Sunday evening, May 12, the Prairie Theater is expected to fill with the sounds of dance music, children’s laughter, and instructions from the caller when rehearsals for the 2019 Fandangle summer shows begins at 7:00 p.m. with Square Dancers and Little Wrangler, followed by Yoledae at 7:45 p.m., and Huppi Hi at 8:30 p.m.

“Square Dance is for children from pre-K through sixth grade,” said artistic director Lorna Ayers. “The new dance for junior high students, Yoledae, is for seventh and eighth grade students; while Huppi Hi is for ninth to 12 graders.”  

Memorial Day is a time to remember those who have served our country, and anyone who wants to honor a local veteran by adding their name to the Shackelford County veterans memorial marker should contact Mary Kay O’Connor at 325-660-2498 by tomorrow, May 10.

O’Connor is hopeful that if the names are turned in by Friday, the monument can have the new names engraved before the Memorial Day celebration on May 27. 

Veterans do not have to be deceased, nor do they have to have served in a war to be included on the memorial marker.

With competition stiffer than ever, Albany’s student newspaper staff collected one of only four Gold Star awards given at the Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC) annual spring convention held at the University of Texas campus in Austin last weekend.

Fifteen students who have been putting together the 2018-2019 Albany High School newspaper, The Lions Roar, earned more than three dozen individual achievement awards and helped the student paper win the “Gold Star Award” and receive a Print Newspaper Distinguished Merit Award for the fourth year in a row.

Albany High School seniors will be very busy during the next two weeks, with several activities planned during the time leading up to graduation.

Pictures should have already been turned in to class parent Tisha Wilkins for the senior slide show, including one baby picture, one elementary or junior high photo, and one senior picture from each senior. 

“If for some reason they have not yet been turned in, they need to be turned in to me as soon as possible,” said Wilkins.

Educators at Albany ISD were provided snacks, meals, and gifts during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 6-10, courtesy of the Albany Parent Teacher Organization, parents of local students, Brookshire’s, and the Albany Masons. 

“I think that it’s important to recognize the work the teachers do all year,” said PTO president Ginny Ivy. “We want to show our appreciation for all that they do for us and the students.”

The PTO arranged for Prairie Star to provide breakfast to school staff members on Tuesday. 

High school graduation is only two weeks away, and seniors and their parents are making plans for the celebration, including the traditional Project Graduation party.

Project Graduation is an all-night drug-free and alcohol-free party following commencement exercises and has been an annual tradition in Albany since 1988.

The project was started by the efforts of the Albany Drug and Alcohol Task Force, and several people, especially Ann Jones, were instrumental in organizing the local event.

Six members of the Albany Volunteer Fire Department spent all of last weekend at the 46th annual Wichita Falls Fire School training in fire fighting, fire company operations, fire hydraulics, search and rescue in a structure fire, ropes and knots, and lpg fires.  

“These men and women were working their tails off to learn and to make themselves better firefighters in order to protect you and yours,” said fire chief Kyle Tischler.

The Old Jail Art Museum won the Mitchell A. Wilder Award for excellence in publication and media design in the Marketing Materials, Supplementary Materials, and Posters category at the 40th annual meeting of the Texas Association of Museums.

OJAC executive director Patrick Kelly was in attendance at the conference, and he accepted the Gold Citation certificate from TAM president Chris Dyer at the awards ceremony on Friday, April 5, in the Philanthropy Theater of El Paso’s historic Plaza Theatre.

Red Steagall will tell viewers about the Fort Griffin Fandangle on the RFD TV show “Red Steagall is Somewhere West of Wall Street” at 8:30 p.m. (Central) on Monday, May 13.

Steagall filmed the segment in Albany at the Old Jail Art Center on Oct. 31.

Parents of students and prospective students at Moran Independent School District have been asked to look over possible changes to the 2019-2020 school year calendar and then fill out an online survey.

Both the calendar and the survey can be accessed from the MISD website home page at www.moran.esc14.net. 

The modified schedule would lengthen the school day to last until 4:00 p.m. each regular day, 22 minutes longer than the current release time of 3:38 p.m. The proposed calendar also includes several scheduled half days with a 12:00 noon release.