Five graduating seniors in the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom honors program at Howard Payne University were recently honored during the annual Sumners Banquet held on the HPU campus.

The Hatton W. Sumners Foundation Scholars honored during the banquet included Charity Chambers, of Derby, Kan.; Gabi Guerrero, of Red Oak; Landon Hankins, of Decatur; Kait Kelm, of Lindale; and Kelley Miller, of Paradise. The students dined with members of the Foundation, the HPU Board of Trustees and Academy of Freedom Board of Directors, as well as Sumners Scholar alumni from HPUHPU, before receiving plaques and expressing their gratitude to the Foundation.

Five Brownwood Key Club members attended the 64th annual Texas-Oklahoma Key Club District Convention in Dallas, Texas on April 4th - 7th.  An estimated 1100 people from a total of 78 clubs attended this year’s convention.

“While Brownwood Key Club members attended district convention, not only did they gain more knowledge on how to become a better club, they also received several awards,” reported Pamela Rider, BHS Key Club Sponsor.

VFW Post 3278 honored area citizens in an award ceremony on Thursday, April 18th recognizing their service to the community.

During their annual Citizen’s Award Banquet, the VFW honors emergency responders and law enforcement officers for their service to the community, each recipient is chosen by their supervisors for going above and beyond to serve the community while they performed their job requirements.

Bangs High School competed in the Region 1 2A Regional OAP competition held in Odessa, TX on April 19, 2013 and is now advancing to state.

Bangs High School performed “The History of Tom Jones,” by Dennis M. Maganzas.  The play is directed by Shannon Lee.

Howard Payne University’s Social Work Advisory Board recently presented the Spirit of Social Work award to Chassidy Carroll, a 2008 HPU graduate and co-founder of Hope Home Ministry of Brownwood. Carroll received the award for “many years of outstanding social work service helping others.”

Bangs Mayfest is set to kick off on Friday, May 3rd at Bangs City Park and with other events throughout the area.  The weekend will be full of fun featuring live music, car show, talent show, BBQ cook-off, citywide garage sales, and lots of good food.

There will also be entertainment for the children attending including pony rides, face painting, rock climbing wall, an inflatable boxing ring, bounce house, air slide and much more.

Saturday will feature the Mayfest parade and end with the Street Dance featuring Zack Edwards Band  and guest Four Barrel to benefit the Bangs Museum.

The 3M Company is working to help improve school safety by donating signs to area school districts.

They recently donated several signs to Bangs ISD recently that will be placed around the three campuses in the school district.  3M will also be donating signs to other districts in the county.

Brownwood Independent School District is one of three finalists for the Small District H-E-B Excellence in Education Award.  The H-E-B education awards are prestigious honors that recognize excellence in a variety of categories including, teachers, principals, school districts, and early childhood programs.

An article on the TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators) website supplied additional information regarding the district awards:

The district awards are broken into small and large district categories, with small districts defined as being 1A, 2A or 3A.  The three regional finalists in the small district category were awarded $2,500 each and the winner will receive a $50,000 cash prize. The finalists are:

Students of Brookesmith High School participated in District Academic UIL competition on March 25th in Cross Plains with two students received top placings.

Heather Allgood placed 6th in Accounting.  Shyan Seamans placed 3rd in accounting and 2nd in Social Studies.  Seamans went on to compete at regional competition.  Pictured top left are Allgood (left) and Seamans (right).

Teachers who coached these students this year were:  Science - Allie Schoen, Math - Sandra Lehman, Poetry and Literary Criticism - Amanda Crossley, Journalism - Amanda Van Allen, Prose - Priscilla Clement, Accounting - Cynthia Means, and Social Studies - Harold Greenfield.