San Benito Veterans Memorial Academy and San Benito High School students in grades nine through twelve are afforded the opportunity to enroll in the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Program.

The award-winning program promotes the values of patriotism, selfless service and personal responsibility, and a sense of personal accomplishment. The program empowers cadets to develop leadership skills as well as personal discipline, honor and self-reliance.

The school district’s NJROTC Program is well-recognized for their drill team performances, contributing thousands of hours towards community service and school support, and feeding local families through their canned food and monetary donation drives.

Recently, the local NJROTC Program completed its annual military inspection.

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The cadets and their instructors – Senior Naval Science Instructor Captain Nels Swanson and Naval Science Instructors Chief Jesus Gaytan and Chief Timothy Wilson – had dedicated long hours preparing for the annual event.

According to Swanson, “This was a day set aside where cadets took extra pride in performing their armed and unarmed drill team performances.”

“It was also a day during which select cadets were recognized for their dedication and hard work,” he added.

This year’s guest inspector, Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Christopher Labissiere, United States Navy, the Commanding Officer of Navy Operational Support Center in Harlingen, conducted the inspection. In attendance were special guests that included parents, instructors, San Benito CISD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Adrian Vega, and campus administrators, including San Benito High School Principal Henry Sanchez, and San Benito Veterans Memorial Academy Principal Gilbert Galvan.

At the conclusion of the inspection, LCDR Labissiere presented individual Bravo Zulu medals to the deserving cadets.

“Bravo Zulu,” or BZ, is a naval signal that means “well done.”

San Benito Veterans Memorial Academy freshmen earning Bravo Zulu medals include: Jimmy Gonzalez, Stephanie Cantu, Joann Rosas, Marilyn Cardoza, Nyisa Soria, Michael Torres, Lillian Salazar, Victoria Hernandez, Perla Gallegos, Robert Gault, Ivan Corona, Ailin Beltran, and Abigail Rafael.

San Benito High School students earning Bravo Zulu medals include: Yessenia Soto, Luis Canales, Joshua Medina, Jose Alcantar, Kassandra Cavazos, Tamara Davila, Jose L. Gonzalez, Omar Escandon, Evangelina Garcia, Nivia Gonzalez, Lizbeth Morales, Raquel Merida, Myrandra Mata, Gabriel Ortega, Ishna Nachie, and Luis Ramirez.

For additional information about the district’s NJROTC program, please call 956-361-6500 Ext. 2881 or 276-6075.

HARLINGEN — The long-delayed re-opening of Hugh Ramsey Nature Park ended quietly and without ceremony late Monday afternoon.

As Parks and Recreation Director Javier Mendez looked on, workers hauled away the sawhorse-type barricades that had blocked the popular park’s entrance for more than two months.

The project initially was to finish around Jan. 1, and then was delayed again due to complications involving the parking lot and the 8-foot by 100-foot concrete bio-retention basin. The basin will absorb runoff from the lot, purifying it naturally before it enters the park’s ponds and eventually the Arroyo Colorado.

Renovation of the park was funded with a $158,000 grant from the Texas General Land Office’s Coastal Impact Assistance Program.

Entry to the park is free.

The newly formed Harlingen Mayor’s Wellness Council will hold an informational meeting, open to all those who are interested in improving the health and fitness of the Harlingen community.

Among the topics to be discussed are the Walk with the Mayor scheduled for Saturday, March 5 and the It’s Time Texas Community Challenge.

The meeting will be held on today from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the Harlingen School of Health Professions.

For more information, please call Evelyn Garza at (956) 335-3039.

BY Emma Pérez-Treviño

HARLINGEN — One candidate alone in the race for Cameron County judge raised more than a quarter of a million dollars in his bid for the top administrative post.

But the candidate, Cameron County holdover Pct. 4 Commissioner Dan Sanchez, said he is not beholden to any contributor.

The money is so serious, it translates to about three new houses, if one goes with $80,000-plus as the average value of a house.

Sanchez started his campaign for county judge with nearly $32,000 in his war chest late last year.

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Through Feb. 20, he raised an additional $221,425.

“Campaigns are expensive,” Sanchez said, “and we don’t know if we are going to end up in a runoff or not. Whenever there are three people in the race, typically a runoff is expected, and those get expensive as well. It’s like starting a new election.”

In contrast, candidate Eddie Treviño, former Brownsville mayor, has raised $22,350 and is financing his race with $120,000 in his personal money and bank loans in his second bid for the county judge post. His 2010 bid for the county judge post was unsuccessful.

Candidate Elizabeth “Liz” Garza has raised nearly $5,000 in her bid for the county judge post, and also is financing the remainder of her expenses of about $10,000.

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BROWNSVILLE — Cameron County commissioners have finally decided on a list of projects to send to the state for the second round of RESTORE Grant funding.

The county will be vying against 13 other counties for $57 million, said David Garcia, county administrator. It is difficult to say whether Cameron County’s chances at receiving a fair amount of funding are high, but Garcia said he is optimistic.

“This is a new process for everyone, but we are hopeful. We’ve been doing our due diligence in talking about the projects with the best chance,” Garcia said.

