Christmas Luncheon Greeters
David Walker, Grace Stone, and Otto Hardt

Donna Vuichard, Marie Hawes, and Madeline Bourg celebrating Citizen of the Year.

Beverly Clifton and Martie Gonzales
Salt Blossom Shop donated door prize flowers

POC Service Club was honored to host our annual Senior Christmas Luncheon on Friday, December 1, 2017. Delicious food, charming friends old and new, door prizes and photo booth fun made this year extra special. Our Citizen of the Year, Madeline Bourg, was honored for all she does in our community. See her story elsewhere in this edition of the paper. We are lucky to get to work with her often.

We also donated $5,000 to the Friends of the Port O’Connor Library Building Fund. We gave $500 to the Toy Run Fund to help purchase extra toys and bikes in this year of extra needs. The Service Club has many ongoing projects we help to fund as well including scholarships for local students, memorial donations to honor and remember local friends and family, community endeavors such as classroom volunteering and PTO donations, money given directly to our local teachers to fund needs in their classrooms, cash donations to the POC Benevolence Fund to supply holiday baskets to families in need, Senior Lunch donations and many others. Our local garage sales helped to fund these donations in large part.

If you would like to help in our outreach, we are still taking donations of like new clothing, décor and household goods for our Spring Garage Sale scheduled for the first Saturday in April. You can call Donna Vuichard at 361-237-0476 if you need assistance in donating to our sale.

Service Club members will be busy right through the holidays as we bake for the fundraisers, help with community events and give back when and where we are asked. Maybe you would like to find a place to meet new friends and help others. POC Service Club could be the perfect place. Women of all ages have found themselves a part of our team and joined in our service and projects. We meet at the POC Community Center on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month at 10:00 a.m. We would love for you to visit our meetings and consider joining us.

Thanks again to our community for your support and backing of our work and efforts and we look forward to doing more for and with our community in the new year. So, until next time, be safe, live simply, love openly, forgive generously and remember this quote from Jim Rohn, a simple farmer who became an entrepreneur and motivator of many who said, “Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have.” Come by and let us add to your bucket of blessings by showing you some great places to add to someone else’s life by giving of yourself.

Brigid Berger and Lisa Fricke Berger were Photo Booth Fun Coordinators

Santa & Mrs. Claus with their Lighted Boat Parade elves

Enjoying the Holiday with Family and Friends

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well and bundling up in this pre-winter weather we have been having. Winter doesn’t officially begin until the 21st, but you sure could have fooled me last week when the wind chill temps on the island were in the mid 30’s. Yikes! And a wind driven drizzling rain made it even more miserable. Corky and Jetty and I just bundled up and stayed pretty much inside for those few days. Island cabin fever sets in very quickly during those times.

The week before Thanksgiving we finally got my dad, Henry, moved back to Seadrift from Brazoria, where he had been living for many years. He and my mom live within seed spitting distance of each other, and it’s so nice having both parents so close again. My siblings and I are very blessed to still have both of them with us, and God’s willing, they will be for many years to come.

` Thanksgiving was great last month for Corky and I. We spent the night prior at Mom’s, so that morning I was able to visit and have coffee with Mom and Dad. Early that afternoon I headed back to POC and had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and fellowship at Britton and Susan’s house with great friends. The food was excellent and that night we all sat around the fire pit, a perfect ending to a most wonderful day.

Well the chickens finally started laying a few weeks ago, yay! The 15 hens haven’t fully all kicked into laying mode yet, but I’m getting 4-6 eggs a day right now. It’s a great treat being able to have and provide fresh eggs for myself and to give to friends and family.

The island house and yard are decorated for Christmas! Thank you so much, Susan and Britton, for helping get all the lights and decorations set up and extension cords and splitters connected. The house and yard really do look beautiful, I’m very happy with the outcome. The time and effort involved became worth it when I was told the lights and decorations brought someone the holiday spirit, when it otherwise would have been absent. Each year the island display will become bigger and better! Christmas strong!!

In all my years on the island, I had never been involved or even attended the POC Toy Run and Lighted Boat Parade, well that has now changed. On Saturday afternoon, my best friend, Susan, and I donned our Santa hats and went to the Freeport-To-Port O’Connor Toy Run drop-off site, which was at Clark’s Hotel on the Intracoastal waterway. This was the final destination where nearly 40 boats made the trek from Freeport to POC to drop off toys for area children.

