VFW essay winners from Richards

Richards News

Congratulations to two outstanding young students, Elizabeth Holtey, who is an eighth-grader at RISD, and Gary Carter, who is a senior! They are the winners of The Voice of Democracy and Patriot’s Pen essays through the Grimes VFW Post #4006.

•Richards ISD students and faculty will be enjoying spring break between March 11-15. Wishing each of you an enjoyable spring break. If you have plans for spring break, please, whatever you do, be safe.

•Scammers here, scammers everywhere. It makes one wonder what this world is coming to. For some, they work harder trying to scam people out of their money than if they would have just had a job and worked in the first place! I am forever getting calls at home wanting me to donate money to the sheriff department, fire department, highway patrol, police department and the list goes on. I do not donate money over the phone, if I want to give money to any person or organization it will be done directly in person to the organization. That ends the phone conversations.

Here are some more recent scams that I have heard just this week, and I am sure I have not heard them all. I will start with calls wanting me to donate to our president. Well, if he is not taking a full salary, I doubt he would want my little donation that I could afford to give over the phone.

The leftover asphalt scam is back - a man actually came to my house in a truck, who just happened to be in my neighborhood working and had some left over asphalt he would sell me cheap. Well, as bad as my country roads get at times, I won’t fall for this scam and hope you do not either. Please be careful and check with the Better Business Bureau, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Then, of course, skimmer cases are on the rise, using illegal devices with gas pumps. Please, pump gas where you can be seen by the gas station attendant and make sure the tape is not broken or tampered.

Our sheriff reported another scam, where the scammer is pretending to be a law officer to defraud money from citizens in exchange for not being “arrested. For more information about this or if you receive any calls, please contact the Grimes County Sheriff’s Department.

•Another big truck rolled over on Bays Chapel Road this week. It was a one-vehicle accident barely missing a mailbox. Please be careful when you are out and about!

•On a brighter note, I enjoyed an incredible day with my grandchildren Thursday. Shala, my daughter, has home schooled her children for years. The oldest daughter is in junior high and this year was their very first time to attend school. I just knew it was going to be an adjustment for them. However, it ended up being an adjustment for me. Shala invited me to a Chinese Bee. I love Spelling Bees, and my youngest daughter’s children, Mattie and Cotton, had just recently been in a Spelling Bee. I always enjoy going and watching them. I said I would go but if they said something wrong, I would never know the difference because I do not even know one word in Chinese.

When I was in third grade at Jersey Village, I was taught Spanish. When I moved to Grimes County, the schools I attended did not have Spanish in elementary. I know a few basics but by no means am I good at speaking it. This school has Chinese and I believe German and I am not sure what else.

The Chinese Bee was really interesting. The scores were projected in English on the wall, so we could follow along. The bee was on computer with questions on the board in English with the answers in Chinese and the students answered on their computers. I had two granddaughters in the bee and the oldest kept appearing near the top. The younger one, who was fixing to play soccer and for some reason was on the soccer field practicing instead of at the bee until just minutes before, seemed a little hurried and her name appeared in most of the final times. My oldest granddaughter won second place; I was amazed. My younger granddaughter, Gabriella, didn’t place but was not at the bottom either.

I would have never in a thousand years guessed my granddaughters would be speaking Chinese. Recently, at their little brother’s birthday party after they got through singing Happy Birthday in English all of my grandchildren then sung it in Chinese. Micah had told me they went to a Chinese eating establishment and she started talking to the waiter in Chinese and he looked at her like he couldn’t believe it. I am so proud of her. Her goal for the bee was to be in the top three and she did it! The youngest won her soccer game too!

•On behalf of the Richards Community I would like to wish Derek and Melissa Darst the very best. They have so graciously given their time to our community and all of Grimes County through the food pantry in Anderson. They are a very special family and are loved by so many!

•I hope this week brings each of my readers much joy!

•Please pray for Danny Bailey, Darlene and Richard Ward, Virginia Backhus, Stacey Wisnoski, Rebecca and Robert Wisnoski and Dick and Ann Lindsey.

Send news to bjigo78@ya hoo.com or call 936-851-2585.