any or all of four categories, Watson-Watkins said.

“They can do chicken, pork butt, ribs or brisket. We just ask that they cook enough to provide samples,” she said. “Last year we had 24 cook teams, and we’re looking to double that this year.”

With new partnerships, Watson-Watkins has already seen the results of cross-market-ing events.

“Last year we sent out post-cards to every single rider who had ever participated in a Purga-tory saying, ‘Come and enjoy Purgatory, but stay an extra day and play.’ We actually had 94 rid-ers and spouses that stayed an extra night for Lufkin’s Bistro, which is great.”

Using the same strategy

brought in nearly a dozen people who booked hotel rooms for Corks and Forks, Watson-Wat-kins said, although she expects that number to grow.

“We sent out letters to every-one who had been to a Lufkin’s Bistro,” she said. “It starts out

small, then it grows.”Filling the extra hotel rooms

and “putting heads in beds” is what makes a CVB event suc-cessful, Watson-Watkins said, be-cause the organization receives the taxes on hotels and motels.

“Even though that’s where my money comes from, I know, and the board is very conscious that, you have to start with your hometown people first,” Watson-Watkins said. “Once the local people buy in, then it spreads like wildfire. We have seen that. We have people coming back from Louisiana for Summer Fest; we had that with Bistro. We’re getting recurring visitors, which is really a fun thing.”

For more information about the CVB, including upcoming activities, go to visitlufkin.com. For more information about Summer Fest Texas, go to east-texassummerfest.com.


Good NightlifeLufkin CVB events bring foot traffic downtown; Robert Earl Keen to play at second Summer Fest

“I think downtown Lufkin is really becoming a great, little fun spot.”

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Tara waTSon-waTkinS


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A Christian foster care ministry in Angelina County prides itself on

saying yes when others say no.

It’s their motto.The Bair Foundation. The

Bair Foundation has grown since being founded by Bill Bair in Pennsylvania in 1967 to include 37 offices in eight states with the goal of provid-ing therapeutic foster care to thousands of children across the nation. The foundation’s goal is that foster parents trained and equipped by Bair can become role models for the children they take in and even the parents looking to get their lives back on track.

Bethany James, intake direc-tor of The Bair Foundation’s Lufkin office, said there is an abundance of children in the Angelina County area who need foster parents.

“For all those kids that need to be adopted, there’s so many more that need a temporary home so Mom and Dad can get it together and work out their family situation so the kids can come home,” James said.

James acknowledges that many have preconceived no-

tions about foster children and that most of them are negative. She contends that the majority of foster children are just nor-mal kids, and she urges foster parents to focus on why a child acts out rather than focusing on

the act itself.“We urge them to remember

the emotion behind the behav-ior and not taking the behavior personally, which is very hard to do sometimes,” James said. “You may have a child that comes in your home that never smiles and never laughs and may be awful all week, and then they hug you and it makes everything worth it.”

Bair provides a three-part process to becoming a foster parent that is usually completed within 60 days. The first step is a group study process, also referred to as Foster Parent University, that takes 16 hours spread over four classes and teaches the potential foster par-ents about what it means to be a foster parent. The second step is the evaluation process in which foster parents are assigned a home study date that includes a thorough investigation of their background and home. The third and final stage is all about support. Bair strives to support its foster parents and aims to

be right alongside them as they start their new journey as foster parents.

“As a foster parent we don’t ask you to make a lifetime com-mitment to a child, we ask you to make a meaningful commitment

to a child’s life,” James said. “You may have a child in your home for two weeks or two years or until they turn 18 and go to college. You can be very mean-ingful to a child just by showing them love and just showing them positive attention.”

Currently Bair has 24 families spread across East Texas, as far away as Joaquin and Hardin. James said interest in Bair is starting to peak, but some families are put off by the price at the pump.

“We’ve gotten more inquiries lately. However, the hard part is that because they are from so far sometimes they’re turned off from having to come to Lufkin if they’re from Jasper or Kir-byville, with gas the way it is.”

Bair is hoping to expand its offices to Beaumont to alleviate some of the pain in travel.

For more information on The Bair Foundation, visit Bair.org or visit the Lufkin office at 1403 Turtle Creek Drive.


