Terrell County News Leader

June 5, 2009

Nine ‘walk across the stage’

SANDERSON – Nine Sanderson High School students moved the tassel from the right to the left side of their “caps” and became high school graduates Friday.

“Graduates, tonight is not the night that we say goodbye to each other forever but the night where we say hello to all of the new opportunities that lie before us,” Valedictorian Raquel Hinkley said. “Tonight may be the end of this journey but I hope that, for you, it is the beginning of an exciting new one.”

Hinkley said she pondered over what to say in her speech but found a dictionary definition of valedictory in the classroom of teacher Beverly Choate.

“Valedictory, a farewell oration,” she said. “This seemed like a very sad topic so I’d like to think of the goodbye as less of a ‘never-see-you-again’ and more as an ‘I hope that every-thing goes amazing after high school.’ I’d like to say goodbye happily knowing that it isn’t goodbye as much as it is good luck in the future.”

Salutatorian Jimmy Rapp thanked God and his mother Kim for making his graduation possible.

“This night may mean something different for each of his,” he said. “To some, it may just be another sheet of paper from the school that doesn’t affect the way we live our lives but, I know for the rest of us, this little sheet of paper means that we are one step closer to chasing our dreams.”

Rapp traced his path through the Sanderson school system from elementary to high school and friends he had made along the way.

“High school bumped it up a notch, though,” he said. “It has been just as crazy as Mrs. [Becky] Norris’ ice cream is good.

“A few broken records here and there, a few broken bones every now and then but, best of all, a class helping and pushing each other through it all,” Rapp said. “Whether joining this class here in Sanderson in the elementary, junior high or high school, we’ve all seemed to stick together like gorilla tape on a hairy leg, a bit painful when first looking at it but a crying laughter afterwards and a feeling we’ll never forget.”

School Counselor Isidoro Calzada, Jr., announced the winners of nearly $30,000 in scholarships for continuing education.

Hinkley received an estimated $6,400, including the valedictory Award which provides two semesters at a Texas university, which Calzada said averages about $2,300 per year.

She also won the $1,000 Tucker W. McLaughlin Memorial Scholarship, a $500 award from Big Bend Open Road Race and the $300 Sybil McKee Savage Scholarship.

Rapp took home $5,200 in scholarships including a $1,500 cross country scholarship and a $1,000 basketball scholarship from the University of the Southwest at Hobbs, NM.

He also received a $1,000 Leslie Octavia Downie Memorial Scholarship, the $600 Rob McClellan Memorial Scholarship, a $500 Lions Club Scholarship and a $600 from the Band Boosters.

On-line may save TCNL

By JIM STREET

Ed & Pub

SANDERSON – In earlier messages, we have noted how we are struggling to keep the News Leader alive even as newspapers large and small across the country have gone out of business.

We have gotten some advice as well as some small “donations” to help on the financial side and we are eternally grateful for the support.

But they have not been enough to turn the corner in very tough times for everyone.

We have gone up on advertising rates, the subscription cost and the newsstand price. But that also falls short.

One of the big expense side items has been the cost of getting the newspaper to you.

We have tried several times to get a lower postage rate through US Post Office bulk rates but have not been able to get around the bureaucracy enough to make it happen.

Among suggestions to increase newsstand and other rates, a frequent suggestion is that we make our on-line service a subscription service and reduce the number of papers we mail out.

Good idea.

Just as soon as we can make the transition, our on-line service will be changed from a free service to a subscription service.

Everyone getting a paper by mail or even by home delivery that can use the on-line service will be converted to the web page.

What you paid for your subscription will be rolled over to that service.

If you do not currently subscribe to the paper, you can sign on for $34 per year, just like those who get the print version.

Not everyone who gets the paper has a computer or knows how to use one so we will have to keep printing some papers.

But for those who do choose to switch to the on-line version, there will be an additional advantage.

We plan to update the on-line pages whenever an important new story comes along.

If something happens on a Monday, say, you will be able to read about it, perhaps, later in the day Monday or certainly by Tuesday instead of waiting until the paper comes out on Friday – and then waiting for the mailman to take it to you wherever you are.

You will get an additional advantage if we have to go to monthly with the print version – a distinct possibility. You will still get news updated almost daily.

We would like to keep on keeping on exactly as we have been doing but that is no longer possible.

We have never made a profit and I have, in fact, had to keep putting money into it from time to time to keep it going.

But I am out of resources. It can’t keep going this way.

Thank you for your support over the years and for the offers to help us keep in going.

We sincerely hope these new steps will help us stay around a bit longer.