Two projects are on the bucket list for the second round of funding. The first is improvements for E.K. Atwood Park, and the second is a Bahia Grande visitor center.

The grant money would ease the cost of renovations at E.K. Atwood Park. Improvements include new bathroom and shower facilities, new pavilions, expanded parking and improvements to RV areas and areas for events, according to Cameron County Parks and Recreation.

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MISSION — The rivers of Texas run with history.

From the Sabine and Trinity to the Brazos and Nueces, these waterways serve as markers used by explorer and historian alike to triangulate where we’ve been, to locate our place in time.

Perhaps the most storied of these is our river, the Rio Grande.

Unlike most rivers, the 1,896-mile Rio Grande becomes smaller the farther it flows from its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico.

Part of that is by design, an effort by humankind to tame the river’s devastating past floods and bring irrigation to the often arid farmland on both sides of the boundary river that separates Mexico and the United States.

A microcosm of that long international border is found in the control room of Tower 4 at the Anzalduas Dam near Mission. It’s the middle tower of seven that contain six gates that are 75 feet wide by 21 feet high, and weigh approximately 140 tons apiece.

In the room, which is say 35 feet by 12 feet wide, a phantom border separates the two countries and the operators of the dam, one from Mexico, the other from the United States. The walls of the room are lined with monitors, recording and spewing back flow rates and other data used to monitor the dam.

“This is the desk for the operator of the U.S. side, and this is the desk for the operator of the Mexico side,” Emilio Garcia says, pointing from one country to the next as his feet nearly straddle the border.

“There’s always two operators,” says Carlos Chapa, who like Garcia is one of the operators for the U.S. side, working for the International Boundary and Water Commission.

“Two operators,” interjects Garcia, finishing the sentence for Chapa, probably a common occurrence between men who work in such close quarters as the cramped control room.

“A Mexican and a U.S. operator working here 24 hours a day,” Chapa continues. “That’s three shifts.

“We don’t have lives,” Chapa says with a little grin.

The occasion for this visit was a rare occurrence, a chance to tour the Anzalduas Dam. Security there was increased after 9/11, and those in the group taking advantage of the tour were told photographs in the control room were absolutely forbidden.

The room is cramped, and no colorful artwork adorns the little wall space that is clear. The control room’s meant for serious business, and it looks the part. The broad window to the east, though, provides a spectacular view of the white rapids and riffles that flow over and around the rocks below the dam.

The dam tour was led by Joe Tucker, the 89-year-old engineer and Valley native who spent 31 years of that time working at Anzalduas Dam for the International Boundary and Water Commission.

“They were glad to see me retire,” Tucker says of the IBWC. “When they were wrong, I’d tell them so.”

Construction of the Anzalduas Dam began in the early 1950s, and it was finished in 1960. Unlike Falcon Dam, or Amistad Dam, Anzalduas Dam is what is known as a diversion dam. The other two larger dams are power-generating facilities, but they also serve as storage dams.

“It’s a small dam compared to Falcon or Amistad,” Tucker says. “Falcon and Amistad store water and do generate electricity. Not all the time, the releases are not constant.”

Diversion dams for ag, flooding

Diversion dams have the dual purpose of guiding water from the Rio Grande into both countries for agricultural use, and to mitigate flooding of the lower Rio Grande Valley.

Anzalduas, named for a family that lived in the area in the 1950s, and Retamal Dam south of Donna were built to be crucial components of the Valley’s flood-control efforts, Tucker says.

Tucker says that even though the Valley appears flat, the land ever so slightly drains to the northeast in the United States. In Mexico, he says, it drains just slightly to the southeast.

Water always finds a lower level, he says.

“The watershed here in the Valley is very narrow because the land slopes away from the river. It’s not totally flat. It’s virtually flat, but not totally,” Tucker says.

To guide that water to the right spot, Tucker says there are about 270 miles of levees on the United States side of the border, with about 100 miles along the Rio Grande and the rest along interior floodways that channel floodwaters away from populated areas.

The flood-control project is meant to handle a flood rate of 250,000 cubic feet per second measured at Rio Grande City, and only 20,000 cfs can reach Brownsville, he said. By treaty agreement, each nation is obligated to divert half of all the floodwater in excess of what Brownsville can carry into the interior floodways.

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HARLINGEN — And the winner is …

People in the audience held their breath as they waited to hear who would be the next Ms. South Texas Senior America.

All eyes were on the stage as the 4th Annual Ms. South Texas Senior America Pageant was underway yesterday at Harlingen Municipal Auditorium.

Finally, the winner was announced — Abbie Piña of Corpus Christi.

Also named were 1st Runner Up Beverlee DeCoux of Harlingen, 2nd Runner up Connie Garza of Mission, 3rd Runner Up Dora Gonzales of Mercedes and Ms. Congeniality Katy Costello of Corpus Christi.

Ten women vied for the 2016 crown at the pageant, where family, friends and supporters gathered to watch the ladies compete.

The pageant consisted of three categories: an evening gown presentation, a philosophy of life presentation and a talent presentation.

“Encouraging and celebrating inner beauty,” pageant director Elia Lopez said of what the pageant is all about.