Christian foundation helps people succeed as foster parents


Bethany James intake director of The Bair Foundation stands outside the lufkin office located on Turtlecreek Drive. The Bair Foundation provides homes to more than 70 children across angelina county who have been abused or neglected.

“As a foster parent we don’t ask you to make a lifetime commitment to a child, we ask you to make a meaningful commitment to a child’s life.”

Bethany JaMeSiNTAke direcTor of The BAir fouNdATioN’s LufkiN office

By STeVe KNiGhTThe Lufkin News

A recovering economy and a little extra cash in the pocket means more

time for leisure activities for many people.

For those who want to stay fit and trim while experiencing the Texas Forest County land-scape, there are bicycle routes in Lufkin and around Angelina County for riders of all experi-ence levels.

Using global positioning system technology, Lufkin Trail Coordinator Aaron Friar has spent the last year mapping various bicycle trails and cat-egorizing them into difficulty and experience levels — begin-ner, intermediate, advanced, family and mountain biking.

“The bicycle routes have

actually been around for a long time. We have a very active bike club, the Angelina Bicycle Club and the DET-TRAC, the Deep East Texas Trail Route and Access Coalition,” Friar said. “They have been riding for a long time, but it was more word-of-mouth. We had them make a list for us of some of the routes. They helped organize the whole program and build the bike trails.”

One example of a bike trail that the whole family can enjoy is the Azalea Trail, a paved trail in the heart of Lufkin and is about 1.9 miles one-way. The trail travels along Hurricane Creek, which is surrounded by hardwood forest. That provides a shaded ride that is great for families and riders looking for a route that is relaxing and ab-sent of motor vehicle traffic. It’s a good route for those looking for a place to teach the little one how to ride a bike or looking for exercise without having to travel far.

The route begins at either Grace Dunne Richardson Park or Kiwanis Park. There is parking at both parks or behind Lufkin Mall.

According to Friar, the trail is easy to follow and is not very strenuous, but there are areas that need special attention, the most notable being the section of trail that goes beneath the bridge at First Street. That portion has a steep hill on both sides of the bridge that leads down to Hurricane Creek. If riders are traveling too fast on

one of these hills, they might end up swimming in the creek, because there is no guard rail beneath the bridge. To avoid that sec-tion, riders can ride to a crosswalk a short distance from the trail that will cross over First Street.

The 27.5-mile Air-port Loop is one of the longer beginner rides throughout the area, providing a steady uphill climb for begin-ning cyclists to increase their endurance. Friar said there are some unique sights along this route that include Pine Valley Race Track and the Angelina County Airport. Cyclists will also pass behind the Crown Colony subdivision and Ange-

lina College. Although the route does not extend far from Lufkin, it still provides scenic views of the countryside.

The route begins at Brook-hollow Elementary School at 1009 Live Oak Lane, and there is parking next to the school. Outside of school hours, park-ing should not be an issue, but when students are attending classes, riders should call the school at 634-8415 to inquire about parking accommoda-tions. With the exception of U.S. Highway 59, farm-to-market roads and streets within the Lufkin city limits, most roads do not provide a wide shoulder for cyclists to ride on. Those roads can also have narrow turns that limit visibility and have rough surfaces. This is specially true for Box Car Road, and cyclists should ride single file when encountering these obstacles.

There is an alternate Airport Loop route that extends the original loop by 12.5 miles and is considered an intermediate route. That route takes riders further out into the countryside and includes sights such as Pine Valley Race Track and The His-tory Center in Diboll.

The Broaddus Loop is one of the longest and more advanced routes in the area. The 72.6-mile route will take riders though mostly Angelina County, but also passes through Nacogdo-ches and San Augustine coun-ties. The route begins with roll-ing hills, then travels through the Angelina National Forest. The route is relatively flat until

riders get closer to Zavalla. The most challenging section of the route begins with multiple steep

climbs up what the local residents refer to as Moss Hill. After this climb, riders are on the downhill portion of the ride, continuing though pine stands managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Rid-ers then go through Huntington, the last stop before pushing on to the final stretch into

Lufkin. The route also takes riders around a portion of Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

The route begins at Lufkin High School at 309 S. Medford Drive, where there is parking next to Abe Martin Stadium. When students are attending class, cyclists should call the

school’s police department at 630-4410 to inquire about park-ing accommodations.

