2008 Texas Blueberry Festival Coming Soon

The most delicious festival in Texas returns to Nacogdoches the second weekend in June with a daylong celebration of the annual blueberry harvest, featuring live music, farm tours, children’s activities and delicious blueberry fare.

The 19^th annual Texas Blueberry Festival will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 14, in historic downtown Nacogdoches – the Oldest Town in Texas. Admission and parking are free and it is a litter free event.

Start the day off right with a hot, delicious stack of pancakes made with fresh-picked local blueberries. Breakfast is served at 8 a.m. on the downtown square. The Texas Blueberry Marketing Association will also be selling fresh blueberries downtown all day. Free shuttles will provide transportation from the festival to a nearby farm where guests can pick their own blueberries right off the bush.

“Set deep in Texas Forest Country in the Oldest Town in Texas, the Texas Blueberry Festival is a delightful day of the America you still dreamed existed,” said Joe Scifo, the festival’s chairman.

“As the only state-sanctioned blueberry festival in the Lone Star State, this delicious annual event attracts more than 10,000 people to downtown Nacogdoches and offers a smorgasbord of experiences and activities to keep folks entertained all day long.”

Live musical entertainment, including folk, country, jazz, blues and soft rock performances, can be enjoyed all day on three downtown stages. Children’s activities will include make-and-take arts and crafts, an inflatable bounce park and a petting zoo. More than 100 arts, crafts and food vendors will also be on site.

Other attractions will include a 42 tournament, pie-eating contest, pet parade, horse shoes and washers tournament, classic car show, costume contest and ice cream- and cobbler-making competitions. Visit the Cool Zone locations that will allow festival attendees to relax and take a break from the summer heat.

Prime growing conditions make Nacogdoches County one of the leading blueberry producers in the state, and the annual harvest peaks in early summer. Proceeds from the Texas Blueberry Festival benefit the Nacogdoches County Chamber’s various community and business-development programs. Nacogdoches is located approximately 150 miles north of Houston via U.S. Hwy. 59.

For more information about the Texas Blueberry Festival, call the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce at 936-560-5533 or the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau at 1-800-OLDEST TOWN. For a complete schedule of events and other festival details, log onto www.TexasBlueberryFestival.com or visit www.Nacogdoches.org.

Photo by Bruce R. Partain

$50 winner

Congratulations to Marilyn K. Phillips, the lucky winner of the Nacogdoches County Chamber Fourth Friday Luncheon $50 cash prize drawing. First Bank & Trust East Texas sponsors the drawing at every Chamber luncheon, and everyone attending the event has a chance to win.

Phillips is store manager of the Nacogodches JCPenney. This was her first time to attend a Chamber luncheon. What luck!

Pictured above are Corey Ashley, First Bank and Trust East Texas, left, and Marilyn K. Phillips JCPenney holding the $50 prize.
Photo by Kelly Daniel.

Houston Mayor speaks at Chamber luncheon

Mayor Bill White, City of Houston, spoke at the Nacogodches County Chamber of Commerce Fourth Friday Luncheon on March 28 at The Fredonia.

Click here to read The Daily Sentinel article by Matthew Stoff.

Area elected officials, business community leaders and Chamber board members welcomed the mayor at a reception that preceded the lunch event.

Photos by Kelly Daniel.

Ribbon Cutting for SFA Friends of Theatre

Monday, March 24, SFA Friends of Theatre celebrated with a ribbon cutting at the SFA Fine Arts Building.

President Betty Ann Taylor, Dr. Scott Shattuck and Friends of Theatre Board Members welcomed sponsors, Chamber members and guests.

Hutchison visits and admires Nacogdoches natural beauty

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison spoke at a reception highlighting the Nacogdoches Azalea Trail on Thursday, March 20, at 10 a.m. at the Sterne Hoya House Museum and Library, 211 S. Lanana. She and her children also enjoyed a tour of the museum, where Bailey found a photograph of her grandmother.



Nacogdoches Mayor Roger Van Horn welcomed guests. Nacogdoches County Chamber Chairwoman Kim Luna Snyder and Convention and Visitors Bureau Chairman Dr. Richard Berry addressed the crowd and thanked Senator Hutchison for visiting Nacogdoches County during this beautiful time of year.

The Senator answered questions from the crowd about issues that included the Trans-Texas Corridor and the state of the nation’s economy.

Note: The Nacogdoches Azalea Trail is March 15-31 and includes 25 miles of beautiful views on three suggested routes through Nacogdoches. Click here for more info on the trail and a bloom status report.

The reception was co-hosted by the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce.
Photos by Kelly Daniel.

Click here to wiew The Daily Sentinel article by Michael Rodden.
Click here to view the KTRE story by Donna McCollum.

Downtown walking tours set for April

Locals and visitors will soon have an early opportunity to visit the Milam Lodge No. 2, in downtown Nacogdoches. The Lodge is the latest site to be added to a guided walking tour of historic downtown landmarks and will be open to visitors during the tours.

The walking tours will be offered at 10:30 a.m. each Saturday in April at the Visitors' Center, located at 200 E. Main St. Tickets are $2 and can be purchased beginning at 10 a.m. the day of the tour. Children 12 and under are free.



