News Archives

Sign Up To Cook In The 7th Annual Great Texoma Cook-Off

BJ Kirkpatrick News 04/08/201807/23/2025

Sherman Texas

The 7th Annual Great Texoma Cook-Off benefiting Home Hospice of Grayson, Cooke and Fannin Counties is quickly approaching! The event will be held on Sunday April 29th, 2018 inside the Mayor Arena at Loy Lake Park in Denison, Texas. The Great Texoma Cook-Off will be a rain or shine event running from 12:30 pm to 4:00 pm. The event will feature various cook teams preparing their best chicken, beef and fish recipes accompanied
by sides of beans, coleslaw and sauces. Also present will be local nonprofit organizations with their best dessert recipes.

Are you, or is someone you know, interested in being a cook team? Spots are still available! T ea ms will provide bite sized samples of their own chicken, beef or fish recipes to be voted onby the attendees for the People’s Choice Award. Winning recipes will receive a cash prize anda trophy. For more information about registering as a cook team, please contact Nancy Jackson at 903-868-9315 or by email at nancy.jackson@homehospice.org.

You can also register online at www.TexomaCookOff.com. The Great Texoma Cook-Off is a family friendly event. Bounce houses, a Kids Korner, balloon animals and more will keep your whole family entertained for the entire afternoon. Local talent Sean Franks and headliner Zane Williams will be performing live throughout the cook-off.Home Hospice of Grayson, Cooke and Fannin Counties is a 501(c)(3) local community-based organization serving our communities for 35 years. As the oldest and most trusted local hospice organization, our mission is to provide the best care and support enhancing the Quality of Life of our patients and their families. To learn about other community outreach programs offered by Home Hospice, please visit www.homehospice.org or visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/homehospiceofgrayson.

COLLEGE ANGLERS SET TO COMPETE AT YETI FLW COLLEGE FISHING AT LAKE TEXOMA

March 27, 2018 by FLW Communications | Denison Texas

YETI FLW College Fishing will continue the 2018 fishing season with an event April 7 on Lake Texoma. The tournament, hosted by the Denison Area Chamber of Commerce, is the second of three regular-season events for anglers in the Southern Conference, and will feature a top prize of a $2,000 club scholarship and an invitation to compete in the 2019 College Fishing National Championship.

“They’re going to catch them pretty good at Texoma and it should be a really fun tournament,” said FLW Tour pro and former College Fishing standout Andrew Upshaw, who has three top-12 finishes on Lake Texoma in Costa FLW Series competition. “The majority of the largemouth should be spawning, or just about to spawn. The smallmouth will likely already have spawned, so the chances of catching a 3½ to 4 pound smallmouth are pretty good. I think the winning team will probably have a mixed bag – a few big largemouth and a few big smallmouth.”

Upshaw said that the majority of the big fish live on the south end of the lake – within six miles of the dam – and he expects that a big grouping of college competitors will likely be found in that area.

“Sight fishing is going to be the deal for most of the teams,” Upshaw said. “You can’t beat a (Gene Larew) Biffle Bug – it’s my number one bait when sight fishing. I’d also have something compact tied on, like a (Gene Larew Jacob Wheeler) Hammer Craw.

“I’d recommend doing a little homework and looking at what past winners have done this time of year,” Upshaw continued. “If I wasn’t sight fishing, I’d be cranking a (Bill Lewis) Echo 1.75 squarebill around rocks. (Ray) Hanselman won a couple of years ago throwing a frog around spawning areas. A big 6- to 8-inch swimbait in the clear water around docks could catch some big ones that are staging.

“My biggest recommendation if you’re looking to win is to pick up baits that you know are going to catch big ones,” Upshaw went on to say. “Between a frog, a big swimbait and a Biffle Bug, I don’t think you can beat those three options.”

Upshaw predicted that the winning team would bring a five-bass limit nearing 22 pounds to the scale.

Competitors will take off from the Highport Marina, located at 120 Texoma Harbor in Pottsboro, at 7 a.m. CST Saturday. Weigh-in will be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Takeoff and weigh-in are free and open to the public.

Schools registered to compete in the Lake Texoma tournament include:

Abilene Christian University – Tanner Sanderson, El Paso, Texas, and Corbin Craft, Fort Worth, Texas

Colorado State University-Pueblo – Austin Miles, Durango, Colo., and Cooper Brown, Pueblo West, Colo.

Harding University – Ethan Flowers, Dexter, Mo., and Cole Swede, Little Rock, Ark.

Louisiana Tech University – Huff McIntosh and Jacob Mitcham, both of Ruston, La.

Northeast Texas Community College – Austin King, Hughes Spring, Texas, and Danny Boyd, Winnsboro, Texas

Northeastern State University – Caleb Gibson and Tyler Winn, both of Tahlequah, Okla.

Oklahoma State University – Bates Enmeier, Enid, Okla., and Dexter Flick, Olathe, Colo.

Oklahoma State University – Garrett Brown, Broken Arrow, Okla., and Jake Swanson, Eufaula, Okla.

Sam Houston State University – Jackson Carrell, Anderson, Texas, and Kyle Pasket, Tomball, Texas

Stephen F. Austin State University – Kyle Dragulski, Mansfield, Texas, and Will Hughes, Tyler, Texas

Texas A&M University – Grant Adams, Midlothian, Texas, and Shane Stafford, Belton, Texas

Texas A&M-Commerce – Jacob Galindo, Commerce, Texas, and William Fitzgerald, Quinlan, Texas

Texas A&M-Commerce – Michael Wallace, Plano, Texas, and Jolten Andree, Commerce, Texas

Texas A&M-Commerce – Remy Schenk, Bogata, Texas, and Mason Ray, Plano, Texas

Texas A&M-Galveston – Aaron Batten, Houston, Texas, and Mathew Dove, Deer Park, Texas

Tyler Junior College – Hudson Daille, Tyler, Texas, and Tyler Davis, Whitehouse, Texas

University of Oklahoma – Peyton Berkley, Norman, Okla., and Colton Risley, Yukon, Okla.