Because commercial re-sources to restock supplies can be vast on any of the routes, riders should obtain food and water before departing.

Each of the routes utilize public roads that are open to motor vehicle traffic, and cy-clists should obey all traffic laws and ride at their own risk. Friar recommends that all cyclists use caution when riding, wear helmets and equip their bicycles with rearview mirrors.

The local bicycle trails are likely to get more use as more people find out about them.

“They have been around for a while. I just put them on a map so other people can find them,” Friar said. “It’s been a real learning curve this first year. I’ve really been trying to get out and experience these areas and make these maps. A month after we published them, we had over 3,000 hits on the website. A lot of that had to do with the Pineywoods Purgatory (held each fall).”

For those new to the sport or to the area and would like more information from experienced riders, visit the Angelina Bicycle Club website at www.angelinabicycleclub.com.

For more information on these and more bicycle routes, including maps and turn-by-turn instructions, visit visit-lufkin.com/play/biking.


lufkin trail coordinator telling people about little-known bicycle routes

aaron friar


The azalea Trail begins in Grace Dunne Richardson park and follows a winding route through south lufkin to Kiwanis park.

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For decades, the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin has provided the community

with a place to picnic, see exotic animals and attend events, but in 2012 one of the biggest highlights for the zoo is its ability to pro-mote education.

Local schools, colleges and individuals alike are utilizing the zoo’s educational resources daily. From hosting teacher workshops to holding summer camps, the zoo has become a super-sized classroom for East Texas.

“We offer a variety of pro-grams here at the zoo,” said education director Charlotte Henley. “We do presentations for students in pre-kindergarten through college. The types of programs we offer include basic taxonomy; feeding labs where second-graders learn about what animals eat, and get to feed them; Texas animals, which includes endangered species in Texas; as well as animal adapta-tions and zoo careers.”

Henley said the zoo also does special request programs, such as a vet medicine program for

high school agriculture classes, as well as hosting photography classes.

“We also do labs for the wild-life management classes at SFA, where we cover captive animal management for them,” Henley said. “During the summer, of course, we have 18 sessions of Zoo Safari for elementary-aged students and two sessions of Jr. Zookeeper for middle school stu-dents. We also do an assortment of library programs.”

Another important program, according to Henley, is the part-nership with Dunbar Primary’s first-grade PACE classes, which allows the students to visit the zoo almost every month to learn about different concepts of math and science.

Earlier this month, the zoo was able to install a webcam in the tiger exhibit, enabling Dunbar students to watch the animals while in the classroom.

“The zoo is essentially a living laboratory,” Henley said. “Many natural history subjects that stu-dents learn in school are every-day activities and functions in a modern zoo. In addition to the normal science-based subjects, we use and demonstrate math concepts. We participate with

Dunbar Primary and Brandon Elementary in their engineer-ing projects, where we teach about pulley systems, building components of exhibits, tensile strength, momentum and a vari-ety of engineering subjects.”

One of the primary catalysts for the zoo’s ability to promote and provide education is the education center, located across from the zoo’s administrative offices.

“We are able to host science meetings, such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Conserva-tion and Recreation Forum for Region VIII, the East Texas Black Bear Task Force, and the Red-cockaded Woodpecker/Louisiana Pine Snake meeting,” Henley said. “We are also able to do teacher workshops, like the ‘Growing Up Wild’ work-shop we did last month. We had teachers from Lufkin, Palestine and Longview attend. We host teacher planning for Lufkin ISD, as well.”

The zoo’s education center also served as a host for the U.S. Forest Service Fire Command Center during the wildfire out-break last fall, and the building is used as a staging area for the Zoo Boo, Zoo Brew and other

special events sponsored by the Friends of the Zoo organization.

Henley said she understood the importance of working with local schools, and that the zoo sees the benefits as students get older.

“Students get a more hands-on experience and a real-life experience of the subject matter they are learning in school, and it’s fun,” Henley said. “Addi-tionally, we are able to provide a resource to teachers who don’t always feel comfortable teach-ing science. The zoo receives in return a more informed citizen, support for conserva-tion programs and community support of the zoo and its goals. We are proud of our continued collaboration with Lufkin ISD on all levels.”

Henley said the zoo plans to continue using its educational resources to host more teacher workshops and more special events in the future.

