Saturday, January 17, 1998

Reporter-News salutes

MLK speaker

The speaker for Sunday's seventh annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Luncheon, Dr. K. David Cole of Kansas City, Mo., will be honored at a reception today at 6:30 p.m. at Morgan Jones Planetarium, sponsored by the city's Human Relations Committee. The reception will also recognize the nominees for this year's awards, which will be presented at Sunday's sold-out luncheon at the Civic Center. In addition to the traditional categories of groups and individuals to be recognized -- human services, employers and workers with a disability -- this year's luncheon will also honor winners in a new youth category. Cole is pastor of Swope Parkway United Christian Church in Kansas City and is noted nationwide for his many civic involvements. The theme on which Cole will expound at the Sunday gathering is "The Dream, From Past to Present." This year's luncheon chairman is Earnest Merritt. We welcome Pastor Cole to Abilene and congratulate everyone who has participated in this communitywide effort.

Near-record telethon

How successful was this year's West Texas Rehabilitation Center telethon? So successful that it fell just short of being an all-time record. Pledges totaled some $1.12 million, barely under the 1996 record of $1.13 million, from Saturday night's five-hour, televised event that featured singer Glen Campbell and popular celebrities Peter Marshall, Arthur Duncan, Anacani and Bill and Susan Hayes. We appreciate their contributions in this charitable cause. But most of all, thanks go out to the thousands of generous people throughout the viewing area who responded with donations great and small to help keep this worthy organization functioning. For the audience, it was a great show, one of the best in years, and WTRC president and CEO Jim Pethis and all the volunteers who worked to put everything together deserve a round of applause.

Spectacular cutting

Since local ranchers Carolyn and Pat Gully first organized it seven years ago, the Abilene Spectacular Cutting competition has been one of the major marks on the calendar, and this year's event was perhaps the biggest one of all, thanks in part to the cancellation of a cutting contest usually held in Belton at the same time. Some 2,000 of the best cutters from across the nation and around the world were in town to have a go at almost $500,000 in prize money, and their presence made no small contribution to the local economy. Congratulations to Tony McMillan and his crew at the Expo Center who once again kept everything running smoothly for such a gargantuan gathering.

New face at museum

The Museums of Abilene -- soon to be known formally as the Grace Museum -- has a new marketing and public relations director. She is Carol Windham, a graduate of Abilene Christian University who owned and operated a media production and advertising concern in Clyde, Camaram Media Corporation, back in the 1980s. Since then, she has worked out of the Deep Ellum artistic area of Dallas and pursued graduate studies at Southern Methodist University and North Texas State University. In addition to her degrees in painting and photography, Windham brings considerable experience in the business side of the arts, which should make her quite an asset to the MOA and to the local community.