Taken April 1, 2012 near Ennis, Texas.
Wish we had more of these beautiful bluebonnets here on the coast!

You can submit photos for consideration to be printed at: dolphin1@tisd.net

There will be a Hamburger benefit and Bake sale for Randy Stanley

To help defray medical expenses incurred following his liver transplant .

Saturday, April 28, from 11:00 – 1:00 at the First Baptist Church Youth

Building  (corner of Dallas & 3^rd) in Seadrift, TX.   Hamburger plates will

be sold for $7.  Baked goods will also be available.

PLEASE VOLUNTEER FOR A MORNING TO MAKE Boggy Nature Park BEAUTIFUL: Clean Up Saturday April 28th.

Call or email Joe Wiatt- jvwiatt@gmail.com, 713-446-7061 cell with voice mail to sign up!

Boggy Nature Park, badly in need of a clean up.

The Port O’Connor Chamber of Commerce has embarked upon an aggressive campaign to promote Port O Connor including our unique and beautiful access to our three bays for all types of sports that depend on our clean and accessible waters adjoining the mid coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Not only bay and off shore fishing, but kayak and bird watching, camping, and exploring the rich history of our area are among the activities Port O Connor provides.

Keeping Port O’Connor clean and pristine for our residents and children and our guests is the responsibility of everyone. Working with the enthusiastic Chamber Board of Directors as their committee chair for the King Fisher Park Management committee has been enjoyable and has been beneficial to Port O Connor in keeping the park, little jetties, and the public boat launch areas clean and well maintained.

Port O’Connor has another jewel that could be even more appreciated by our residents and guests and that is the Boggy Nature Park. Boggy is located on the north edge of Port O Connor with street entrance just a short distance from Washington St. Boggy is one of the few places in Texas, if not the only one, that allows a person to view the wildlife from an elevated walkway or watch the sunset in the evening, launch a kayak into one of the best tidal lake fishing spots on the gulf coast or drive your vehicle to within yards of the best bay fishing in Texas.

On Saturday April 28th please join me, Joe Wiatt, and others that love Port O Connor and its environs to support the cleanup of Boggy. There is a lack of respect or understanding for preservation of this wonderful gift of eighty acres given to Calhoun County by Dominion Oil Company. We the residents of Port O’Connor can make a difference by spreading the word as a community to reverse this abuse. Boggy is not for dumping trash, animal and fish carcasses, spent ammunition cartridges; it is rather to enjoy the beauty as a Nature Park and to protect this jewel for the future residents and visitors of our rural community.

Precinct 4, Commissioner Kenny Finster will be supporting the cleanup effort with Calhoun County Equipment and bags. We will meet at the elevated nature walk at 8:30 a.m. Bring drinking water and gloves.

BOGGY NATURE PARK NEWS: To assist our fellow neighbors and visitors to Boggy Nature Park in keeping the park free of trash we have installed trash cans like we installed in King Fisher Park, Little Jetties and the Public Boat Launch that will be emptied weekly and appropriate park signs reminding visitors to use the trash facilities or “Pack Out What You Pack In”.

KING FISHER PARK NEWS: High Intensity green fishing lights will be coming in a few weeks, purchased by the Port O’Connor Chamber of Commerce as enhancement to the King Fisher Pier will be installed at the T-Head and will shine downward to the water with no annoyance to residences or users of the park. Again, trash is an issue on the Pier. We will remind the public by asking with appropriate signage to “Pack Out What You Pack In” assisting our county government in maintaining our public treasures.

Team Perpetual Motion took first place in the cardboard car event at Relay For Life. Mike Clifton, a cancer survivor, built the car, the “SUR 5 R”. Mike’s son, Evan, is pictured above in the car.

From six o’ clock in the evening on March 30th till six a.m. in the morning on the 31st, thirty-four teams walked the track at the Calhoun County Fairgrounds to be a part of Relay For Life, which aims to raise money to stamp out cancer.

Included were teams that represented local interests such as HJM Elementary, Memorial Medical Center and Church of Christ.

Participants camped out near the track’s circle, with at least one team member walking the track for the duration of the event. When not on the track, team members talked, bought food from the various team vendors around the outside of the track and shared the camaraderie of coming together against the common foe of cancer.

Behind each team is a special story about how cancer touched the lives of the team’s members and inspired them to do something about it.

For example the team Perpetual Motion out of Port O’ Connor, who according to team leader Judith Bowman, began their efforts when cancer struck her great aunt. That event inspired Judith and other residents of Port O’ Connor to make the effort to enter a team every year.

Memorial Medical Center’s Matthew Boyle says that the hospital participates in the Relay for the same reason the hospital exists: to save lives.

“(We are here) to raise money for cancer research and to get our name out there…to show we are supporting the community…even in their hardest of times.”

Meanwhile the team Pink For Cindy comes to the relay in tribute to the memory of Cindy Vasquez, who passed away from breast cancer three years ago. So now various friends and family, including Cindy’s daughter-in-law, Audie Vasquez, take part in the relay in her name.

“She was like a mother to me” Vasquez said. “I feel it’s very important to keep her spirit alive so that way we can remember her.”

Another team, The Believers, chose to express that ‘cancer can’t take the joy out of life’.

To show this, The Believers dressed as clowns and performed several magic shows during the relay. They also handed out balloons animals to the kids. Team spokesperson Laura Rodriguez says this is all for her niece and her two brothers who are all cancer survivors, an example of some of the courage and hope on display.

“We dressed as clowns to show that you can still have joy in your life when there is cancer in your family.” Rodriguez stated.

As for the stamina and resilience needed to keep team’s walking for twelve hours straight. Rodriguez’s answer seemed to also sum up the common thread about all who participated in this years Relay For Life and their stance against cancer:

“We stay out here all night long…we will not leave.”

Relay For Life is reported to have raised over eighty five thousand dollars for cancer research with their efforts.

Relay For Life, standing in front of the pink firetruck: Pat Stewart, Boyd Staloch, Kelly Staloch, Jay Young, and Steve DeLaCruz

Chester Smith, 8/8/1921 - 6/26/2011

During the Spring Workday on February 25, 2012, the Audubon Bird Sanctuary known as “Sundown Island” was renamed to Chester Island in honor of Warden Chester Smith who passed away in 2011. In addition, a memorial “Brown Pelican Monument” honoring Chester was installed overlooking the tractor shed—the operations hub on the island.

Chester served as the island’s warden for twenty-five years from 1986 until his death in 2011. When he began his work as warden, there were fewer than ten pairs of endangered Brown Pelicans nesting on this Matagorda Bay dredge-filled island. Due to his efforts and those of his loyal volunteers—the 2011 annual census found nearly 2,029 breeding pairs of pelicans.

The Brown Pelican was removed from the Endangered Species List in 2009. Chester Island is one of a group of island sanctuaries along the Texas Coast established by Audubon in 1923. In partnership with the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, the Houston Audubon Society and community volunteers, the Audubon wardens work to protect nesting birds by controlling fire ants and other predators, planting shrubs and trees to improve habitat, battling shoreline erosion, and educating the public.

After his death, friends and family donated money to help continue his work on Chester Island. Chester’s son-in-law, Tim Wilkinson is the island’s new Warden. He and his wife Peggy have spent more than a decade assisting Chester and working with volunteers on this coastal sanctuary.

A video filmed by Texas Parks and Wildlife over a two-year period (2004-2006) was recently re-posted on YouTube in Chester’s honor.

A new website will be designed for Chester Island (coming soon). You can access the current site by going either to chesterisland.org or sundownisland.org.