On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!
The Hopkins County Fall Festival is officially underway! By the time you receive the newspaper, the parade and Livestock Show will have already taken place. A whole slate of activities will begin on Wednesday, September 12 and continue through the remainder of the week.
As coordinator for two major Fall Festival events, I want to invite you to take part in the Household Arts Contest and Arts & Craft Show. Not to be confused, these are two totally separate events.
The Household Arts Contest is an event where Hopkins County residents may enter any or all of the following categories: clothing construction; food preservation; baked goods; decorated cakes; handiwork (knitting, crochet, embroidery, needlepoint, sewn items, weaving, latch hook, etc.); holiday/season corner (any holiday); creative crafts (plastics, candles, metal, leather, ceramics, stained glass, paper mache, etc.); art; photography; scrapbooks; quilts/quilted items; handmade dolls/costumes; horticulture (vegetables, fruits, nuts, cut flowers, potted plants, hanging baskets, succulents; dried, gourds); woodwork; and nursing home division.
Age divisions are: children (ages 10 and under), youth (ages 11-18), adults (ages 19-69), older Texans (ages 70 & above), and nursing home residents. Official registration of items will be Thursday, September 13 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., and Friday, September 14, from 7:30 to 10:00 a.m. at the Sulphur Springs High School Conference Center. You may also register items before September 13 at the Hopkins County office of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, 1200 W. Houston Street. Cost to enter is only $1 for as many items as you wish (not per item). That's a bargain!
Items will be judged Friday morning, September 14, and will be open for public viewing in the High School Conference Center Friday afternoon, and Saturday, September 15 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Pictures of Best of Show and Reserve Best of Show winners will be taken. (We ask that winners arrive as close to 1:30 as possible to get lined up.) All entries may be picked up at 2:00 p.m.
The Arts & Crafts Show is a great place to shop for that one-of-a-kind handcrafted item! Exhibitors from all over the state will be displaying their hand-made items, giving you a great opportunity to do some early Christmas shopping, or simply to pick up a special gift for someone - or yourself! You'll recognize the Arts & Crafts Show immediately. It will be spread out all across the front of the high school gym by the bus lane, down both sides of the north entry sidewalks and inside the Sulphur Springs High School cafeteria!
The Arts & Crafts Show will be open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm. on Saturday, September 14, and from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 15. Some fabulous items will be available! This is something you don't want to miss!!
If you are still looking for something to do, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has many more opportunities in September, October, and November. Here's a sampling of things to come:
- · Market on the Square: Extension exhibit, September 22 - come see all we have to offer!
- · County 4-H Achievement Banquet, October 6
- · National 4-H Week, October 7-13
- · Ag-in-the-Classroom, for all 4th grade students, October 24 & 25
- · "Dinner Tonight" Cooking School, Hopkins County Civic Center, October 30 (another "don't miss" opportunity!)
- · "Handmade Holidays" annual Extension Christmas Program, Southwest Dairy Museum, November 5
- · 4-H food Show/Food Challenge/Consumer Decision making Contest, November 17
Contact our office at 930-885-3443 for more information on these events!
Closing Thought
The most wasted day of all is one in which we have not shared a smile with someone.
Johanna Hicks, B.S., M.Ed.
Extension Family & Consumer Sciences Agent
Hopkins County
1200-B W. Houston
P.O. Box 518
Sulphur Springs, TX 75483
903-885-3443 - phone
903-439-4909 - fax
jshicks@ag.tamu.edu
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