Citizens of the Week at Port O’Connor School

Week ending March 9: PreK- Justice Epley; Kindergarten- Aislin Guzman; First Grade- Kalynn Harding; Second Grade- Madison Stringo;

Third Grade- Jocelynn Miller; Fourth Grade- Dillon Hobbs; Fifth Grade- Caleb Williams

Students of the Week at Seadrift School

Week ending March 9: PreK, Mrs. Myers- Dillon Morales; K, Mrs. Kern- Mia Salazar; 1st, Mrs. Christy- Nate Saenz; 1st, Ms. Stringham- Creasie Gohlke; 2nd, Miss Sistare- Joel Zarate;

2nd, Mrs. Flisowski- Jordi Vallejo; 3rd, Mrs. Hons- Jackie Cedillo; 3rd, Mrs. Petrisky- Zachary Henson; 4th, Mrs. Gray- Michael Sachtleben; 4th, Ms. Adams- Benny Jaramillo;

5th, Mrs. Canales- Peper Jennings Junior High: Mrs. Henderson- Matthew Stringham; Mrs. Cady- Chris Vasquez; Mrs. Bull- Nereida Torres; Coach Anderson- Alex Morales;

Coach Sternadel- Trevor Williamson; Mrs. Charnetski- Shelby Pritchard; Mrs. Smith- Victoria Reyes; Coach Lillge- Kelsey Vannoy; Ms. Blackburn- Peter DeForest

The Cat in the Hat came to visit the First Grade at Seadrift School.

The Cat in the Hat signs Olivia Gillespie’s book, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Mrs. Haynes third grade class at Port O’Connor School is having a cabbage growing contest. Shown above is Esmeralda Garcia with her still growing cabbage.

Brooklyn

Logan

Eli

Ronnie

March 24: Joy Fryou; Tammy Davis

March 25: Richard Aguilar; Ray Castillo

March 26: Inez Gendke; Stephanie Smolik

March 27: Pedro Saenz; Brandon Smolik

March 29: Valerie Keller; Monique Morlan

March 30: Charlene Satterfield

April 1: Ronnie Shileds; Gina Woods; Kim Boone

April 2: Mike Overton; Kayne Carriles

April 3: Ann Pesek; Rachel Gregory; Kevin Ragan; Brandon Hobbs; Tana Parlicek

April 4: Billie Stanfield

April 5: Kimberly Gonzales; Dennis Oliphant; Than Thuy Nguen

April 6: Collin Anderson

April 8: April Skalak; Kim Sonnier; Alexis Carriles; Frank DeLoach; Kay Middleton

April 9: Pam Hecox; Kierstyn O. Milligan

April 10: Eric Clard

April 11: Linda Spencer; Lelsey Bourg-Alstrom; Michaela Harper

April 12: Lola Zimmerman; Jeff Hobbs April 13: Kenneth Gregory; Eva Meitzler; Dustin Whisenant

Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of Springtime and appreciated the recent rains that got the flowers blooming and the grass growing again. We enjoyed a burst of activity in our area during Spring Break and are looking forward to the coming Easter weekend.

Looks like the Dolphin gets a little break as well; there will be three weeks between issues this time. The next Dolphin Talk will be out on April 13. Please call or send in any information you have for us by the deadline of Monday, April 9. Please send us an email if you would like to be on our “reminder” list. Thank you for reading Dolphin Talk!

Joyce Rhyne, Editor

Feb. 28, 2012, left to right in back: Calhoun County Historical Commission Cemetery Committee members John Meitzen, Cliff Bacchas*, Steve Koch, and John Kassner; in front: Cemetery Committee Chairman Mary Belle Meitzen, Marie Hawes of the Port O’Connor Service Club, and POC Cemetery historian/caretaker Bob Allen presenting the document for recording to Calhoun County Deputy Clerk Karina Mechaca. *Cliff Bacchas is a photographer for “Find A Grave” www.findagrave.com

“Know All Men By These Presents:

That the Port O’Connor Cemetery….has been set aside and dedicated for cemetery purposes through historic use…That this dedication is subject to all the laws, rules, and regulations of the State of Texas regarding cemeteries…”

So reads, in part, the document, certified by the Texas Historical Commission, which was filed, along with a map, on February 28, 2012, at the Calhoun County Courthouse, establishing legally that which has been known traditionally as the Port O’Connor Cemetery.