“We want to continue Bear Awareness Day/Bears, Blooms and Butterflies,” Henley said. “We’d also like to add a special day for bats, since the United Nations has declared 2012 the Year of the Bat. We have the potential to do temporary exhib-its in our Jaguar Room, but we haven’t moved in that direction yet. I would like to offer a col-lege level course on zoo biology through either Angelina College or SFA.”


Lufkin zoo enhances its education offerings, but plans to do even more


A group of Dunbar students stare at a tiger pacing its habitat at the Ellen Trout Zoo. This is now possible via webcam; the zoo recently installed a camera so Dunbar students can view the exhibit while in the classroom.


A zoo employee talks to children about a young giraffe.


Pictured above is Ellen Trout Zoo’s education center. The zoo is making the most of its ability to educate the community, including hosting teacher workshops, summer camps, and a variety of special request programs.

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Churches like Broth-ers Keeper are grow-ing in popularity

as people look for a non-traditional atmosphere to awaken something in their souls.

It’s the perfect church for those who aren’t, ac-cording to pastor Dave Sarver. With his long hair, beard and tattoos Sarver is taking on the traditional approach of “paint by number” Christianity.

After pastoring in a mainstream church for four years Sarver said he was burned out on seeing

people just going through the motions for the sake of appearances and church politics.

“One of the main things we teach here is having a real relationship with God. Not just walk the aisle and say a prayer, but a day to day relationship with God,” he said.

He along with his family started the non-denomina-tional church in 1995. The name, Brothers Keeper, comes from the message that we are all our broth-er’s keepers, he explained.

“We wanted to have a place where people could come as they are to get away from over emotional-ism and over traditional-ism to just have a place to come worship the Lord,” he said.

Initially attendance was low but it has grown expo-nentially in the last sev-enteen years. The church does not have members, Sarver pointed out ex-plaining “membership” makes people feel like at-tendance is required.

“We’re unique in that we don’t do membership.

We tell people, ‘If you like it, hang out as long as God wants you here. If he sends you somewhere else go,’” he said. “I grew up in church and I felt like you went to church because that’s what you had to do. That’s what Christians did.”

With average Sunday attendance currently ranging from 100 to 200 people, Sarver said the church is a melting pot with people from all walks of life. The church’s come as you are attitude is what draws a lot of people in, he said. On Sunday morn-ings you can find people in anything from jeans and T-shirts to their “Sunday best.”

As for the sermon, Sarv-er said he focuses on scrip-ture. He spends countless hours studying the word of God. Sarver said he has a special fondness for the Hebrew teaching of Christ.

“That’s a big thing for me because I believe the Hebrew people are the roots of our faith so I study as much Hebrew as I can,” he said. “I don’t study because I have to, I study because I want to. The more I know, the closer I feel to Him.”

While there are many misconceptions about the church, the No. 1 Sarver would like to clear up is it is not a biker church. The church does however have a motorcycle ministry of which it is very proud. The motorcycle ministry, really more a motorcycle outreach, is headed up by Scott Wilcox.

Its motorcycle ministry has become a fixture in many Lufkin area events including the annual Christmas toy run.

Another misconcep-tion Sarver would like to clear up, they don’t handle snakes, he said with a laugh.

The church also offers a children’s church for ages 0-8 and youth group on Wednesday nights.

To check out what Broth-ers Keeper has to offer, Sunday service starts around “11-ish,” Sarver said with Sunday school starting at 10 a.m. Wednes-day service starts at 7 p.m.

For more information contact the church at 414-9014 or online at Brother-skeeperchurch.com


The perfect church for people who aren’t

“We wanted to have a place where people could come as they are to get away from over emotionalism and over traditionalism to just have a place to come worship the Lord.”

dave SarverBroThers Keeper pasTor

COntrIButEd phOtO

the non-traditional atmosphere of Brothers Keeper has grown in popularity over the years. Initially attendance was low but now averages 100 to 200 people at Sunday service.

“We’re unique in that we don’t do membership. We tell people, ‘If you like it, hang out as long as God wants you here.’”

dave SarverBroThers Keeper pasTor

Brothers Keeper worship service growing in popularity

COntrIButEd phOtO

Brothers Keeper’s come as you are attitude is what draws a lot of people in according to pastor dave Sarver.

