Fiesta Float builders

NABA breaks ground

MCISD employees get fingerprinted

Mission Shoppers: Ready, Set, Go

Texas Citrus Fiesta Schedule

Deadline to register to vote

Deadline for paying property taxes

Fiesta float builders

MISSION — The famous Texas Citrus Fiesta started 73 years ago to celebrate the bountiful harvest of citrus. Today, it’s an honored tradition that continues and recognizes the pride Mission has for its citrus products.

Berta Filut, director of Texas Citrus Fiesta, said the festival is one of the oldest events in the state. It’s an event that is small town, but something everyone looks forward to.

“The citrus industry is something to be proud of,” said Filut. “What is sad is most of our community doesn’t realize the type of product we have and it’s what others wish they had. We are very lucky.”

The Parade of Oranges, overall theme of traveling Texas, offers local groups to showcase their talents in a competition for best float.

There are several float divisions for the parade all of which will be judged for prizes. There is a product division – floats made with fresh products or combined with other materials, Valley product category – floats decorated with at least 2/3 citrus or any product grown here, a general category and a Winter Texan category. Schools, churches, commercial bossiness, bands, marchers and horse units are also included.

A veteran to the Parade of Oranges is Bentsen Grove Resort, which has taken part in float making since the 1980s. In the last two years, this resort has taken first place.

Chuck Suess has lived in the resort for 10 years and designed the floats for the last nine.

“We like to be first, but it’s more about a sense of accomplishment,” said Suess. “The gratification to get our ideas turned into something materially.”

Bentsen Grove’s design this year is a Los Ebanos Ferry. Built on a trailer will be a simulated ferry with an old fashioned car being pulled across water made from paper mache flowers. The king and queen of the resort will be sitting in the car as the float rides along.

“The resort and community supports us,” said Suess. “Because when we go down to the parade and we pass the public they usually give us a large applause.”

Suess said they don’t pressure themselves with trying to win first place every year, though it is a very nice accomplishment. They just do what they can.

“It’s a lot of camaraderie,” he said. “A lot of the old timers here are craftsman and like using their hands, so it’s fun for us.”

Another old hand to the parade is Split Rail R.V. Winter Texan Park. This park is competing in the Valley product category and must decorate their float with a variety of citrus grown in the RGV. They took second place last year and first the year before.

Elmo Martin has been taking part in helping and designing the float for the last 10 years. He said that all the work accomplished each year is in huge part to great team effort by other volunteers in the park.

“It’s kind of a challenge to make it good enough for the judges to take notice,” said Martin. “You got to make sure to do it right and cover it with a lot of Valley products. It’s something that inspires everybody with the challenge of doing it.”

Split Rail’s design will involve an old fashioned covered wagon, with a Texas flag on one side and United States flag on the other. The wagon will be pulled by two horses made out of chicken wire and paper mache. There will also be two volunteers in the built wagon dressed in old rustic clothes and the king and queen of the park riding in the truck pulling the float.

Vern Welker is a carpenter and it’s his second year in taking part in building the float.

“I like the building part of it and enjoy seeing the final product,” said Welker. “It’s been somewhat stressful and just getting it done has been the priority, but I’m enjoying the craftsmanship part of the project.”

Martin said the public should go out to the festival and see the hard work that everyone has put in the floats.

“It’s an inspiration and great that people build these floats, and people enjoy seeing them,” said Martin. “We get to show it off to the public and show what we were able to accomplish.”

The World Center Church in Mission is another organization taking part in the parade, but as excited first timers.

David Hill, assistant pastor and principal of the church’s school world center leadership academy, are taking part in the parade to show support to the city.

“The last few years we have tried to get the church involved with the city, so we’re trying to take the church to the city,” said Hill.

We’re here to support what the city is doing and in any way that we can. We thought let’s jump in and have some fun and show some support.”

The float design for the church includes a 45-foot flat bed being pulled by large F-750 Ford truck. On the flat bed, children of the school will be sitting on hay waving at the crowd as if traveling through Texas.

Juan Gomez, youth pastor of the church, said the float is representing that everything is big in Texas.

“One of our themes is a big God. Since in Texas everything is big so that’s what we are going to be doing,” said Gomez. “It will be a float with music that portrays us and God.”

Hill said their first time experience of putting the float together as a church, has proven they can accomplish anything.

“We want to show the kids to get involved. To go out there and support their city,” said Hill. “We hope to take part in the parade again next year.”

Filut, director of Texas Citrus Fiesta, said everyone should come out Saturday.

“It’s a fantastic time to gather people from all over,” said Filut. “It’s also a way to have the whole Valley get together and have a great time.”

NABA breaks ground

By Kathy Olivarez

MISSION — The North American Association Butterfly Park broke ground for construction of the new headquarters building last week, in what’s being called “a long-awaited dream.”

“It has been a long time coming,” said Dr. Jeff Glassberg of New Jersey who is one of the founders of the park. Glassberg first met with the Mission Chamber of Commerce about a park dedicated to the study and preservation of butterflies of North America. “This park will be a unique, one-of-a-kind ecological park in the United States.”

The North American Butterfly Association chose Mission as the site of their park because as many as 300 of the 500 species of North American butterflies either live in the Rio Grande Valley or migrate through the Valley on their travels south.

Glassberg said that without the cooperation of many people, the park would not become a reality. He thanked Rhodes Enterprises that donated much of the land that fronts the Rio Grande River.

Construction on the 5,000-square-foot building is set to start in February.

“The area outside of the building will feature landscape walls with butterfly plants growing on them, benches and misters to provide a source of water,” said New York Architect Chris Cooper. “When butterflies are at the height of their migrations, the walls should be ‘an explosion of colors.’”

The building will be located adjacent to a two-acre tract of land that will have individual gardens that are each dedicated to an individual butterfly. Each individual garden will have the host plants needed for growth of the butterfly eggs, caterpillars and pupas and the food source they need to sustain themselves as butterflies. Gardens will be dedicated to a different butterfly species known to frequent the Rio Grande Valley.

In all, the park has approximately 100 acres. The land along the river is being returned to the seven plant habitats found in the different areas of the Rio Grande Valley to assure host plants and food sources for all species of butterflies that come to the Rio Grande Valley can be found in the park. Long-term plans include walking trails through these habitats.

The park has already developed trails filled with host butterfly plants that have already been developed and have proven to be very attractive to migrating butterflies in spring and fall. In fact, there have been sightings of butterflies seen only in Mexico prior to the creation of the park.

Butterfly experts say this is just a shadow of what is to come as the park prepares special habitat and food sources for the butterflies that migrant through the Rio Grande Valley. A park dedicated to butterfly habitat is a unique concept in the world. As the park is built and completed, visitors from all over the world are expected to come and visit the park.

Natalie Basham, who is principal of the nearby IDEA Academy, encourages her students to do volunteer work. Several students had volunteered their time in the gardens to help plant butterfly food supplies and host plants.

Luis Quintanilla, an IDEA Academy student, told those present working to develop the park had been a great experience for him. Although his school volunteer requirements have been completed, Quintanilla continues to come and volunteer his help on his own.
Margaret McAllen, who serves on the board of advisors, said the building and surrounding gardens would be a world-class attraction for Mission, bringing in people from around the world.

Dave Dauphin, another volunteer, said that approximately 225 volunteers have put in 1,080 hours of work a year. That is the equivalent of two full-time employees for six years. He said more volunteers would be needed when the time came to plant the small botanical gardens.

Mary Ritch Peña, executive director at Mission’s NABA, said she was looking forward to a great future for the NABA International Butterfly Park.