POWER TALK
AND THE WINNER IS
Ray Brown, son of Christine and Raymond Brown of Pedernales Electric Cooperative, is the grand prizewinner of $1,500 in Texas Co-op Power’s 2009 “Co-op Teens Power Texas” video competition. Canyon Lake High School, where Ray is a senior, received $1,000 for its support in producing the winning entry. Ray used a quiz show format to demonstrate money-saving, energy-efficiency tips in the home.
“I was really interested in the topic of energy tips and did some research and playing with the numbers,” Ray said. “I found out you could save about $360 a year with simple energy-saving practices. It’s a great message, especially for teenagers.” Ray will apply his winnings toward tuition at Full Sail University, a film, animation and design school in Winter Park, Florida.
The six runners-up, who each received $250, are: Jordan Williams, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative; Kevin-Luc Ikelle and David Jones, both of Bryan Texas Utilities; Will Butcher and Keegan Hope, both of Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative; and John Arevalo of Magic Valley Electric Cooperative.
To view all seven winning videos, go to www.texascooppower.com and click on the Co-op Teens Power Texas link.
THE LITTLE EYES OF TEXAS
Free Vision Screening for Tots
It’s been estimated that nearly 80 percent of the residents at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austin would not be there today had they been tested for vision problems before the age of 4, according to Michelle Calhoun, a registered optician. Calhoun is spearheading a program of free screenings for every Texas child who can be reached.
But up until two years ago, such testing for babies and very small children was not possible.
Thanks to new technology and the dedication of volunteers for the Registered Opticians Association of Texas (ROATx), children are now being tested for conditions that could lead to permanent blindness or other debilitating conditions if not treated.
During the past year, ROATx volunteers have screened more than 200 children ages 6 months to 4 years. More than 40 of those children have been referred to a pediatric ophthalmologist or optometrist for treatment.
The free screenings are being scheduled throughout the state with support from local civic and community organizations, such as Lions Clubs and Masonic Lodges.
“It is estimated that one in every four children has a vision issue, and 50 percent of learning disabilities among children today can be attributed to vision problems,” said Sam Johnson, who serves as president of ROATx and on the board of its Early Childhood Vision Screening program. “Our sole mission is to prevent childhood blindness by detecting problems while it is still possible to have a nearly 98 percent cure rate.”
For a schedule of free early childhood vision screenings in your area, or for more information about this program, go to http://ecvs.roatx.org. If your community service organization would like to sponsor a screening event, e-mail info@roatx.org.
HAPPENINGS
Douse the red nose, Rudolph: With millions of lights to guide him, Santa’s coming in for a safe landing on the Texas Hill Country Regional Christmas Lighting Trail that cuts a luminous swath through 11 towns.
Neatly situated within easy driving distance of Austin and San Antonio—connect the dots on a map, and the trail, with a little imagination, forms an oddly shaped Christmas tree—the locales of Boerne, Burnet, Dripping Springs, Fredericksburg, Goldthwaite, Johnson City, Llano, Marble Falls, New Braunfels, Round Mountain and Wimberley deck their downtown areas with all things Christmas. From lavish decorations to parades, carriage rides and photo ops with Santa, each community packages memory-making experiences for thousands of visitors. New to the trail this year is a five-tiered, 26-foot-tall Christmas pyramid—a wooden tree—that was handmade in Germany and shipped to Fredericksburg.
But to really get plugged into the holiday spirit, bask in the glow of the trail’s spectacular light shows, from the brilliant display on the Blanco County courthouse in Johnson City to the Walkway of Lights on the Lake Marble Falls shore. For more information about the trail—which is expected to remain open through at least January 1—call 1-866-839-3378 or go to www.tex-fest.com.
LONG LIVE THE HORSETAIL
“If any terrestrial vascular plant deserved the moniker ‘living fossil,’ it would be a horsetail. If we could go back in time to the late Devonian (more than 350 million years ago), we would find their immediately recognizable ancestors (known as sphenophytes), not only in the form of understory plants but also as immense woody trees 60 feet high with bases 2 feet thick that formed some of Earth’s first extensive forests.”
—Matt Warnock Turner, Remarkable Plants of Texas: Uncommon Accounts of Our Common Natives, University of Texas Press, 2009
CHECK THEM OUT
Texas’ Travel Gems
AOL Travel includes five Texas destinations in its list of Top 10 Underrated Natural Wonders in the United States (http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/galleries/underrated-natural-wonders). The Lone Star State picks are: No. 3—Palo Duro Canyon State Park (south of Amarillo); No. 4—Padre Island National Seashore; No. 5—Natural Bridge Caverns (north of San Antonio and west of Interstate 35); No. 9—Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site (northwest of El Paso); and No. 10—Big Bend National Park. None of these destinations should surprise Texas Co-op Power readers. We’ve covered them all.
If you’re wanting to visit little-known destinations outside the state, check out the Nos. 1 and 2 picks, respectively: Topsail Hill Preserve State Park (Santa Rosa Beach, Florida) and Big Basin Redwoods State Park (south of San Francisco).
WHO KNEW?
Ho, ho … who?
Yep, you know him as Big Tex, the 52-foot-tall statue that greets visitors to the State Fair of Texas. But he wasn’t born a cowboy. After World War II, merchants in Kerens, southeast of Dallas, built what they claimed was the world’s largest Santa Claus: a 49-foot-tall figure made of iron-pipe drill casing and papier-mâché with 7-foot lengths of unraveled rope for a beard. After initial success in 1949, the novelty wore off and in 1951, State Fair President R.L. Thornton bought Santa’s components for $750 and hired an artist to turn them into a giant cowboy. Big Tex made his debut at the 1952 State Fair.
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