McAllen asks community to share #TrailMoments
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- Published: Tuesday, 15 December 2020 14:36
The City of McAllen, in conjunction with the Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization, is encouraging residents to take advantage of the many hike and bike trails in the community and to post the information on their social media, utilizing the hash tag #TrailMoments. The effort is part of the Rails to Trails Conservancy Trail Moment initiative, in hopes to capture moments of joy, solitude, exercise and self-care.
Join the Center for Urban Ecology at Quinta Mazatlán for a journey into the world of rare birds on Saturday morning, December 12. The program will deepen your understanding of who our rare birds are, what makes them rare, and puts them in the context of a changing bird community in the Rio Grande Valley. Visitors will get to share in the excitement and mystery of rare birds of the past, speculation on which ones may show up next, and will leave knowing more about the birds that secret away in the Rio Grande Valley’s forests, marshes, and even yards. 
You can visit holiday themed sandcastles at South Padre Island. The sandcastles are an ongoing thing and this year the sculptors have worked hard to get things done. The Christmas village is currently open for visitors.
The Christmas Extravaganza is now on display at Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum featuring the creative ways people decorate Christmas trees. The exhibit runs through December 31.
The trails of Quinta Mazatlán in McAllen will be lined with thousands of candle luminarias to celebrate the winter holidays around the world. Presented by SpawGlass, ILLUMINA Fest 2020 takes place on December 16, 17, 18, and 19 from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tickets go fast and can only be purchased online at www.ticketleap.com, search for Quinta Mazatlán.
The Rio Grande Valley supports two chapters of Texas Master Naturalist and both chapters are taking applications for the new class training that will begin January 7. The deadline to register is December 18.
This past week, Olga Papp of Lone Star National Bank, on South Padre Island, was excited to accept a pickup load of grocery items donated by Winter Texans Jean and Steve Fisher of Iowa. The bank is helping with a food drive for the food bank. The donated grocery items will be taken to Pharr where bank employees will continue to volunteer by helping to sort and distribute the food to needy families in the Rio Grande Valley. This is the Fisher’s third year visiting the Valley and each year they have found at least one organization to support. Their first year they donated nearly $5000 of stuffed animals to Sunny Glen Children’s Orphanage. Last year, they donated over $10,000 in Christmas presents, clothes and other items to over 30 children in Cameron County. When asked by the bank manager, Martin Infante, why they were generous with their donation, Jean said it is because they have been blessed and enjoy giving back. When we did a story on them last year, we learned Jean grew up in foster homes and has a connection with how hard it can be this time of the year. Both have worked hard to get where they are today and feel they are blessed with everything they have. They have made the choice to give back like this at least once a year to share their blessing with others. Last year Jean said, they were not in it for the glory, “It is not about the giving or the getting, it is letting them know that someone cares.”
The Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the City of Mission and Mission Regional Medical Center to host its 26th Annual Mission Community Health & Wellness Fair. This year’s event will be a two-day event that will be held at the Mission Event Center on Thursday, December 3, 2020, and Friday, December 4, 2020, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is free, open to the public, and will provide free comprehensive blood screenings, awareness, and education.
This year is the year for reimagining, reinventing, and pivoting the way events are being held so that we can continue to enjoy what we have enjoyed in previous years. The City of McAllen has done just that with it’s South Pole experience and also with the McAllen Holiday Parade. The seventh annual presentation of the World’s and Texas’ Best Parade will be celebrated on Saturday, December 5, in a broadcast television production with no spectators in attendance, stepping off at 6 p.m. from Oval Park at McAllen Convention Center. The event will run live on six local networks and later be rebroadcast on the top 31 U.S. Hispanic markets and throughout Texas on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.
The Pharr Community Theater (PCT) is offering half hour online acting classes from November 9 to December 4, twice a week, for kids, teens and adults. Learn the basics of acting and a little more including auditioning tips and digging deeper to discover characters and real acting. Classes will be on zoom. 
