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Celebrating Our Sponsors!
THANK YOU to all of our generous sponsors who have helped make this event possible!
Grand Champion Sponsors:
- The Dodge Jones Foundation
- The Shelton Family Foundation
- First Financial Bank
- HEB
- Bourland, Soben and Partners
- Abilene Pediatric Dental Associates
- Abilene Christian University
Best of Show Sponsors:
- New Horizons
- Hendrick Medical Center
- Clear Fork Roofing Company
- DP Designs
- Chick-fil-A
- Greathouse Foundation
- May Farm
Blue Ribbon Sponsors:
- Texas Sport & Spine
- Star Dodge
- Bill Reed Distributing
- Briercroft Restoration & Construction
- Dr. Gary Goodnight
- Gravely & Leggett
- Mike Hernandez
- Atmos Energy
CCC would also like to thank its generous media partners for helping promote the Community Celebration:
- KRBC/KTAB
- Cumulus Broadcasting
- Town Square Marketing
- KACU FM
For more details, visit our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/wecareabilene
2011 CCC Community Celebration
Join us as we celebrate our neighbors!
Connecting Caring Communities will host a family-fun celebration and fundraiser on Saturday, October 1 featuring a Cow Patty Drop and 5K Run/Walk in the North Park neighborhood. The 2011 CCC Community Celebration is an opportunity for those in North Park--and all of Abilene--to develop lasting relationships with neighbors in the community, and to get out and have fun! Participants can enjoy tours of the North Park Friendship House, food, local entertainment, games, prizes, the May Farm Petting Zoo, and other activities from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. There is no entry fee, but concessions will be sold as part of the fundraiser.
Timed and untimed 5K runs will start at 8:00 am at the North Park Friendship House (2701 Hickory St, north of HSU). Interested runners can register online through the Abilene Runner's Club website or by printing an entry form and mailing it to:
Connecting Caring Communities
402 Cypress Street, Suite 420
Abilene, TX 79601
The first 100 runners who register will receive a free T-shirt, so be sure to sign up soon! Day-of race registration will also be available before 8:00 am on October 1.
CCC's Cow Patty Drop will commence immediately following the 5K. Cow Patty squares are available for $100, $50 and $25 each. To reserve your lucky square, please call the CCC office at 232-8241. Winning cow patty squares will be announced throughout the day:
- 1st Prize "Grand Champion": Handmade quilt donated by Alice Griggs
- 2nd Prize "Best of Show": Zoom Teeth Whitening (valued at $450) donated by Bourland, Soben and Partners Cosmetic Dentistry
- 3rd Prize "Blue Ribbon": Quilted table runner
Valley View Celebrates Labor Day
Valley View youngsters take advantage of a day off from school to get together again in the Valley View gym for pizza, ice cream, basketball and air hockey.
The Valley View gym was the cool place to be on Labor Day. Cooler temperatures blew into Abilene just in time for the holiday weekend and blew right through the open gym doors as about 25 folks gathered inside for some fun. While the gym was a bit cooler than on July's wacky Wednesdays, the welcome couldn't have been warmer! New and old smiling faces gobbled up pizza and ice cream, worked on art projects, shot some hoops and played some mean air hockey. It was good to catch up with each other and hear how everyone was doing
in their new school year! We will look forward to gathering together again soon! Join us for more cool fun!
Thirty-one Savors
Thirty-plus Valley View neighbors gathered together to celebrate the first day of school with ice cream and sprinles!
There might have been only one flavor, but Baskin-Robbins had nothing on this ice cream party. At least thirty-one sticky smiles savored that flavor as they gathered in the Valley View community garden to celebrate the new school year. New and old friends enjoyed a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and sprinkles and more than a sprinkle of laughter. From preschool to high school, the group compared notes on teachers and classes and new shoes and hairdos. Parents partaking in the treat seemed particularly festive. But none so happy as the bees that took an ice cream break from the okra pollinating business! It was a good time with some great kids. Here's to a sweet year! 
Merrily They Rolled Along
Valley View neighbors were rolling in the fun at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center skating rink.
The afternoon started with more downs than ups as the Valley View gang took to the skating rink floor today for some cool fun. For some older neighbors it had been too long since they had taken a spin, and some of the youngest were out for their first. By the end of the day, there were at last more ups than downs, and many more smiles than frowns. This group of neighbors has had fun getting to know each other, but would love to widen their circle to include more. Because that's how we roll! Come roll merrily along with us next week at First Baptist Church Family Life Center on Wednesday from 2-4.
