1.  Jennifer Richmond brought homemade brownies to celebrate the April birthdays and anniversary!  Thank you Jennifer!  They were terrific!

 

2.  Cornhole Tournament and Family Picnic: We had a great turnout for our 2nd annual fundraiser, on Saturday, and had more than 10 teams registered to play!  The kids had lots of bubbles to play with, and the 3 Jumping Castles were a big hit!  The kids got the opportunity to ride on several full-sized horses and a pony and loved the experience.  Thank you Kristi Dame!  There was a total of 15 Kiwanis that volunteered their time to make this event a great and profitable event for everyone!  

 

3.  Guests:  Our club hosted 7 guests this week!  Keep spreading the word and inviting friends!

 

 

1.  Key Club Conference:  800 Key Club members attended the Kiwanis International Conference, this month.  Our San Marcos club received Silver Level recognition for being sponsors.  This event was held at Wichita Falls.

 

2.  Upcoming Board of Directors and Board members:  Kristi Dame has agreed to serve as president for 2026-2027, and Alex Edwards will be a new board member.  Way to go Kristi and Alex!

 

3.  Signature Project Contest Results:  Kiwanis International received a total of 590 entries, representing 46 districts, and showed that through Kiwanis, approximately 1,040,769 children's lives were positively impacted or served.  Our entry on the Good Citizen Camp did not make the final 10, but it still gives us bragging rights to how we are helping kids.

 

4.  Scholarships:  The names of the scholarship recipients have been given to the San Marcos High School, but those names have not been released to the general public, yet.

 

5.  Committee Guidelines: Each committee will need to submit documents that will contain information about that committee and their responsibilities.  Once complete, the chairman of each committee will receive a copy to use for reference.

 

6.  H.O.M.E. Center Event:  This event honors our unhoused neighbors and their challenges.  This event will give our club a chance to pass out Good Citizen Camp information.  It will be held in June.

 

7.  Flag Program:  LaCima has increased their flag program to 100 flags!  Rick Pickering will be attaching 3x5 placard to each new flag.  Thank you to Rick and Chase Dame for building the flags needed to accommodate this increased LaCima number.

 

 

If you missed this week's lunch meeting, you definitely missed out on the history of our courthouse as well as several bank robberies and a bar that was located nearby that closed down for 30 years, before being reopened filled with marijuana plants!

 

Linda shared that the 1st of four courthouses that were built on the downtown square was open to the public for a variety of events.  The main restriction for using the building forbid anyone that had a "slight of hand', or " anyone that was circus folks".  The original funding for the courthouse came from fees obtained from a no-show court case against a man named John Bright and the murder of an African American man in 1858. 

 

This courthouse, as well as the 2 future courthouses were built using wood, and were destroyed by fire. Linda explained that there were other problems with the location of the courthouse; one being that the foundation is on a fault line and has caused cracks in the basement.  She further explained that during one job of restoration, a hidden door was discovered, and upon opening it, the room behind it contained a card table, some cards, some empty whisky bottles, and several questionable men's magazines.  The door was resealed leaving everything that was discovered, inside.  Also, another interesting historical courthouse event happened when the statue on top of the courthouse dome fell through the roof, her arm broke, was stolen, and years later, the statue was placed back on the dome using a helicopter from Mississippi.  This replacement happened in 1995.  

 

Many other interesting facts were shared about the courthouse, but Linda Coker also added other historical surprises about bank robberies at 2 separate banks, the strong presence of the KKK organization, the building known as Sean Patrick's and it's marijuana plants, and a funeral home owned by AB Rodgers, and a particular funeral procession, for a KKK leader, that involved a horse drawn hearst, an African American 12 year old driver, and a KKK outfit that he wore, fearing for his life because the funeral had to go on or the KKK would burn down the funeral home.

 

Great job Linda!  Part 3 will be presented on May 21, 2026.  Possible ghost stories, homestead history, who knows???  You won't want to miss it!  Save the date!