This truly was a wonderful affair to see and be involved in. While Susan took dozens of pictures to capture the event for the POC Chamber of Commerce Facebook page, we both helped unload the boats of many bags of toys and bicycles, all of which were loaded into trailers for later delivery to the kids. This marked the 15th annual Freeport-To-Port O’Connor Toy Run event, and I was honored to be a part of it, and will continue to do so.

And then later that same night, I was part of the 26th annual POC Lighted Boat Parade, sponsored by the POC Chamber of Commerce. This event was a LOT of fun! The evening before, I went into town and helped friends Susan, Britton, Don and Lori decorate Earl Long’s pontoon boat. We loaded that boat down with lights and decorations, and the following night we used it in the lighted boat parade. Earl was a spot-on Santa Claus, looking the part perfectly, and his better half, Carla, was Mrs. Claus, while the rest of us were their elves, decked out in matching elf attire. The nighttime weather was perfect and we had a blast! We are all looking forward to doing it again next year.

That’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a very Merry Christmas!

Clint’s Island Home

Snow on Seadrift’s Art Boat
Photo by Dieter Erhard

I have been waist deep in snow several times, driven through blizzards and experienced negative temperatures with a snowboard attached to my feet. I have sat in a log cabin next to a fire as snow fell against the massive windows that looked over snow capped mountains. I have chased leaves down clear blue rivers as the water slowly began to turn to ice. I have shaken the branches of a tree as it dusted my snow boots and have breathed in the crisp cold air as chipmunks tested a log nearby.

NONE of this compares to snow in Texas.

NONE of this compares to hope filled children praying for snow. NONE of this compares to parents waking their children up at midnight, wearing whatever they could find in their closets, to give their children the gift of snowflakes. NONE of this compares to newlyweds writing their initials in the snow for the first time. NONE of this compares to families embracing one another as snow collects on their Crocs. NONE of this compares to this snow day where a child awakened inside of us all. NONE of this compares to the absolute joy in the hearts of Texans on this snowy morning.

NONE of this compares to watching people who survived a historical hurricane as this event destroyed their homes, livelihood, lands and so much more – step outside and catch snowflakes on their tongues, laugh and build snowmen.

Texas is great and so is God who loves His people.

Snow in POC Dec. 8 – Christina Hall photo

Port O’Connor Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
left to right: John Reneau, Darla Parker, Mary Jo Walker, Dawn Ragusin, Kacie Skalak, Mary Francis Bauer, Eloisa Newsome, Ronna Fishbeck, Staci Hein, Troy Wygrys.

First, the Chamber wants to “THANK” everyone who made it out to our Annual Chamber Christmas Party. It was a beautiful evening, after the true blessing of the gift of snow the night before.The party was a fantastic success. Joanie Morgan and Mary Jo Walker took the bull by the horns and turned this into a unforgettable event. Also we want to let anyone that helped put this party together, know it was truly appreciated, from the music to the food. It will be hard to top this next year.

The election of 2018 Directors was held, In January, the Directors will select the 2018 officers.

Opps– so much going on this month I almost forgot the 2017 Lighted Boat Parade. The night with a full moon and fantastic weather has been said to be the BEST EVER!!!!
Thanks to all participants and the Chamber members who worked so hard to make it all come together.

One more event for 2017: Business & House Lighting Contest on Dec. 20th & 21st. Don’t forget to leave your lights on and contact Beverly (361-220-1583) to make sure your house is on the list.

Thanks to everyone in the community who volunteered in any way or helped to make 2017 a fantastic year.

New & Renewed Members
Captain Lawn, Tree and Deck Service
AJL Advertising Specialties
Dock’s Restaurant
Dain & Judy Whitworth

Have A Safe & Happy New Year!

Chamber Christmas Party -Bill Tigrett

What a great start for the Christmas Season!

24 students and 14 adults got together to build Gingerbread Houses. Shaney Bradford, a retired Art Teacher from the Katy School District donated not only her time but all the materials, as well. Her husband, Frank, was there to do the heavy lifting for us and help keep everything organized!

The story of the Gingerbread Man was read by Charlotte Fitzgerald and each child took home a copy of the book. Nan Burnett made a beautiful apron for the helpers from Friends of the Library to wear. Our two librarians, Noemi Cruz and Shirley Gordon were there to watch the Gingerbread “mansions” appear! The following pictures tell the rest of the story. Lots of fun together!

The Bradford family will now share more of their generosity! They plan to donate more of their time and all the materials to the POC Elementary School students to have every child there build a Gingerbread House. No two houses are ever alike. The fun continues as the Christmas Spirit grows in POC!!

Joanie Morgan
Friends of the Port O’Connor Library

Shaney and Frank Bradford from Katy, who own a home in POC.