Best Decorated Booth – Boiling for Big Al

What A Huge Success!!!
By Darla Parker

What an AMAZING day it turned out to be for the 10th Annual POC Crawfish Fest & Cookoff! The weather was beautiful, and the crowd was HUGE. The Chamber sold 3,000 lbs. of Crawfish this year; everyone had plenty to drink and eat; there were lots of great vendors, and more importantly, all had a great time!

Thank you to our own Scott Brown and the Texas Dream for arranging and making our music and sound production show so fabulous! Our returning favorite, Boudreau, from Rockport provided some awesome zydeco music… perfect for the atmosphere.

We had 41 cooking teams this year! The competition was fierce and fun! Our winner of the Champion Boiled Crawfish was team Pinchin’ Two Off; 2nd Place went to Tail Munchers and 3rd place went to Bayou Outlaws. For Best Side Dish, the winner was Burn N Bills for their crawfish shooters. Second place Side Dish was team Boggy Boilers (crawfish wontons) and 3rd place went to team Bad Idea (crawfish eggrolls). Another contest that is original and gets VERY creative is the Bloody Mary contest. In this contest, judging is based on the presentation Bloody Mary as well as the liquid content. This year’s winner goes to team TTK, while 2nd place went to Claws Up and 3rd place went to Crawdaddies I. Best Decorated Booth was won by Boiling for Big Al.

Although, there are selected judges for Crawfish entries, attendees also had an opportunity to pick their favorite. The People’s Choice award this year went to team Natty Crawlers. This contest winner also received a 10% payout, of which they received over $2,400. A HUGE thank you to the Natty Crawlers, as they turned right around and donated the money back to the POC Chamber! This was their second year to win People’s Choice!

Along with the cooking contests, we also had a Crawfish Eating Contest, sponsored by POC Rod & Gun and Team POC for donating and cooking the crawfish for this contest. Winners were 1st Place, Colton Anders (24 in 60 sec.) and 2nd Place Ryan Lott (23 in 60 sec.). Another favorite was the Horseshoe Tournament with Pam Hill and Josh Shive taking the win, and Gordon Mizrany and Lloyd Sadeferson taking 2nd.

We had some awesome Raffle Items this year which included a gift certificate to the Golden Nugget; the Wine & Whiskey wagon; a special fish from Dale Bob Bunting, and a POC neon sign. This neon sign was designed by the Chamber and is also available through us if you would like to purchase one. Just give us a call for information on how to get yours! 361-983-2898. Congrats and thank you to all our winners!

An hearty thank you to all our Judges, Volunteers and Sponsors. As this is the Chamber’s major fund raiser for the year, we are dependent on all of you. Without your help and support, this event would not be possible. It takes many months of dedicated work to make sure it runs smoothly. Again, thank you so much. Make sure to mark your calendar for next year, April 29th…. always the last Saturday in April! Please go to and like our POC Chamber of Commerce Facebook and POC Crawfish Fest and Cook-Off Facebook pages to see all the pics from this awesome day and updates for next year! Until then, Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!

Best Bloody Mary – Team TTK

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!
With any fund raiser, sponsors and donators are the backbone to making a successful profit for a non-profit organization. With that being said, we would like to thank everyone who helped.

A Very Special Thank You From
The Poc Chamber Of Commerce To Our Volunteers

As you well know, it takes over 100 volunteers to put this Festival on every year. Without these volunteers, we would not have this successful event. We want to pay a very special thanks to the POC Community Service Club for again stepping up and offering their assistance. Also, a HUGE thank you to 5D Steakhouse for lending their staff for the beer garden. We appreciate all of you so much!!!

Monarch Waystation Sign at Port O’Connor School

By Ana Brown, Port O’ Connor School, May 9, 2022

Have you ever been to Port O’ Connor School? If so, have you seen our Monarch Waystation that Mr. and Mrs. Berger built? Mr. and Mrs. Berger came to our campus on May 9, 2022 to put a Waystation sign up at the front of the school. A monarch waystation is a place where you plant milkweed and other plants that produce a lot of nectar. It helps the Monarch butterflies by giving them a place to stay and lay eggs.