"The walking tours are a wonderful opportunity for locals and visitors to learn more about the city of Nacogdoches and the history that makes it unique," said Sherri Skeeters, assistant director of the Nacogdoches Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Our volunteer guides are very knowledgeable about local history and help make the tours entertaining, as well as informative.”

Other historical sites on the tour include the Caddo Indian burial mound, Oak Grove Cemetery, the Old University Building, Zion Hill Baptist Church, the Adolphus Sterne House, Durst Taylor House and Gardens, and much more. The walking tours take about two hours to complete.

For more information, contact the Nacogdoches Convention & Visitors Bureau at 888-OLDEST-TOWN or www.visitnacogdoches.org.

Pictured is the Antonio Gil Y'Barbo statue located downtown on Plaza Principal.

Azalea Trail Photography Contest Winners Announced!

Winners of this year's photography contest have been decided!

1st Place - Carolyn Pipes "A Nose for Beauty - Yellow Azaleas"
2nd Place - Zelma Lias "Created for This"
3rd Place - Andrea Schroeder "Springtime in Nacogdoches"
Honorable Mentions - Dan Maxwell "Saffron Surprise" and Pat Wallace "Azalea Gardens"

Photos can be viewed from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday, March 18-30, at The Art Center, 329 E. Main Street.

Downtown plant sale to kick off annual Azalea Trail

Nacogdoches Azalea Trail information

Cook’s Nursery, Don’s Plants, Naconiche Gardens and the Flora Garden Club will be offering a variety of azaleas, perennials, houseplants and other choice ornamental shrubs and trees at the annual Azalea Plant Sale Saturday, March 15, on the downtown square.

The plant sale will be held from 9 a.m. to noon and will mark the official start of the 2008 Nacogdoches Azalea Trail, which continues through the end of the month. Organizers say plant enthusiasts should come early for the best selection and bring a cart or wagon to transport plants.

“This is a great opportunity to find a wide variety of plants that perform well in this region,” says Eloise Adams, project chairman for the Flora Garden Club. “Most of the proceeds from the sale are put back into community garden projects for everyone to enjoy.”

Plant vendors will be set up along Fredonia Street on the downtown square between Regions Bank and the Visitors’ Center. Shoppers can park along nearby streets or in the large lot behind the bank. Home-baked goods, coffee and other refreshments will be available at the sale.

The Flora Garden Club will also be selling $1, or 6 for $5 raffle tickets for a heavy-duty garden cart (pictured) packed with gardening goodies donated by club members. It will be on display the week of the sale at the Visitors’ Center, 200 E. Main St.

To purchase tickets or get more information about the Azalea Plant Sale or other Azalea Trail Events, contact the Nacogdoches Convention & Visitors Bureau at 936-564-7351 or 888-OLDEST-TOWN or visit www.nacogdochesazaleas.com.

Walking in an East Texas winter wonderland

Flurries of fluffy snowflakes in Nacogdoches, Friday morning, March 7.

27th Annual N.O.B.L.E. Scholars Banquet

N.O.B.L.E. - Nacogdoches County's Opportunity for Better Learning Experience is a program of the Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce

The 2008 N.O.B.L.E. Scholars Banquet was held Monday in the Grand Ballroom of the SFASU Baker Patillo Student Center.


The Nacogdoches County Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors
congratulate
2008 N.O.B.L.E. Scholars
and thank
N.O.B.L.E. Banquet Sponsors


Gold Sponsor
Nacogdoches ISD



Silver Sponsors
BancorpSouth
Central Heights ISD
Chireno ISD
Commercial Bank of Texas, N.A.
Cooper Power Systems
Cushing ISD
Douglass ISD
Garrison ISD
Martinsville ISD
SFA Dean of Education
Woden ISD
Regions Bank


Bronze Sponsors
Austin Bank, Texas N.A.
Cal-Tex Lumber
Roy Blake Insurance
Nacogdoches Abstract & Title Co.
First Bank & Trust East Texas
Tipton Ford, Inc.
Nacogdoches Medical Center
Judge Ed Klein
Joe Max Green / Insurance Concepts
Ruckel Insurance & Financial Group
Citizens 1st Bank
Huntington State Bank
Nacogdoches Answering Service
University Rental

Other Sponsors
Axley & Rode, LLP
Etech, Inc.
Alamo Realty
Thad Floyd
Lee Danis & Associates

A special thanks to the following for making the N.O.B.L.E. Scholarships possible:
Cox Enterprises, Inc.
The Daily Sentinel
Do-Dat Barbeque
Ms. Karla DeLuca
Mr. James I. Perkins
Citizens 1st Bank

Kid Fish 2008

Taken January 26, 2008, James Montoya and Omar Rosas (young boy) pose proudly for the camera at the 2008 Kid Fish Tournament at Lakeside Park. Omar had never caught a fish before. That day he landed 40 and kept a limit of five!


Yes, he caught trout too at the Kid Fish Event, Nacogdoches!


Bradley Stringer with Doug James, Executive Guide Service and Event Coordinator for Nacogdoches Kid Fish Tournament featuring Rainbow Trout.