New to the Staff at Seadrift and Port O’Connor Schools

Pictured above: Back Row: Mr. Ross Harlow who will be serving the Seadrift School as well as the Port O’Connor School as a behavioral interventionist; Mrs. Sue Bracher will be teaching 1st grade at Seadrift School; Mrs. Yolanda Aguilar is a Music fellow.

Front Row: Mrs. Irene Cano, who will be serving POC and Seadrift School as counselor; Ms. Fjola Briscoe is Seadrift School Assistant Principal; Ms. Sara Guice transferred to Seadrift School from POC as a paraprofessional.

Not pictured: Mr. Jaime Lopez is the band teacher for Seadrift School and Mrs. Mamie Nobles is the New Librarian serving POC, Seadrift School and JR Elementary.

Shelly McCauley will be teaching 5th and 6th grade English/Language Arts and Social Studies for the upcoming school year at Port O’ Connor School. She taught in Rockport for 7 years with first and second grade, and in Victoria for 2 years in first grade. After taking some time away from full time teaching, subbing for the Calhoun County School District for over ten years, she is excited to be teaching here in my home community!

Lisa Riley has been coming to Port O’Connor for 15 years starting as a weekender to becoming a full timer for the last 5 years.
After teaching 33 years, Lisa retired to enjoy this community to fish with her husband, and have her family come spend time on the beach!
Enjoying teaching and this town, she decided to do something she always wanted to do, teach at this special little school!

TACO THURSDAY is finally here! It’s time to kick off this important fundraising effort. This is a community wide undertaking and most of the organizations in POC have come together to help raise money for the center.

If you would like to know all about the planned improvements, the Board of Directors of the Community Center and friends are inviting you to a free Taco Dinner on August 25, 6:00 pm, at the Community Center. Besides great food, there will be information about all upgrades planned to insure that the buildings will last for many more years to come.

The complex was a dream 25 years ago and the entire town came together to raise the money to build what we have today. We’re coming together again to make sure the dream continues. Be part if it and join us for Taco Thursday.
Donations to Community Center Facelift Project can be made at First National Bank, Port O’Connor or mailed to PO Box 812, Port O’Connor, TX 77982.

-Diane Cooley

The hard working Ladies of the Port O’ Connor Service Club are ecstatic to announce the long anticipated arrival and installation of their latest gift to the POC Community- the new “Community Center Sign”!!! Hooray!!! The Club has been working on this replacement project since the old sign was destroyed by Hurricane Nicholas in September 2021, and were able to purchase the new sign through the generous donations and support of the POC Community at our many fundraising events!! We would like to acknowledge our Treasurer, Nan Burnett, who has worked tirelessly with Sign Works of Victoria to bring this project to fruition!! The Service Club is happy to give this wonderful part of POC back to the Community!!!

Happy Anniversary to the Port O’ Connor Community Service Club: The POC Community Service Club was established on August 21, 1980, and is celebrating its 42nd Anniversary this month! The Club has been blessed to have countless wonderful POC Ladies in their midst throughout those 42 years, and currently has forty-eight members. Happy Anniversary to this iconic POC organization and all the ladies, past and present, who have helped make it what it is today!!

Community Center Sign and American Flags: If you’ve travelled in or out of POC on Hwy185 over the past month, you’ve more than likely noticed that POC’s beautiful, lighted “Community Center Sign” is back, bigger and better than ever- notifying everyone about events going on at the Center. You’ve also probably noticed the beautiful display of American Flags adorning the front of the Community Center on patriotic holidays, and the flags on the permanent flag poles at Front Beach and the Community Center. If you like the sign and the flags, you can thank the ladies of the POC Community Service Club. Because the Club’s goal for 42 years has been to give back to the POC Community through our many service and improvement projects, we are extremely happy to give the “Community Center Sign” and the flags to the citizens of Port O’ Connor! In return, the Club thanks you, the wonderful people of POC, for your continued support, and generous donations at our many fund-raising events, which allow us to keep doing great things for the POC Community. It is definitely a winning partnership for all of us in our beautiful little POC Paradise!

Teacher Appreciation: To show our support and appreciation of our wonderful Teachers of Port O’ Connor Elementary, the Club gives each one a gift of $50.00 for start up supplies at the beginning of each school year. Thank you, Teachers, for your dedication and service to the children of POC! We wish you all the best in the 2022-2023 School Year.

Taco Thursday: The Service Club will be supporting the Community Center Board of Directors as they kick-off their campaign for the Port O’Connor Community Center Beautification Project. The event will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 25, 2022, at the POC Community Center. Tacos and all the trimmings will be served as the Board explains the different phases of the “Community Center Beautification Project” to the POC Community, and what the POC Community will need to do in order to raise the money to get the project accomplished. The meal is free, and all in Port O’Connor are invited and encouraged to attend!

Meetings: The Service Club’s next meetings are September 1, 2022, and September 15, 2022; at 10:00 a.m. at the POC Community Center. If you are interested in joining this hardworking, fun-loving group, please feel free to contact one of the ladies listed at the end of this article, or visit one of our meetings and check us out. All Ladies are welcome!

Cookbooks: Back by popular demand, the Service Club is now selling all three editions of our famous Cookbooks, available at our booth at each Farmer’s Market. The cookbooks are $12.00 each, or sets of three editions for $30.00. They make great gifts for all occasions, and are selling like hot cakes. Get yours before we sell out!

Farmers Market: Please continue to support the Service Club’s Booth at the Farmers Market, held the second Saturday of every month, next one being Saturday, September 10 , 2022! We have a variety of homemade breads and sweets, plants, hand crafted items, and, of course, our “Service Club Cookbooks”. There is something for everyone, so please stop by!

