Shelby County Today

May 2, 2022 - This week is Teacher Appreciation week! We celebrate our Teachers, letting them know their work does not go unnoticed.

The Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Teacher Appreciation reception will be held Wednesday, May 4 at the Windham Civic Center in Center at 4:30pm. The reception is held annually to salute and recognize the dedicated administrations and teaching staff of all the Shelby County school districts. Each campus Teacher of the Year will be recognized by his or her Principal and receive a Certificate of Recognition. The Shelby County Teacher of the Year for Elementary and Secondary schools will also be announced This is a time when gratitude and appreciation is expressed to the educators throughout the county. The Teacher of the Year from the Shelby County School Campuses are:

F.L. Moffett Primary School – Connie Hooper
Center Elementary School – Zonia Corbell
Center Middle School – Shane Corbell
Center High School – Donny Johnson
Roughrider Academy - Jody Stephens

Excelsior ISD – Terri Snider

S.W. Carter Elementary – Bree Bearden
Shelbyville Middle School – Cheryl Alexander
Shelbyville High School – Paola Rangel

Tenaha Elementary School – Katha Wyatt
Tenaha Middle/High School – Joanna Huckabee

Timpson Elementary – Syreeta Johnson
Timpson Middle School – Dee Elliott
Timpson High School – Lori Center

Thank you to all our Sponsors and to all the businesses who donated gift items for helping us recognize our wonderful teachers, countywide, for all they do for our community and our students.

Presenting Sponsor is Badders Law Firm. Gold sponsors for the event are Farmers State Bank and Shelby Savings Bank. Silver Sponsors are H&R Block, McWilliams and Son and Ray Jones Chevrolet. 

Host Table Sponsors are American State Bank, Blake Furniture, Century 21 Realtors, Mathews Real Estate, McDonalds, Panola College – Shelby County, Sonic Drive-In and Windham Family Dental. Spotlight tables are Hospice Plus, Impressions Advertising and Shelby Insurance Agency.

April 27, 2022 - The Center Woman’s Reading Club met on Thursday, February 17th at the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.

Billie Sue Payne presented her book choice, Abigail Adams, written by Woody Holton.

Billie Sue has always enjoyed reading. Her mother loved to read. Ms. Payne has fond memories of Lucy Todd, librarian at Timpson ISD. Ms. Todd encouraged children to read and was always suggesting books. Billie Sue has always loved biographies.

Abigail Adams was a woman born before her time. She was an “enthusiastic New Englander” with a giddy personality that initially, turned off her future husband. She was taught by her mother, loved to read and was an avid writer. She was one of the finest writers of her age. In one of her letters she said “my pen is always freer than my tongue.

 Abigail Adams was far more charismatic and influential than most people realize. The two drivers in her life were: 1. A deep belief in women’s rights and women’s education and 2. The right for women to be financially sound. She passionately campaigned for women’s education, denounced sex discrimination and certainly matched wits not only with her husband, John, but with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. She did not like Benjamin Franklin

Abigail Adams was 15 years old when she met John Adams in 1759. They were married in 1764 and had 6 children in 12 years.

While John was gone, Abigail ran the household. Over time, she became more assertive, smarter and much more capable than her husband. She was dominant and confident in her own good judgement. She was a brilliant business woman, defying centuries of legislation that assigned married women’s property to their husbands, she amassed a fortune in her own right,

If John had not been away from home so much, historians would not have learned as much about the couple, politics and the war. They wrote each other constantly. John frequently sought her advice on many matters and their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics. The letters also offer an eyewitness account of the American Revolution on the home front. In her letters, Abigail complained about the exclusion of women. Although she was feisty and opinionated, Abigail expressed her views and opinions in a diplomatic manner.

Abigail did not attend her husband’s inauguration as the 2nd President of the United States. She was tending to his dying mother. Once John was elected President, Abigail continued a formal pattern of entertaining. She held a large dinner each week, made frequent public appearances and provided entertainment for the city of Philadelphia each 4th of July.

When the capital was relocated to Washington D.C., in 1800, Abigail became the first First Lady to live at the White House. They lived there the last 4 months of her husband’s term. She said, the city is a wilderness, the city was a wilderness, the President’s house far from complete – she found the mansion “habitable”.

Abigail died in her home on October 28, 1818, exactly two weeks shy of her 74th birthday.

Delicious refreshments were served and a time of fellowship followed.

Guests are always welcome. Please contact the club membership coordinator, Monty Jones, at 936-598-5757 if you are interested in visiting the club.

Submitted by Stephanie Elswick

April 26, 2022 - Shelby County Outreach Ministries (SCOM) was presented with both a monetary donation and a donation of food on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, from St. Therese Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus.

Knights of Columbus Tim Wulf and Thomas Hughes delivered two large carts full of canned goods collected during Lent by St. Therese Catholic Church members, and a check.

Receiving the donation on behalf of SCOM was Patsy Handy, accompanied by volunteers Bryan Bolton and Dmitri Scott who works the food room. 

April 19, 2022 - Ambassadors and community members attended a ribbon cutting at Refresquería Deleite on Thursday, April 14th to welcome the newest members of the Chamber of Commerce to the business community and congratulate them on a "dream come true."

Chamber of Commerce Ambassador President Stephanie Elswick introduced the owners, Sara Gonzalez and Merari Gonzalez, “We are here to honor your business and thank you so much for opening a business in our community. For those of you who don’t know, these are sister owners, this is Sara and this is Merari.”

Merari Gonzalez was appreciative about their new business venture, “I’m so excited to be here. I want to thank Sara for trusting me with her dream and her vision.” She continued, “Serving these past two weeks, the Center community has been wonderful and challenging but as well very rewarding. Just that people are liking our products that we made and knowing that what we are doing, we are trying our very best to give out and offer what we love which is sweets and spicies.”

Both expressed their excitement to be a part of the Chamber of Commerce and to offer a place for families to come and enjoy a good treat. Sara Gonzalez added to Merari’s comments, “For me it’s like a dream come true to have this place, and all that we are doing, as you can tell we use a lot of fruit and we try not to use a lot of concentrates or artificial flavors so that is really good and Center is liking it so far. And thank you to everyone that is here.” Sara then gave special thanks to her family including her husband and her sister and brother-in-law.

Refresquería Deleite is the perfect place to stop for all the good, refreshing snacks to eat and drink. They offer fruit cups, ice cream, banana splits, bubble waffles, mangonadas, non alcoholic cocktails and many more snacks and treats.

Refresquería Deleite will be open Monday thru Saturday 10am until 9pm, and on Sunday 5pm until 9pm. Refresqueria Deleite is located at 226 Tenaha Street, Center, Texas 75935. Refresquería Deleite translated to english is Refreshment Delight.