Fannin County prepares for North Texas Giving Day heralddemocrat.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heralddemocrat.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
âTexas Parks & Wildlife Department will perform a feasibility study to establish the 130-mile-long Northeast Texas Trail as a possible state park,â agency officials told a group of supporters Wednesday at Love Civic Center.
âWe have come up here to talk to the Northeast Texas Trail Coalition about the next steps in figuring out what the trail would look like if it was a state park,â Texas Parks Division Director Rodney Franklin said after meeting with representatives from the coalition, rail banked agencies, and city and county leaders along the trail.
âWe need to develop a plan for the study,â said Kevin Good, special assistant to the director. âWe wanted to update all of our partners, get information from them and share with them what to expect.â
On the annual East Texas Giving Day event, donors gifted more than $2.7 million to area nonprofits, with Lamar County seeing part of the helping hand.
âI am encouraged and humbled by the way this community serves one another and shows up for one another, and it was very obvious with the way PJC was supported during giving day,â said Baleigh McCoin, Paris Junior College Director of Institutional Advancement and Alumni Affairs. âA big, sincere thank you to everyone who donated.â
Seven Lamar organizations participated and raised $44,918 for local foundations through 156 donations on Tuesday, many with matching funds. The organizations were PJC Memorial Foundation, Northeast Texas Trail Coalition, CitySquare Paris, St. Josephâs Community Foundation, United Way of Lamar County, Tailored Rides Equine Assisted Therapy Inc and the The Wesley Center at PJC.
East Texas Giving Day kicked off at 6 a.m. today with seven participating Lamar County nonprofits hoping to benefit from the generosity of donors from across the region.
East Texas Giving Day, powered by East Texas Communities Foundation, is an 18-hour giving event that takes place virtually at www.EastTexasGivingDay.org . Donors can participate by going online and donating $10 or more from any device that can access the internet including; desktop computers, mobile phones or tablets.
âGiving Day is happening at a critical time for the nonprofit community,â said Holly McFarlin, Public Relations Director of East Texas Communities Foundation. âNonprofits are responding to an increased demand for services meanwhile, donations have slowed due to the postponement of public fundraising events due to the pandemic. Giving Day could be a bridge to help fill some of those funding gaps many nonprofits are experiencing.â
She has been described as a âkind and generous mentor,â âa mighty force in a small package,â and âa woman with elegance, generosity, selflessness, grit and integrity.â
Paris lost a true community servant when Pat Cochran left this Earth last week after a four-month battle with complications of the deadly novel coronavirus that has taken so many of our friends and loved ones.
My heart goes out to her husband, Dr. Ernest Cochran, of Texas Oncology Center, and to their sons, James Paul, Trace and Matthew. And, I lament the loss of one of Godâs true servants, who gave so much back to the community she loved.