Abilene youngsters kick up heels in the Hills
Twenty-one Abilene neighborhood children are spending the week at Camp of the Hills in Marble Falls.
On Monday, two vans filled with 21 happy campers hit the road for Marble Falls and the picturesque Camp of the Hills. Some were veterans, proudly sharing camp stories from years gone by, and the first-timers listened with anticipation. All were filled with excitement. "Are we there yet?" too often filled the air in at least one van, but was followed eventually with squeals of delight when we finally arrived.
Camp counselors hurried out to the vans to warmly welcome the campers, unload their belongings and shuffle them into the air-conditioned dining hall. Smiles could be seen and laughter heard and new friendships were quickly formed. It has been a week of soaring temperatures and soaring spirits. It has been a week of smiles and tears, praise and worship, swimming and canoeing, arts and crafts, soccer and kickball, good food and good times. These youngsters have been kind and loving, respectful and obedient, creative and fun, and a joy to be with. On Saturday, 21 campers will board those vans changed, tired, a bit dirtier and more tanned, but also a bit more confident and closer.
Valley View Last Wednesday in July Makes a Splash
Valley View youngsters ended a month of wacky Wednesdays all wet, as they gathered for some luau-themed games and water fun!
Wednesdays in July wound down with about 20 Valley View neighborhood youngsters all wound up! About 1,000 water balloons were waiting in the wings as the kids joined in the Tacky Tourist Relay game, Musical Towels, Sharks and Minnows, and a watermelon seed spitting contest! Then at last the water balloons were unloaded and the real fun began. No one was safe, but as hot as it was, no one wanted to be!! It was a cool and happy ending to the month-long fun-filled Wednesday afternoons in the Valley View gym! Thanks to all the neighborhood volunteers who sweated it out with us each week. It was nice getting to know you!
Wild and Wonderful Wednesdays Get Down on Grandpa's Farm
Week three of the wonderful wackiness in the Valley View gym continued with a celebration down on the farm!
Valley View youngsters were back in the saddle for some good ole country fun for week three of those wild and wacky Wednesdays in July. Relay races included the classic egg and spoon, herding of balloon "sheep", and pushing red squash(grown locally in the VV garden) with brooms. We also raced to find animals in a haystack, to identify seeds, and from one end of the barnyard to another avoiding the wily foxes in the middle.
Our fun was old-fashioned but there was nothing old school about the colorful personalized bandanas we made! We also made a small pot of bead flowers to deliver to our neighbors living in the nearby Coronado nursing home. Don't forget to join us next week at the Valley View Elementary gym from 1-4 for our last time together--a wet and wild Wednesday! We will be sure to make a splash!
Wonderful Wednesdays in Valley View
Valley View neighborhood youngsters are whooping it up on Wednesdays in July.
The Valley View Elementary School gym is showing signs of life these days. Neighborhood youngsters are gathering there with some neighborhood volunteers for some summer fun on Wednesdays in July. Children entering kindergarten through fifth grade are invited to join the group each Wednesday in July from 1-4. Middle and high school students are being asked to help with these outings.
Each week a different theme is used to develop indoor and outdoor games and a craft session. Our first week was a sports theme and that fun included a variety of sports relays, a game of kickball, and decorating a magnetic sports frame. Our second week featured a jungle theme with a safari obstacle course, lots of games and a snake making session out of retired neckties! Next week will be fun on the farm and we will finish the month with a luau! We are having a wonderful time meeting new friends and playing hard. Come join us. We look forward to meeting you.
Red, White and You
Grace Methodist Church and CCC join hands with the neighbors of Valley View to celebrate the joy of freedom.
Grace Methodist Church wants to be a good neighbor to the people of Valley View where they are nestled, and to the whole city of Abilene. They recently joined hands with CCC community coordinator, Janet Mendenhall, working in the Valley View neighborhood, to host a neighborhood Fourth of July parade and celebration. All of Abilene were invited to decorate their bikes and trikes, strollers and wagons, and merrily roll along with them on a quick loop through the neighborhood, including a spin through the Coronado Nursing Home parking lot for a special viewing by the residents there. Young and old decked out in patriotic garb braved the heat to show their spirit. Prizes were given for the four most festive sets of wheels and a hot dog lunch was served up complete with red Kool-Aid for each of the participants. CCC is looking forward to partnering with Grace and the neighbors of Valley View to continue to meet one another and discover and share the gifts in that community to make it an even better place to be. Now that's something to celebrate every day!