COntrIButEd phOtO

pastor dave Sarver, pictured above, started Brothers Keeper church in 1995 after experiencing burn-out pastoring a mainstream church, seeing members just ‘going through the motions’ for the sake of appearances and church politics.

COntrIButEd phOtO

the church also offers children’s church and youth group on Wednesday nights.

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According to Girl Scout history lore, Juliette Gordon Low, known to

her family and friends as Daisy, made what would become a historic phone call to her cousin, Nina Pape.

“Come right over! I’ve got something for the girls of Savan-nah, and all America, and all the world, and we’re going to start it tonight.”

Believing that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually, Low brought 18 Savannah, Ga., girls together for the first Girl Scout meeting on March 12, 1912.

The goal was to bring girls out of isolated home environments and into community service and the open air. Those first Girl Scouts hiked, played basketball, went on camping trips, learned how to tell time by the stars and studied first aid. The dream for a girl-centered organization came to fruition.

Now in its 100th year, Girl Scouts of the USA has a mem-bership of more than 2.3 million girl members and 890,000 adult members working primarily as volunteers. More than 50 million women in the country are Girl Scout alumnae.

And it’s more than selling those incredibly delectable Thin Mint cookies — alumnae take learned skills and go on to be-come service, government and business leaders.

According to the New York-based organization, 10 of 17 women in the United States Sen-ate and 45 of 75 women in the House of Representatives are former Girl Scouts.

Fifty-three percent of all women business owners are for-mer Girl Scouts, and 76 percent of all Girl alumnae report that Girl Scouts had a positive impact in their lives.

In a move designed to focus national attention on girls and the issues they face, Girl Scouts of the USA declared 2012 the Year of the Girl, a program de-signed as a celebration of girls, recognition of their leadership potential, and a commitment to creating a coalition of like-mind-ed organizations and individuals in support of balanced leader-

ship in the workplace and in communities across the country.

“The Year of the Girl is only a beginning,” Girl Scouts of the USA Chief Executive Officer Anna Maria Chavez said in a statement. “We can’t transform American leadership in a year, but we can transform expecta-tions in a year. We can trans-form awareness in a year. We can set in motion a generational change, and make certain that a baby girl born in 2012 will experience her life in a new and vastly different world. Only Girl Scouts, with its scale and time-honored place in society, can launch this initiative. If not us, who? If not now, when? When girls succeed, so does society. We know that together, we can get her there.”

Girl Scouts nationwide are mixing celebrations of the organization’s 100 years as the premier leadership experience for girls with efforts to create a sense of urgency around girls’ issues.

“Girl Scouts is at the forefront of building girl leaders,” said Girl Scouts of the USA National President Connie L. Lindsey. “We embrace the opportunity we have to develop the next generation and future genera-tions of leaders that understand the inter-connectedness of the global community. Our girls will

understand that they matter. And when they dream their fu-ture, they see a world of shared leadership: where the values of courage, confidence, and char-acter really do make the world a better place.”

Angelina County Girl Scouts, part of the Pine Shadows Service Unit of the San Jacinto Council, are also celebrating the landmark anniversary.

“It’s very exciting. It’s huge. There’s so much going on, not just in our area, but all over our council and our nation,” said Jame Kouts, the local service unit’s membership manager. “The girls are doing all types of activities to commemorate the birthday, so it’s a pretty exciting time. There are so many differ-ent ways that they are marking it. Some people are planting 100 trees in 100 days, and all sorts of different things.”

At a Lufkin City Council meeting on March 6, Lufkin Mayor Jack Gorden presented a proclamation proclaiming March 12 as Girl Scout Centen-nial Day.

Those interested in joining, volunteering with or donating to Girl Scouts can call the Lufkin office at 634-5813, call the nation-al headquarters at (800) 478-7248, or visit www.girlscouts.org.


Girl Scouts in lufkin and worldwide celebrate organization’s 100th year

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Girl Scouts Green Starlettes drill Team 2012, Senior division. Top row, Moira Lockington. Middel row, Nature Card, Ariyonn Garrett. Bottom row, Belen Solis, Victoria Bowden, Katie Martin.

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Green Starlettes after Veterans day parade. Top row, Nature Card, Skylar robertson, Moira Lockington, Belen Solis, Madison McGrath. Middle row, deneseia davis, Xavjah Tatum, Areyana Goolsby, Victoria Bowden. Bottom row, Ariyonn Garrett, Jenae’ Menefee, Katie Martin.