Blaklei Ruddick and I interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Berger, and this is what we learned from this interview:

In order to qualify for a monarch waystation, you must have milkweed and plants that produce a lot of nectar. Monarch butterflies stop and lay eggs, and also stop for nectar when they migrate.

When Mrs. Berger became involved with a Monarch Butterfly Waystation; she was fascinated with it. She decided to research them and soon created her own Monarch waystation! Then, she came to our campus and created a waystation for us!

Adult butterflies drink nectar from different plants but they especially like the Mealy Blue Sage. It produces nectar and a lot of it! They lay their eggs on milkweed so when the eggs hatch, the caterpillars can eat the milkweed.

A female monarch’s life is very short, usually 2-5 weeks. In that time, she can lay 300-400 eggs. The female butterfly produces a special glue which makes the eggs stick to the leaves. Thirty-five percent of eggs hatch when the Monarch lays the eggs. Reasons for this include infertility of the eggs, conditions such as being too hot and being eaten.

The likelihood of a caterpillar reaching adulthood is less than 10%. For 100 eggs, only about 2 caterpillars will live to become adult butterflies.

Nature takes about 98%, which makes them an important part of the ecosystem. They are foods for other living organisms such as spiders, ants, wasps, flies, crickets, grasshoppers, and many more organisms. The reason why some female butterflies lay their eggs on the underside of a leaf is because it’s cooler under there from being under the sun and also safer because some animals can’t see the eggs. It takes about four days for an egg to hatch.

Butterflies search for milkweed to lay their eggs, and if they don’t find milkweed, they won’t be able to lay their eggs. They will die without reproducing, and it doesn’t help that most of our country is being plowed, mowed, and changed to concrete, farms, and buildings. This is why most people have been building Monarch waystations, so they can increase the number of butterflies.

We are very thankful for the beautiful waystation that Mr. and Mrs. Berger built for our campus. You can drive along the road in front of our campus and see the waystation. Feel free to pull up in the driveway and read the signs.

It’s been a pleasure to learn all this information from the Bergers.

At the regional meet in Colorado, Abygail Gonzales won:
Vault – 4th place
Bars – 2nd place
Beam – 6th place
Floor – 2nd place
ALL AROUND-2nd PLACE!

Sheriff Roy Boyd

America has a border crisis, and people are speaking out about it. A true patriot and a stickler for truth, Goliad Sheriff Roy Boyd had a lot to say about our border crisis at the May 2nd Republican meeting here in Calhoun County.

Here are some points the Sheriff made:

1 For every illegal immigrant that is processed, eight to ten slip through border security.

2.There are at least 500,00 plus migrants waiting at the Mexican border for Title 42 to be lifted so they can come across.

3. The cartels are the ones handling the illegal immigration.

4. The cartels are earning about $71 million a week with the influx of illegal migrants.

5. At border stations every migrant with children gets four to six thousand dollars.

6. Every illegal gets a court notice to appear which can be used to keep them from being arrested in the United States. They get free travel vouchers for airplanes and buses.

7. NCO’s (non-governmental organizations) are facilitating the illegal immigration coming up from Mexico.

Sheriff Boyd had this to say about the Border Crisis: “I don’t think that people understand the totality of what is going on in our border.” -Tanya DeForest

The Calhoun County Republican Club will hold their monthly meeting on Monday, June 6, at the VFW Hall, Port Lavaca. State Representative Todd Hunter will be presenting three scholarship winners with their checks. Also, he will bring us up to date on happenings in Austin.

Dinner ($12) is from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. and the meeting starts at 6:00. (Dinner is optional.)

For Dinner Reservations, please email chunt36@yahoo.com, or call 552-6313.

The public is invited.