Clay Shoot: Come One, Come All!!! The POC Service Club is proud to announce that it will be hosting POC’s First Ever “Clay Shoot” at 8:00 AM on Saturday, October 8, 2022 on the grounds of the POC Community Center Pavilion!! All “Sporting Clay Shoot” enthusiasts, and spectators who love watching them, are invited to attend this inaugural event!! All proceeds will go to the “Port O’Connor Community Center Beautification Project.” You don’t want to miss it!

Fall Mega Garage Sale: The Club is busily preparing for our Fall Mega Garage Sale, which is set for Saturday, November 5, 2022. Please mark your calendars, and “Save The Date”! We continue to accept your generous donations of gently used household, decorative and kitchen items; small appliances (in good condition and working order); clothing; shoes; toys; children’s and baby items. For your convenience, we have a “Donation Drop Box” located at the front of our Donation Center, which is the building immediately behind the Community Center Pavilion. As always, we appreciate your continued support so that we can keep doing great things for the POC Community. (Please note that we cannot accept computers, electronics, mattresses, microwaves, or furniture.) To donate, please contact one of the following Service Club Members:

Alane Haardt- 281-416-6028
Nancy Ladshaw- 830-832-0510
Marie Hawes- 361-676-3093
Nan Burnett- 832-276-5948

Looking Forward To Cooler Weather

Greetings from the island everyone.  I hope this week finds all of you doing well, and you are hanging in there as this south Texas Summer heat slowly transitions to cooler pre-Fall temperatures.

As I sit out on the porch the Friday prior to the article printing, there is actually a nice cool northerly breeze and a hint of the Fall weather forthcoming.  Of course two days from now, the mornings will probably be back in the 90’s with sweat drenching humidity. . but hey, I’ll take the coolness when I can get it.

With very much needed rain on the island, the radar shows a tiny disturbance in the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana, slowly drifting SW towards our area.  I sure hope it continues that path and brings the island at least a few inches of heavenly rain, I certainly need it, and I know everyone else does as well.  In my nearly 17 years living out here, I cannot recall a drier island summer than the one we are experiencing now.

My Spring and early Summer garden has been finished for a few weeks now.  With the oppressive heat and drastic lack of rain, not to mention the abundance of tomato hornworms this year (I HATE those things!), it was a poor island gardening year.  But that’s simply how it goes sometimes, bumper crops one year and poor results the next.  I don’t usually have a Fall garden, since it’s just too dang hot and the threat of storm salt water flooding the yard and raised beds, so for the next few weeks I’ll just clean out and prep the beds for next Spring planting.  Gonna dedicate a portion of my front yard next Spring to new raised beds for watermelons, keeping them inside my fenced yard where raccoons and coyotes can’t get to them like they used to do when the beds were next door and not protected.

A little more sea grass than usual has been washing ashore on the beach this year.  I can recall years ago that every April-July there would be literally tons of sargassum grass washing in from the Gulf, I’m talking about areas that had it 2-3’ deep on the beach.  But for the last 6-8 years there has been very little for some reason.  The seagulls, pelicans and various little sea birds spend hours feeding off tiny shrimp, crabs and other tiny sea life that were entangled in the thick sargassum.  And the sea grass washing in would also signal the beginning of sea beans (seeds), starting to wash ashore from South and Central America, the Caribbean and beyond.  It’s an adventure beach combing and collecting the different types of sea beans.

Well that’s it from the island for now.  Everyone take care and have a great day.

Mobility Mat on the Port O’Connor Beach

How can it already be August? The kids are back in school, the days are getting shorter, and the heat is typical. Halloween will be here before we know it and then Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Recently the Chamber partnered with the local Parks and Wildlife Game Wardens to provide an appreciation for the kids wearing their life jackets, while boating. Thank you to 5D Steakhouse and Speedy Stop for providing nice rewards for the kids enduring the heat and obeying the law and keeping on that life jacket!! These “encouraging” tickets will be issued until September 11th.

Due to the outpouring of positive responses, we received regarding the mobility mats at the front beach we have purchased two additional mats. The new mats extend the trail and will now take you closer to the water. We are so proud that our beach allows access to those in wheelchairs or on walkers. Thank you so much to our board members, Darla Parker, Brent Hart, Sue Glover, and Mike Overton for helping install the new mats. A huge thank you to our volunteers who worked tirelessly in making sure the mats were pounded down perfectly, Jerry Crosby, Terry Schneider, and Steven Guvera!!! We couldn’t have done it without you!!

We continue to work with the Port O’ Connor Service Club on the fundraising efforts for our Community Center and encourage everyone to attend the kickoff event with Taco Thursday on August 25th from 6:00 to 8:00 at the Community Center. This facility is so important to our community, and we need to ensure that we continue to make necessary and timely renovations.

Here are a few things we are currently working on for the remainder of the year: Our Trunk or Treat event will be held Saturday, October 29th and includes a dog costume contest again this year. The Poker Run will be held the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 26th. The annual Boat Parade and Toy Run will be Saturday, December 3, and our Chamber Annual meeting will be held December 3rd.

We welcome our new and renewing members for this month: POCTX, Texas Salty Sisters, Design Works, POC 475 and Dorothy Barnett. Business memberships have been discounted to $50 through the end of the year.

Our meetings are the second Monday of the month at 6:30 p,m, at the Port O’Connor Library Multipurpose room. We welcome everyone to come out and get involved.

Remember to visit the chamber calendar to stay up to date on all the local events.
https://business.portoconnorchamber.com/events/calendar