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By steve knightThe Lufkin News

Volunteers from Lufkin-based Court Appointed Special

Advocates of the Pines see the terrible devastation that abuse takes on chil-dren.

According to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, one child in Texas is confirmed as a victim of abuse and neglect every eight min-utes, on average, and one dies from abuse and neglect every 38 hours, on average.

Natalie Thornton, execu-

tive director of CASA of the Pines, said statistics like that are unconscionable.

“These are children in our community who deserve to grow up in safe, permanent homes where their basic needs — food, clothing, shelter and educa-tion are met — where they can live in a home where they are not subjected to or exposed to physical and emotional abuse,” Thorn-ton said. “We need more CASA volunteers who can help break the cycle of abuse.”

Children who have CASA volunteers typically spend

less time in foster care and get the services they need, including medical and mental health services, educational services and, when appropriate, family services to help reunite families.

Thornton said it is benefi-cial when children spend less time in foster care, which also saves taxpayer funds.

“Every month less that a child remains in care saves taxpayers $1,835 in just foster care payments,” she said. “When you multiply that amount over the more than 46,000 children who are projected to be in the state’s care this year, the sum is a substantial total of savings. In Texas, the CPS

budget alone is $1.2 billion. That does not include all the additional costs, such as Medicaid for health care, mental health services, etc. When families get the services they need — par-ent education, counseling for drug and alcohol abuse, assistance with housing and job searches — that benefits the children, fami-lies and taxpayers. Foster care should be a last resort for children, and CASA volunteers work to ensure that children move through the foster care system and into safe, permanent homes as smoothly as possible.

We want to ensure that children do not experience additional trauma through frequent moves, over-med-ication and lack of the nec-essary services they need in order to become healthy, contributing adults.”

Thornton cited an exam-ple of a recent success. The names have been changed to protect confidentiality.

“Rebecca was placed in foster care after allegations of physical abuse,” Thorn-ton said. “The very first time Dolores, the CASA advocate, met her, they both connected through the love they share for horses.

After Rebecca was placed in a foster-adopt home, she began to act out with consistent tantrums. The behavior was reaching a point that both CASA and (Child Protective Services) were concerned that this family unit was beginning to crumble.”

Dolores began working on a solution.

“She remembered the knowledge she had about equine therapy and rec-ommended to the foster mom a program offered that she knew could help Rebecca. Through the next few weeks, Rebecca’s energy was redirected, and her negative behaviors subsided,” Thornton said. “Through this therapy

program and the knowl-edge Dolores brought to the case, Rebecca’s behav-ior has greatly improved. CASA is now looking for-ward to a spring adoption, with Rebecca officially be-coming part of her forever family.”

Thornton hopes that volunteers will consider contacting her office to learn more about being a CASA, but an additional way to support CASA is to participate in the CASA Superhero 5K on April 21 at Kiwanis Park in Lufkin.

Welcoming all runners and walkers, from beginner

to elite, the Superhero Run is an opportunity for partic-ipants to become superhe-roes in the eyes of children who need CASA volunteers to speak for them.

“The 10K, 5K and one-mile event raises aware-ness and funds to ensure that someday, every abused or neglected child in the East Texas area will have a Superhero CASA volun-teer,” Thornton said. “This one-of-a-kind event will feature costume contests, a children’s area, food and drinks, awards ceremonies and a family-friendly atmo-sphere. Most importantly,

the event will feature CASA volunteers sharing why they serve as advo-cates in court for abused and neglected children. You’re invited to dress up as your favorite super-hero and walk, jog or run toward a better future for Angelina, Polk, and Hous-ton County children. Help us give every abused child a true superhero — a CASA volunteer.”

For more information about the Superhero 5K race or CASA volunteer op-portunities, call 634-6725 or visit www.casapines.org.

Registration forms for the race can be downloaded by visiting casa5k.org.


Casa volunteers needed

“These are children in our community who deserve to grow up in safe, permanent homes where their basic needs — food, clothing, shelter and education are met — where they can live in a home where they are not subjected to or exposed to physical and emotional abuse.”

natalie thorntonexecuTive direcTor of cASA of The PiNeS

ContriButed photo By dena strBan

national adoption day Ceremony in angelina County.