The journey to officially recognize the cemetery and keep it intact from any future development has been a long one. Beginning in 2007, The Cemetery Committee of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, working with Bob Allen of Port O’Connor, began recording the graves and putting them on the website “Find A Grave”. Since then, Bob has recorded the whole cemetery and located many missing graves.

Mary Belle Meitzen, Chairman of the Committee, aided by Melissa Sterling of Gulf Coast Title, put in many hours of “detective work” to achieve this designation. The land the cemetery occupies was never recorded as being bought or sold as far as the records go back, which is 1909 when W.J. O’Connor transferred the Port O’Connor Townsite to P.R. Austin.

It is believed that sometime between 1909 and 1919, the property was set aside for a cemetery. The oldest known grave is of Lola Mae McCarty in 1913.

“Calhoun County owes a great deal of appreciation to Bob Allen* and his mowing crew for their care of the cemetery for so many years and to the Port O’Connor Service Club for their efforts in building the outdoor chapel and entrance gate,” said Mary Belle. “I am excited to finally be able to have this designation for Port O’Connor Cemetery, giving it the much needed protection to assure its continued existence.”

After the recording documents are received by the Texas Historical Commission, the Cemetery Committee will apply for a medallion designating Port O’Connor as a Historic Texas Cemetery. This process is expected to take about a year.

But for now, Mary Bellle Meitzen, the Cemetery Committee and Bob Allen are happy in the knowledge that Port O’Connor Cemetery is officially recognized as belonging to the Port O’Connor community.

*The Dolphin wishes to note that Bob Allen and his “mowing crew” are all unpaid volunteers serving the Port O’Connor community.

SEADRIFT – Art Center Seadrift – the Art Boat to most people – will host an one-year exhibit on the theme “Texas Star” and feature a guest artist working on the grounds from March 12 to 24. The exhibit begins March 24 and runs until March 31, 2013. There will be a grand opening at 3 pm., March 24. The Center will exhibit and have for sale the work of around 20 more artists.

Artist in residence Guatemalan sculptor Oscar Ríos Jr., 33, will be working on the grounds of the center from March 12 until March 24, doing his own Star project.

Speaking of Rios, Art Center director Dieter Erhard, 50, who works in Erlangen in his native Germany and in Guatemala, said, “Oscar was the winner of the tenth annual Arte en
Concreto competition in Guatemala, which we sponsor, so he won a trip to Seadrift to work as a guest artist on a special Texas Star project. He works in the footsteps of his father, a famous Guatemalan artist. His father worked in clay, ceramics. Oscar does figurative sculpture and some painting, light things. He’s a very good artist and we’re proud to have him here.”

“We will also exhibit the work of some Texas artists – painters, sculptors and photographers – all on the same theme. A couple of attending artists will be Cynthia Alderete of Wimberley and Don Williams of San Antonio and there will be more, around 20 in all,” he said. “During the grand opening we will serve wine and German food.”

Visitors are welcome to come watch Ríos at work. It’s an opportunity to watch an artist actually doing art instead of standing in front of art. Erhard will also be on the grounds or to make an appointment; call him at 361-660-8097 or Aubrey Parker at 361-678-8030.

The Art Boat – and it really is a boat, a large shrimper converted to gallery and living quarters – is at the corner of 6th Street and Highway 185 (Broadway Avenue in Seadrift).

To see Rios’ work, go to http://www.artintheamericas.com/artistas/oscarriosochoa/OscarRiosOchoa.html#bio.

The Art Center Seadrift Web site is http://www.artcenter-seadrift.com/index.html.

ArtBoat director Dieter Erhard works in front of the gallery at the Art Center-Seadrift.