YETI FLW College Fishing teams compete in three regular-season qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top ten teams from each division’s three regular-season tournaments and the top 20 teams from the annual FLW College Fishing Open will advance to the 2019 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Additional teams will qualify for the National Championship if the field size in regular-season events exceeds 100 boats. The 2018 FLW College Fishing National Championship will take place May 30-June 1 on the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is hosted by the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission & Red River Waterway Commission.

YETI FLW College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club that is recognized by their school.

For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow YETI FLW College Fishing on FLW’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

About FLW

FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2018 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW and their partners conduct 286 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

Barbara Pierce Bush to Speak at Austin College

BJ Kirkpatrick Austin College, News 03/31/201807/23/2025

SHERMAN, TEXAS | March 31, 2018

Austin College will host Barbara Pierce Bush, co-founder and board chair of the Global Health Corps, as the 2018 recipient of the Austin College Posey Leadership Award, speaking on “Passion – Energy – Innovation: Mobilizing Young Leaders for Global Change,” on Tuesday, April 3, at 11 a.m. in Wynne Chapel on campus. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Community sponsors for the Sherman events are Bank of Texas and the Sherman Economic Development Corporation (SEDCO).

The Austin College Posey Leadership Award recognizes Bush’s leadership in creating and leading the Global Health Corps. In 2009, Bush responded to a challenge to young leaders to engage their generation in solving the world’s biggest health challenges. Bound by a belief that health is a human right and that it is up to their generation to build a world where this right is realized, she and the co-founders set out to mobilize a global community to build the movement for health equity. The organization since has sent out more than 1,000 young leaders from more than 40 countries to serve in one-year paid fellowships with nonprofit and government health organizations in nations throughout Africa and in sites in the United States.

A native of Dallas, Bush graduated from Yale University in 2004 with a humanities degree. She has served with Baylor College of Medicine’s International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative Clinics in Africa and with UNICEF in Botswana. Additionally, she worked at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Red Cross Children’s Hospital in South Africa, and the UN World Food Programme.

In recognition of her innovative work in health equity, Bush has been named to several high-profile lists, including Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business (2015), Forbes Under 30 Summit (2015), Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs (2014), and Newsweek’s Women of Impact (2013). She was selected as one of six Gerson Lehrman Group Social Impact Fellows in 2016. Ms. Bush also is a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper and a Fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation. She sits on the boards of Covenant House International and the Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

Bush’s visit continues a strong family legacy with Austin College. George H.W. Bush received an honorary doctoral degree from the college in 1973 and was on campus in 2002-2003 as the college’s Chair of Excellence in International Leadership. Former First Lady of the United States Barbara Bush was the 1998 Commencement speaker, receiving an honorary doctoral degree, and George W. Bush was the 1999 Commencement speaker while he was governor of Texas, also receiving an honorary doctoral degree.

Bush also will speak Wednesday, April 4, at 7:45 p.m. in Dallas at Perot Museum of Nature and Science. The award and $100,000 prize will be presented following her talk in Dallas. Tickets to that event start at $50 and are available at www.austincollege.edu/goforum.

At the Dallas event, Bush’s speech will be followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by communications professional Catherine Cuellar, director of partnerships for RefillWise of Dallas. To close the evening, Austin College president Steven O’Day and Board of Trustees chair David Corrigan will present the award and accompanying check of $100,000 to Bush. She will meet with nearly 500 Dallas-area high school students at Parish Episcopal School in an invitation-only event earlier in the day hosted by the Dallas World Affairs Council’s Global Young Leaders program.

The Austin College Leadership Award was created in March 2008 through the generosity of Sally and Lee Posey, founder of Palm Harbor Homes; the Posey name was added to the award upon Lee Posey’s death in 2008. The award honors outstanding individuals who, through their work, demonstrate principles of servant leadership. Past recipients include Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach For America; Paul Farmer, noted Harvard physician and humanitarian; Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone; Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of Grameen Bank; Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund; Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy; Nathan Wolfe, epidemiologist and author of the “The Viral Storm”; Shigeru Ban, humanitarian architect and founder of the Voluntary Architects’ Network; co-recipients Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, founders of Half the Sky Movement and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists; and Vikram Patel, psychiatrist and director of international mental health programs.

Dallas-area sponsors for events at the Perot include Lyda Hill; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; David and Emily Corrigan; Mrs. Henry Estess; Stan and Judy Woodward; Drs. John and Anne Andersen; Jim and Anne Hartnett; Brent Christopher; Rebecca and Ron Gafford; Ann Ross; Becky and Larry Sykes; DHD Films; the World Affairs Council of Dallas; Parish Episcopal School; and Perot Museum of Nature & Science. Additional sponsors are Ira and Frances Anderson of Houston and San Angelo physician Fazlur Rahman, M.D. and his wife Jahanara Rahman.

Austin College, a private national liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas, has earned a reputation for excellence in academic preparation, international study, pre-professional foundations, leadership development, committed faculty, and hands-on, adventurous learning opportunities. One of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges That Change Lives, Austin College boasts a welcoming community that embraces diversity and individuality, with more than 40 percent of students representing ethnic minorities. A residential student body of approximately 1,275 students and a faculty of more than 100 allow a 13:1 student-faculty ratio and personalized attention. The College is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA) and cultivates an inclusive atmosphere that supports students’ faith journeys regardless of religious tradition. Founded in 1849, the College is the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original name and charter.