ContriButed photo By dena strBan

national adoption day Ceremony in angelina County.

ContriButed photo

Melody adams and Michelle driscoll, two Casa advocates, take their oaths.

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2011



Visitors to Ratcliff Lake looking to enjoy the great outdoors are

greeted with unwelcome signs as they pull up to the gate.

“Closed.”“Danger: Hazard Trees.”It’s been a tough stretch for

Ratcliff Lake, to say the least. The recreation area, located

in the Davy Crockett National Forest, was ravaged by Hur-ricane Ike in 2008 and then fell victim to a tornado in April 2011, followed shortly thereafter by a record-setting drought.

“It was like a one-two punch on this thing,” said Ernie Murray, public affairs specialist with the U.S. Forest Service. “Hurricane Ike came through and messed up a lot of roads and trees. We got that fixed, and then they had a lit-tle twister come through that tore up a lot of trees, uprooted trees and messed up the roads and pulled up asphalt.

“We just about got done with that and then the drought just starts hitting and trees start dying left and right. Until we get them taken out, we can’t let the public in because it’s a hazard. People go to Ratcliff not expecting to be in danger of falling trees that might bop somebody in the head.”

The centerpiece of the Davy Crockett National Forest, the 45-acre lake is still teeming with wildlife, but the effects of the disaster are evident. Fallen trees litter the popular day-use area, leaving behind dented canoes and paddle boats as casualties. Dying trees, marked in pink, out-number the fallen and have made hard hats a dress code requirement.

Officials with the U.S. Forest Service estimate that between 300-400 trees were killed by the drought of 2011, the worst one-year drought in Texas history. District Ranger Gerald Lawrence said the effects of the drought on Ratcliff Lake were unknown until cleanup from the April

2011 tornado started revealing that trees unaffected by the tornado were beginning to die in bunches.

“We had just finished the tornado salvage, trying to get it reopened, when we started seeing trees start to die that hadn’t been hit by the tor-nado,” Lawrence said. “Then we realized the drought was starting to impact the recre-ation area as well.

“As a dead tree stands, over time the needles first fall, then the finer branches and then the bigger branches start falling. That’s what we’re most concerned about, the public being beneath one of these. If a strong windstorm were to come through here, it could easily knock some of these trees over.”

Campers and fishermen are not the only ones affected by the closing, as area business-es have struggled with a drop in customers and an instable economy.

“This serves the commu-nity in an economic way, as well,” Lawrence said. “This is one of the main attractions to this area of Texas. We get people from Dallas and Hous-ton coming here. All of the people that come here to visit the lake are helping to keep the economy going in the lo-cal area.”

There is light at the end of the tunnel, though.

Officials estimate that the park will reopen for public use beginning in June, show-casing renovations through-

out the area. A new beach was put in, along with handicap accessible walkways, pic-nic tables, and new lighting and ceiling fans in covered picnic areas. Murray said he is ready to get the park open so families can enjoy time in the great outdoors again, but the public’s safety is the main priority.

“They’ve done an awful lot of work out there, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Murray said. “This is one of the places that generations of families have gone every summer. They’re getting calls from the public wanting to know when it’s going to open, but until you go out there and see it you don’t realize how bad it was.”

Visitors will come to find that the damage done by the natural disasters has changed the look of the park. The area is more open than it once was as a result of the hundreds of dead and dying trees. Law-rence said getting the park reopened is something he looks forward to seeing ac-complished, and he hopes the lake can avoid another plague of catastrophes.

“We just don’t want any more disasters — earth-quakes, volcanoes or any-thing,” Lawrence joked. “This poor lake has seen about all of it.”


Light at the end of the tunnel for Ratcliff LakeOfficials estimate the park will reopen beginning in June


Ratcliff lake was ravaged by hurricane ike in 2008 and then fell victim to a tornado in april 2011, followed shortly thereafter by a record-setting drought

“This is one of the places that generations of families have gone every summer. They’re getting calls from the public wanting to know when it’s going to open, but until you go out there and see it you don’t realize how bad it was.”

ernie MurraypubLic affairs speciaLisT wiTh The u.s. foresT service


This large pine and many others are casualties of the recent drought.


These paddle boats may soon be in use again. officials estimate Ratcliff lake will reopen to the public this June.

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