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EDINBURG — Dora Polin walked into the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance yesterday with a full head of hair reaching her shoulders and walked out completely bald. She did a little cheer once she knew her head was fully shaved because she stood in solidarity with the thousands of children fighting cancer.

Polin was one of the 41 people who shaved their heads with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation during the 8th annual RGV Brave the Shave to raise awareness for childhood cancer; 10 of the 41 shavees were female.

“I’ve been supporting the cause for a few years,” Polin said. “Seeing local kids that are sick is very impactful. These kids are amazing and the fact that they take everything in stride, they don’t complain; they’re the true heroes of these types of events.”

At the event, four local children who are currently battling cancer were honored. The children were asked to bestow knighthood on returning participants as Knights of St. Baldrick’s Baldtable. After the knighting, the shaving process began.

Though the 35-year-old said she and her friends have organized walks for pediatric cancer, she said it was her first time shaving her head to raise awareness.

“I’m just thinking to myself, I wonder how the kids feel once they undergo these treatments and start losing their hair,” Polin said. “I’m just thinking of the kids themselves; it’s very humbling to put yourself in their place.”

Before shaving her head in conjunction with St. Baldrick’s, Polin raised $324 to donate to the organization. Overall, more than $7,000 was raised Sunday.

“I did it for the kids and to bring awareness,” she said. “It’s right here in the Rio Grande Valley, in our backyard.”

Every day, 43 children are diagnosed with cancer; more than 40,000 children are in cancer treatment each year, according to Curesearch for Children’s cancer.

The Weslaco native said that she hopes to raise more monetary donations after posting a picture of her shaved head to social media.

The donations to St. Baldrick’s go toward research, an organization or an individual. The organization works in unison with pediatric oncologists to find the most promising treatments to fund.

One of the event coordinators, Bob Heiser, said he first got involved eight years ago.

“We started off in an RV park,” the 77-year-old said. “A group of seniors that danced together put on the first event. A friend who lost his son to cancer asked me to get involved back in 2008.”

Since then, the Alamo native said the event has grown exponentially. He said it is no longer just the people in the RV park who get their heads shaved, though they still have a large presence.

“It needs to get into the community,” Heiser said. “It’s been very gratifying to meet the kids and to see the people dedicated. There are parents here with their kids that are undergoing treatment.”

Lydia Valdez said that she sees children battling cancer each day at work.

“I lost two of my girlfriends to cancer,” the 49-year-old said. “They would tell me what they felt when their hair was falling and I starting thinking about how I see the kids; they don’t have hair. If my friends, who were already older, couldn’t understand or didn’t accept losing their hair and got depressed, imagine a child?

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, you don’t want to look like that,” the Mission native said. “What I wanted to do was to demonstrate that hair is not the most important thing. Hair grows. There are other more important things which we can fight for in life. Beauty is on the inside and not outside.”

She said her goal was to support them emotionally. Valdez shaved her head previously when her friends were diagnosed with cancer five years ago. Today, her curly hair was halfway down her back, then completely gone.

“I feel very glad because I know that the children like the ones being honored today, I know that it’s for them,” Valdez said. “There are so many children that are passing through this and one will never understand when you’re not fighting the disease. It’s important so that the children don’t feel alone.”

For more information on the St. Baldrick’s foundation, visit stbaldricks.org.

HARLINGEN — Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Harlingen Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on Thursday.

The event if from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at the Harlingen Community Center, 201 East Madison Ave.

Manny Vela, President/CEO of Valley Baptist Health System, is scheduled to offer the opening prayer.

The annual event is supported entirely by private donations and is not affiliated with the city of Harlingen or any particular church or organization. It is coordinated by an independent group of volunteers.

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HARLINGEN — Marine Military Academy will hold a Vietnam War Commemorative Parade on Saturday.

The parade will begin at 10 a.m. on the MMA Parade Ground. The public is welcome to attend the special event.

Superintendent Col. R. Glenn Hill said the parade is to express gratitude to those veterans who unselfishly served in one of the most controversial wars in U.S. history.

“During the Vietnam War, the public’s dissatisfaction with the war was often reflected in the treatment of the men and women who served there,” Hill said.

“Fortunately, over time, we have come to recognize that the men and women of our armed services should be honored for their sacrifices.”

On May 25, 2012, President Barack Obama proclaimed May 28, 2012 to Nov. 11, 2025 to be the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War.

According to Hill, MMA decided to hold the Vietnam War Commemorative Parade the same year the school celebrated its 50th anniversary.

The Vietnam War was a civil war between communist North Vietnam and non-communist South Vietnam. The war endured nearly 20 years, from Nov. 1, 1955, to April 30, 1975.

In March 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson made the decision to send U.S. combat forces into Vietnam to support South Vietnam. On March 8, 1965, 3,900 U.S. Marines waded ashore China Beach, which marked the beginning of the American ground war.

The U.S. stayed involved until March 29, 1975.

At the parade, there will be special reserved seating for Vietnam War veterans. During the parade, the veterans will join the MMA superintendent for the ceremonial pass in review.

For more information on the Vietnam War Commemorative Parade, call 956-421-9225 or e-mail [email protected].