Shelby County Today

From left: Volunteer - Dani Camp, Board Member - Shelby County Representative Tammie Luman, and Board President - Stephanie Elswick

April 18, 2024 - Happy Tails Adoption Center hosted a pet adaption event during the Spring Fling event at White Cottage Mercantile on Tuesday, April 16. If you missed it, the next live adoption event is Saturday, May 4th at Tractor Supply in Center from 10am until 2pm.

You can also show your support at the "BBQ Cause 4 Paws" fundraiser on Friday, April 19, 2024 from 5pm until 7pm on the downtown square. Dinner plates are $20 and includes pulled pork, beans, and potato salad. There will be raffle tickets to win a Ruger American .243 rifle with a black synthetic stock and optics ready, a 48 quart Yeti Cooler with wheels, and a win basket. Purchase tickets at www.happytails.org. Raffle winners will be drawn at the BBQ Cause 4 Paws event.

Be Blessed BBQ will be there as well as a bake sale items available for purchase!

April 16, 2024 - The Miss Shelby County Pageant 2024 Honors The Pageant Legacy of Mrs Tonya Simmons Bailey Saturday, April 20th at The John D. Windham Civic Center at 1pm.

Tonya Simmons Bailey started competing in pageants when she was a toddler. The first time she was on television was when she was four years old. Tonya and her mom, Lila, were flown to New York City to talk about kids and pageants on The Art Linkletter Show. Tonya was always a natural when it came to being the center of attention, which led to modeling for several department stores, including Macy's.

When she was a high school senior, she decided that Center needed something more for the young girls of Shelby County and started the first Miss Shelby County Pageant. She looked forward to the pageant every year; she loved the planning, production, and overseeing every aspect of the pageant. She was not only the director but also an inspiration for so many young women all over the county, giving them the opportunity to make new lifelong friends while sharing their inner and outer beauty. She was a legend.

So many children were part of the Miss Shelby County Pageant, Miss And Mr. Pumpkin Patch, Little Miss Merry Christmas and Mr. Happy Holidays, The Watermelon Festival Pageant, and Toddlers and Tiaras. The Pageants were not only for the kids but also for her. She loved giving her time and attention to them; for that, she will always be a legend in Shelby County.

Tonya passed away on July 1, 2018, from Cancer, but she is loved and remembered for what she shared with the community.

April 5, 2024 - Hope Community Medicine held and open house and ribbon cutting for their Mobile Clinic on Friday, April 5, 2024, in Center.

Brandi Emanis, Marketing Director, welcomed everyone to the event and introduced Mike Belgard, CEO - Hope Community Medicine. Belgard thanked all present for attending the open house event and he stated the mobile clinic has been made possible by the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, most of you know about Temple Industry, they’re a big forestry group here in our area and they have a foundation that provides support for non-profits like Hope Community Medicine to help expand healthcare and to help expand access to internet service in rural areas.

“So they gave us a grant to buy this bus and put it into operation, and so we want to for sure thank them for the opportunity to do this,” said Belgard. “As you can tell, if you've been on a tour, we can do anything in this mobile clinic that we can do in our clinic over here on Tenaha Street or in any of our other clinics.”

Belgard listed many of the locations they visit including Panola County: Beckville, DeBerry, Gary, and Deadwood, and in Shelby County: Patroon, Joaquin, and Huxley, and in Sabine County: Milam, and Broadus. He said they are intending to expand that range as much as they can and maintain a routine to be consistent.

Not only does the bus help provide healthcare in the areas they visit, Belgard described their attempts and bringing nutrition to those in need as well, “We also not only provide medical care on this bus, we also bring food out to every place that we go. Make sure that everybody that walks in the door, when they leave, we give them a little sack of groceries that'll provide them three or four meals.”

Belgard said they want to continue to expand in working with food banks to bring food out. Hope Community Medicine now has an in-house pharmacy and they are expecting to integrate that into their mobile unit to shorten the distance for those individuals that may not be able to easily obtain their medications due to the distance of their residence from their medical provider.

“We're also working with our pharmacy staff that we just opened our pharmacy, our in-house pharmacy at the Center clinic. We actually provide low-cost medicines to anybody who's our patient,” said Belgard. “Regardless of your income, it doesn't matter that's not an issue with the medication and whether you have insurance or not that doesn't matter we provide good low-cost medicines to anybody who is our patient. We're also gonna expand that service to the bus, hopefully before too long. And actually, be able to bring out people's medications to them from the pharmacy.”

Belgard gave praise to God for bringing the project together and calling them to perform their mission.

“God has blessed us tremendously through all of this and continues to, and that's all we're here to do. We're just trying to make sure that we're doing what God has called us to do,” said Belgard. “That's our mission, that's our ministry, because this truly is a ministry. I think it's one of the best kept secrets in East Texas, but God has put all of this together, and I'm just, thankful to be a part of it.”

Belgard said Shelby County is the hub of operations for Hope Community Medicine, with 54 employees and service provided to five counties.

To contact Hope Community Medicine and make and an appointment call 936-598-2717. (See April calendar below)

Pictured are (from left) Richard Lundie, Kenneth Ramsey, Jan Ramsey, Joy Hutto, Mary Fausett, Carolyn Umbrell, Larry Hume, Mike Wulf and Riichard Roddy. 

April 1, 2024 - VFW Post 8904 Veterans and Auxiliary members honored those veterans who served in Somalia, “Operation Restore Hope” during a ceremony held April 1, 2024.

The program was opened with a prayer led by Kenneth Ramsey, Jr. Vice, and the ceremony was led by Mike Wulf, Post Sr. Vice.

"Americans consider themselves to be a compassionate people, and the United States military has a long standing tradition of humanitarian relief operations both within and outside the continental United States. Never has this humanitarian impulse proven more dangerous to follow than in 1992 when the United States intervened to arrest famine in the midst of an ongoing civil war in the East African country of Somalia."

Wulf continued, “Ultimately hundreds of thousands were saved from starvation, but unintended involvement in Somalian civil strife cost the lives of 30 American soldiers, four Marines, and eight Air Force personnel during the years of 1992 to 1994. The American military had established the conditions for peace in the midst of a famine and civil war but unlike later in Bosnia, the factions were not exhausted from the fighting and were not yet willing to stop the killing of each other and anyone caught in the middle. There was no peace to keep and the United States withdrew all military combat troops in March of 1994.

“The American G.I. had as always done their best under difficult circumstances to perform a complex, and often confusing mission, but the best military in the world can only lay the foundation for peace; they cannot create peace itself."

In honor of the Veterans who served in Somalia, Post member Kenneth Ramsey placed the the memorial wreath. Taps was then sounded as presented by Post Commander Richard Lundie in honor of those lost in Somalia and those who served and survived, but have since passed.