It’s time for the Port O’Connor Service Club’s
Annual Spring Garage Sale!
Saturday, April 7
Port O’Connor Community Center Pavilion
8:00 am – 2:00 pm
$1 Bag Sale starts at Noon

Something for Everyone!
Come check out our huge selection of all types of gently-used items.
Delicious Home-baked Goodies!
All proceeds benefit local scholarships and local improvement projects.

Seadrift/Port O’Connor Cub and Boy Scouts would like to thank everyone who came out to support our boys! Our Annual Scouts BBQ was a huge success with all of your help. We had individuals that made personal donations, donated items for our auction, donated food items, bar-b-qued, cooked rice and beans, helped set up, serve, and cleaned up. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen. We couldn’t have done this without you. Due to the large number of wonderful individuals that helped, we couldn’t name them all personally. Seadrift/Port O’ Connor Pack and Troop 106 are grateful to the supporters who placed bids on items and came to eat. The boys will have many opportunities to participate in events this year. The Scout Hall will also have much needed minor repairs that will ensure it remains one of the most memorable scout halls for years to come. We are looking forward to making sure the BBQ remains a yearly event in order to provide positive experiences for our Future Boy Scouts of America. Thank you again for your support!
Ralph Belter- District Chair Representative Rebecca Rodriguez – Cub Scout Leader
Patrick Henley- Boy Scout Leader Leslie Shirhall- Scouts Den Leader

The bidding was high at the Auction, called by Sheriff Vickery.

“I think we’re feeding everybody in Seadrift!”

McKenna Guevara, Clay Brumfield, Claire Chen

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the 2018 Future Chef competition, held February 27. The eight contestants had been selected as the best in individual campus contests. The chefs were partnered with staff from CCISD’s Child Nutrition department to prepare and cook their meals for this championship contest.

There were so many tasty meals prepared, but in the end, Clay Brumfield’s Teriyaki Chicken with Chick Fil A sauce surfaced as a favorite among the judges.

Champion – Clay Brumfield, Seadrift School
2nd Place – McKenna Guevara, Port O’Connor School
3rd Place – Claire Chen, HJM Elementary

Honorable Mentions:
Colt Grantland, JR Elementary
Jayleigh Martinez, JR Elementary
Rylie Ragusin, Port O’Connor
Aaliyah Duran, HJM Elementary
Cash Shirhall, Seadrift School

Ready For Spring

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope all of you are doing well and remembered to set your clocks ahead this past Sunday for daylight savings. I enjoy having an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, it provides more outdoor, gardening and beach combing time. . always a great thing!

I am so ready for Spring to begin in just a few more days. This has been one of the nastiest and blustery winters that I’ve endured out here in my 12 years of living full time on the island. Between the cold and the wind and rain and dense fog, it has just been yuck. There’s nothing more nerve wracking than crossing the bay in a dense fog when you can barely see past the bow of the boat.

I navigate by compass during the occasional times that I cross at night or in the fog, having to remind myself that even though the compass bearing may not seem to be in the right direction, the compass will be correct. I was reminded of that several weeks ago when heading back to the island in a very dense fog, and managing to run aground on the shoreline a quarter mile away from my lagoon cut. Luckily I was able to eventually push and pole back out into deeper water and find my cut. Gotta be very careful when running in the dense fog.

I wanna say thank you to those that helped me celebrate my birthday last month, number 56 for me. I ventured in from the island a few nights prior and went out with great friends for a few adult beverages and appetizers at the Indianola Fishing Marina, where the “Highway 316” band sang me Happy Birthday. We all got a laugh when the lead female band singer made the comment, “you must have some big cojones to live on an island!” Ha! After there we then went to Josie’s Cantina in POC for a little dancing. The next morning we all had a wonderful breakfast and Britton made me a dolphin shaped pancake on his new Blackstone outside griddle, and assorted pancake shapes for Susan, Margie, Terrell, Lori and Don – it was a great breakfast. Thank you Karen for the awesome kitchen knives, and Susan for the beautiful island photo collage calendar. . I love it! A few days later I had dinner with mom, dad and my sister, Sherry, who made me my favorite pineapple upside down birthday cake.

I started my Spring/Summer crop of tomato seeds about four weeks ago, and the little plants are doing great in the greenhouse. I’ll have 18 plants total, consisting of five different varieties, and they will go in the ground the first week in April. I also have squash and cucumber growing that I started from seeds, and the melons will be started in a few more weeks. I’m preparing all my garden beds now, clearing the weeds and throwing them to the cows and chickens. I’m looking forward to fresh tomatoes, including fried green ones.

Some friends and I made the drive one evening to the La Terraza restaurant and their brand new building. If you’re looking for great Mexican food, this place has it. The new building is beautiful and the food is delicious. Josie’s in POC and La Terraza in Seadrift, can’t get any better Mexican food.

Well that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and enjoy Spring time.

As difficult as it is to believe, Warrior’s Weekend XII will be held in Port O’Connor May 18-20.  The wounded heroes plus family members will arrive on Friday, the 18th from all over the country including one Purple Heart recipient scheduled to fly in from Hawaii.  We’d all like to be there but he is coming here to fish for one day.  Warrior’s Weekend means more to them than just fishing-way more.  At this time, we are “tracking” around 700 or so heroes plus their caretakers.  Family members at this time add up to approximately 350 or so.

Each and every hero has had his or her DD214 examined to be sure they are “combat wounded” which includes Purple Heart recipients as well as those with PTSD and/or TBI.  This is a huge undertaking as well you can imagine and difficult decisions have to be made at times.  We have had well over 1,000 applications to examine and decide upon.
The good folks of Calhoun County have been great hosts over the past 11 years and we expect that will continue.  We recently had a Muster (fundraiser) in Port Lavaca and it certainly exceeded our expectations.  We will be holding another, much larger one in Victoria, on April 7th and sponsor tables are still available for $600 which provides entry for 8.  Included is a rib-eye steak dinner and drinks.  There will be casino games, raffles and a silent as well as a live auction.  It is an event you will not regret attending and provides a great deal of our funding for this year’s event.  There is more information on our website, www.warriorsweekend.org as well as our free phone App you can now download.  We are still looking for local housing for our “drive-in” heroes so if you can offer a home or even a room, we can certainly use it.  Please contact Bill Tigrett at 361-983-2671 or us here

We are having a volunteer meeting in Victoria on March 18th at 110 Medical Drive beginning at 2pm.  There will be another in Port O’Connor at Cathy’s Restaurant on April 16th beginning @ 6pm.  You may also follow us on Facebook, Warrior’s Weekend-Tx or reach out to us by email, warriorswknd@yahoo.com.  We are still looking for items to auction off at the Victoria Muster so please call if you have an item you can donate or have any questions you would like to ask.

We look forward to seeing you soon.
Ron Kocian, President

BE A PATRIOT
Share your Home with Our Wounded Heroes & Their Families
Almost any type of space is Welcomed
Entire House • Bunk House • Upstairs or Downstairs Arrangement • Guest Room, etc
Warrior’s Weekend May 18-20
Early Sign Ups are NOW being accepted.
Will you be a Patriot and offer your help?
Please Call Bill Tigrett 361-983-2671 or email bill@tigrett.com.