From Sunshine to Service: TCEC’s 2023 Summer Highlights
Summer. It’s a season of sunshine, vacations, and relaxation. However, at Tri-City Empowerment Council, we stayed very busy as we remained dedicated to our mission. As temperatures soared, we embarked on a journey to bring about positive change in our community. Here's a glimpse into our efforts during the summer of 2023.
1. Celebrating Juneteenth and the Black Cowboys: An American Story
On June 19, TCEC celebrated Juneteenth with our community by attending the Juneteenth celebration held in Cuero, Texas by the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum. While at the event, we walked through the museum’s Black Cowboy exhibition, which honored the work and skills of Black cowboys. The exhibition featured authentic artifacts, photographs, and documents as well as video and audio clips. It was truly amazing and inspiring to walk through this wonderful exhibition. For anyone else wanting to learn more about Black cowboys and how their story fits into American history, please visit the Chisolm Trial Heritage Museum (this exhibition will remain until August 26, 2023). At this event, Sarah Bird, a photographer, novelist, screenwriter, and journalist, also shared stunning photographs as she led us through what a day at the Black Rodeo was like. We would love to thank the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum for putting on such a wonderful Juneteenth celebration for Cuero's community and Sarah Bird for sharing her amazing art.
2. Jesus Live 2 - Jesus Returns to Cuero with UNITED
This year, TCEC partnered with a new group called UNITED to create a two-part VBS for the children in our community. The first half of this VBS happened earlier this year during Spring Break. Although we had to make some last-minute script changes due to some cold weather and a little rain, we enjoyed spreading Jesus’ message and love to all those who attended. The second half of this VBS occurred from June 22 through June 24. This time around, we had clear skies and very high temperatures, but we made sure to make it enjoyable for all those who attended. Throughout the event, the kids enjoyed singing, dancing, live reenactments of Bible stories, food, games, and prizes. On the last day, we beat the heat by splashing in the water while enjoying water games.
3. The 9th Annual Ethosha Lynn’s Back to School Bash
We at TCEC finished out our summer by holding The 9th Annual Ethosha Lynn’s Back to School Bash on August 5. This event rounds out the community’s summer as students, parents, and teachers prepare to start a new school year. To help ease students' transition into a new grade and assist parents with back-to-school shopping, we prepared backpacks for grades Pre-K through 8th. With the help of some volunteers, we were able to stuff 50 backpacks for each grade level with some of the supplies they would need throughout the school year. We are overjoyed to announce that we were successfully able to give backpacks to every single student who attended and had enough left over to distribute to churches within the Cuero and Victoria communities. While at the event, community members were able to enjoy live music, snacks, free haircuts, giveaways, and best of all, snow cones to help beat the heat!
Summer Wrap-Up
As we bid farewell to the Summer of 2023, we look forward to our 3-Day Daule 75th Anniversary Celebration that will be happening later this year in October. The celebration will feature a Daule Alumni Banquet on October 13, the 2nd Annual Gospel Fest on October 14, and a nice relaxing picnic to round out the celebration on October 15. Make sure to mark your calendars!
To find out more information and updates about our upcoming events, be sure to visit our Events page or our Facebook page.
