Warrior’s Weekend May 18 & 19
This is my 10th year to help with Warriors Weekend. What an amazing Blessing! I have welcomed 15 different heroes to my home and shared life with them. I have made breakfast, desserts and treats. I have cleaned fish and dishes and boats. I have sculpted sand and written names with tears in my eyes and pride in my heart at the sand site. I have driven heroes and their families and shared many meals and chats. I have taken literally hundreds of pictures of heroes, their families and weekend activities and shared them in two newspapers, three newsletters, four churches, 20 states and two foreign countries. I met an author who gave the proceeds of her book to WarriorsWeekend.org.

I have recruited more than 450 people to join me in volunteering in a variety of jobs and tasks associated with Warriors Weekend. Many of these people have become friends and a few are like family. I have met the babies of heroes I welcomed into my home. I have shared life with volunteers I met over a pot of eggs or a table of desserts. I have shared laughter and tears, work and play, stories and memories with those I have met. It was thrilling to open wedding invitations, graduation announcements, baby announcements, Facebook messages, emails, texts, pictures and letters from heroes and volunteers I have met. I have lost contact with a few, and two have died, bringing loss and grief. Yet each of them changed me.

However, I have gained so very much more than I have ever given in sharing Warriors Weekend with Heroes and volunteers alike. I have seen generosity on a grand scale. Meals and goody bags, massages and rides, and literally hundreds of cookies, cakes, pies and cobblers have flowed into town from POC locals and out of towners both. Quite old and very young, those with wealth and those with want have generously given each time I have asked, and we have had more than enough food, love and home baked goodies for heroes and families to enjoy. Twice I have seen heroes give up their spot in housing or fishing for a brother or a sister in service to go instead. Heroes who have already laid all on the line have graciously shared their life and their stories with me when asked.

I have seen love in action in hero guests and volunteers alike. I have watched night fishing guides refit their boat to enable a recovering hero to fish. I saw hundreds of hooks baited and fish cleaned without complaint. I watched boat captains carry some heroes to the ramp to ensure they made it safely onto a boat and rig special gear for others to use. I have seen vets volunteer to help the current heroes participating in the weekend despite their own difficulties in recovering from service. I watched injured heroes assist more incapacitated heroes in and around the weekend activities with no thought to their own cost in pain and effort. I watch in amazement as volunteers show up at 4:00 a.m. to stir eggs and serve coffee having had little sleep. I know of folks who drive 10 hours round trip to bring homemade desserts to share with our visiting warriors. There is love in every iced cake and decorated cookie, each baited hook and sharpened cleaning knife, each well-made guest bed and generous welcome. The love reflected in heroes is the only payment for the volunteer and the satisfaction of a job well done.

They beam with joy as they absorb the weekend, and many have told me they leave changed. I always hope and pray that each person gets what they need and hope for out of the effort. I pray that heroes, warriors in recovery, feel love and appreciation, and leave with new hope and purpose. I pray that volunteers feel down deep that even their smallest efforts make a difference to both the heroes who are our guests and to themselves.

The real lesson is that both hero guests and the volunteers are better for the experience because they are standing on the shoulders of each other’s service. They both stand taller together.

Thanks to all who come and to all who volunteer, and thanks for all the ways you both have changed my Point of View.

Warriors Weekend is a life changing experience. I hope you find a place to be a part. It will change your Point of View too.

Lea Ann Ragusin, who teaches 2nd grade at Port O’Connor Elementary, has been teaching for eight years. She has home schooled her own children plus teaching them in public school. Lea Ann says her students have taught her trust, excitement, curiosity, forgiveness, and letting things go, plus persistence and how to keep trying after failure.
She hopes to impact upon her students The Golden Rule. “If that’s instilled, then any other skill can be taught,” she said.

Dustin Hahn has been in the educational field for six years. three years in CCISD. He teaches Kindergarten through 8th grade Special Education, 8th grade Math, Coding and Algebra I at Seadrift School.
“I truly enjoy showing children how to become lifelong learners, treat others with respect, and to accept who they are,” he said. “I want to ensure that the students I work with have the education and life skills to have unlimited boundaries on life’s paths.”

Library Aide Bonnie Glover received the Dedication to Education Award at Seadrift School. She has worked in CCISD for 12 years, with eight years in her current position. “I wanted to work with children to make a difference in their lives,” said Bonnie. “I enjoy working with the children. All students learn differently and need individual attention and assistance,” she said. “I hope to encourage the students’ interests to learn and hope that I can ease some of the pressure that the classroom teachers face.”

Amber Ferrell, Instructional Aide at Port O’Connor School, received the Dedication to Education Award for her flexibility and enthusiasm as an Instructional Aide. Amber says her favorite part of the job seeing students make a mental connection and fully understand what they are learning. “When I can help a student understand what is being taught, it makes me feel like I have made a difference,” she said. “I am invested in their education alongside their teachers, and I will work to help them reach their learning goals.”

Congratulations to All CCISD Teachers of the Year:
Kelly Jones Calhoun High School
Laurie Weaver Hope High School
Yvonne Marie Flores Jackson-Roosevelt Elementary
Jennifer Stellman HJM Elementary School
Dedication to Education Awards:
Kelly Blanco-Leija Jackson-Roosevelt Elementary
Hannah Hamelwright Travis Middle School
Kelly Machicek Calhoun High School
Rebekah Evans Hope High School
Laura De La Garza HJM Elementary

The POC Chamber of Commerce is very excited again this year to sponsor the Kid’s Fishing Tournament at Kingfisher Beach.  Every year the children and parents come out for a great time of fishing at the front beach and the pier. The different age groups receive trophies for three different categories. Categories are: Ages 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 12. Trophies are given for each age group for Biggest Fish / Smallest Fish / Most Fish.

There will be drinks and snacks again this year for all the participants and parents.  So, bring the kids, the rods and reels, and tackle. Free registration begins at 8:00 am. Bait will be provided. Come out Saturday May 26th, 8:00 – 11:00, Memorial Weekend, for a great time with the family. Make those memories the kids will always remember!

It is that time again, when summer is around the corner and Memorial Day is coming up.  Since 2010, the Port O’Connor Chamber of Commerce has been sponsoring the Annual Kite Flying Contest at Kingfisher Beach.  With the wind, in all its glory, it should be a great day to come out to the beach and fly your kite.  All ages are welcome, all kinds of kites welcome, and most of all let’s have some fun and enjoy the great outdoors.  So Saturday May 26th at 1pm come out and fly your kite and have some fun.  Registration begins at 12:30 and we will start at 1pm. Prizes are awarded for participants and winners!!