Travis County Commssioners Court
June 3, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Items 4 & 5
Item no. 4 is a resolution congratulating river city youth on their 20th annual youth recognition awards ceremony. And while ms. Gonzalez is coming forward, I will read the operation. It reads whereas the youth of our community are a precious resource and play a vital role in the future of our community, whereas river city youth foundation has been instrumental in producing our future professionals for the next millennium, whereas river city youth foundation fosters positive participation in school, academic achievement, positive self image, personal growth, and good citizenship in its participants, whereas river city youth foundation honored participants from Travis County at its 20th annual youth recognition day awards ceremony on Friday, may 23rd, 2003, whereas some of the categories of honorees include youth of the year, parents of the year, family of the year, volunteer of the year, reporter of the year, fellow collaborator of the year and unsung hero, and whereas all of the recipients ought to be commended and congratulated for their diligence and striving to play a positive role in our community, now therefore be it resolved that we the Travis County Commissioners court, the youth river city foundation for their work with children and to their commitment to the betterment of our community and future of our youth, I move approval.
>> second.
>> how are you all doing?
>> good morning. Good morning, it's always a pleasure to come here. You are credited at the Travis County Commissioners court for having started this organization on -- 20 years ago or so. We are entering our gala year, our 20th anniversary year, that was the 20th youth recognition, in fact, and in ah-ha few months we are -- in a few months we are going to be celebrating our actual 20th anniversary as an organization and having a very wonderful gala and inviting all of you and the community to that. It is truly amazing to me to see so many fine individuals in our dover springs community come to life and express themselves educationally and in so many different ways, today joining us here we have lupita lozano, representing her family. They were selected as family of the year. Her husband working with right now, the other children are in summer school. So she is here representing the family and they are an example of the -- of the good families that we have in dove springs that love and care about their children and that will do whatever they can to support them educationally. So that they will have a good future. And we have hall spence with us. And he is youth leader of the year. And paul is now at travis high school, correct?
>> uh-huh.
>> and he is also -- he has also been hired to work with us at the computer lab because his technology skills are so fantastic. We also have rolando.
>> raise your handled, rolando.
>> all right. [multiple voices]
>> the wrong person back there.
>> (listing names) we havedy anna? [speaking in spanish]? [speaking in spanish]
>> okay.
>> that was -- we also have alma. These are kids that are youth of the year and they all live in the dove springs area. Deanna is the most likely to close the digital divide. [speaking in spanish] five years old, she is primary right now spanish speaking, she is brushing up on her english, but she has shown incredible talent, technologically, and so, yes, at the age of five, she is the most likely to close that digital divide we all talk about. Every one of the kids here and those that are not here represent the best of dove springs and we are very, very proud of them. And then, also joining us today, are -- are mike, are you back there? Mike comp represents fellowship church. They are a good representative of the enormous amount of support that exists out there for these children and their families. Mike not single handedly, but with several scores of volunteers from their church, helped to keep the facilities safe. And they erected lights. Now, if you ever been out there, it's a two dark acre parkland. At night it's very, very dark. And so they made sure that there were lights out there. Constantly it is a much safer place. And they have come out at least on three occasions to do something called "out of the box" where their church members, focus on a non-profit organization or a non-profit like us, they came out and made everything clean and safe, repainted things, just made it beautiful again. We have a lot of folks involved, hundreds and hundreds of good volunteers throughout the year. This is the time of year when we get a chance to say thank to you the kids, thank to you the families, also to all of the supporters. So I want to thank you because you don't get thanked very often. [speaking in spanish]
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you all very much. [ applause ] all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Maybe we ought to take the second proclamation before we vote. Okay?
>> >>
5. Approve proclamation declaring Saturday, June 7, 2003 as the river city youth foundation's father's day parade. Proclamation reads whereas the founders of our community are a precious resource and play a vital role in the [indiscernible] of our children and their future and the future of our community, whereas river city youth foundation and center for successful fathering have been instrumental in producing a collaborated community event, the annual father's day parade and celebration, whereas the father's day par retained celebration aims to increase the positive involvement of fathers and their -- in their children's lives to foster success in school, personal growth, good citizenship and a brighter future; whereas these two organizations are sponsoring the third annual father's day parade and celebration on Saturday, June 7th, that will include family fun, other splashy activities, [inaudible], whereas the organizations will select from entries in a school essay contest the dove springs dad of the year and he and his family will be the grand marshals of this year's parade. Now therefore be it resolved that -- that the Travis County Commissioners court does here by declare Saturday June 7th, 2003, as father's day parade and celebration in Travis County, Texas, be it further resolved that we salute the river city youth foundation and the center for successful fathering for their collaborative efforts in this -- and their commitment to the betterment of our community and the future of our youth and families. Move approval.
>> second.
>> good morning again, it's been a long time. We have so excited about this father's day parade and picnic coming up. All of the kids are going to be involved at river city, but this has expanded out to just a community wide events that originated in 1996 at keeling park. And somehow, some way, we just decided with the inputs of a lot of folks out there, that this was needed. Something to celebrate father's day was needed in the community. Now I'm going to ask you a question, you don't have to answer, but do you all remember being in a parade as kids? Daryl?
>> oh, yes.
>> sam?
>> yes.
>> ron?
>> okay. Good memories?
>> a lot of fun.
>> okay. Well, most kids dream about being in a parade. And most kids don't get a chance to be in a parade. So this is an opportunity for kids and dads, families, moms, grandpa, everybody to get involved. So again it originated in 1996. We brought it over to dove springs when we opened up the facility, so we are actually celebrating the 8th year of a father's day event. But a third year of a parade. It was expanded to include a parade a few years ago with the involvement of the center for successful fathering. I am so glad that the center for successful fathering joined this effort because they have expanded it and they have made it so much better and they are running around training folks on good parenting skills, fathering skills, all over the country. We are blessed to have them in Austin, they are a well-known secret a lot of folks don't know about the center for successful fathering. So I would like to turn the mike to francis, john, let them get you a little bit of orientation about the csfo.
>> good morning. My name is francis sanchez, I work with the center for successful fathering. This center, main goal is to bond kids and fathers. There's a project that we also work on called the Austin father's education in southeast Austin, the project encompasses six dove springs elementary schools, plus a middle school. And the idea for this project is to give fathers within the elementary system, so that fathers could be comfortable with the going to the elementary schools, so that's the major thrust of this project.
>> also, we work with over 730 dads and kids this semester and we found that there are -- through our research that kids with active fathers or father figures become more independent, make better grades, are more likely to get involved with extracurricular activities in school, less likely to repeat a grade and it helps with the prevention of school violence. This year, the essay contests that we are going to have in the parade is how does my father or father figure teach me to be a healthy, successful student.
>> now, have you all been involved in a father's day essay contest before? It's -- it's somewhat new and we are excited because as john mentioned we have got to have positive dads involved in the families if we are going to make success. Today joining us is -- y'all come on up, paul travis and jessica travis are here, we are announcing this, this is a first, we are announcing the winner of the dove springs essay contest. You are looking at paul travis, according to the judge, is the dove springs dad of the year. Everybody give him a round of applause. [ applause ] jessica would you share with us what inspired to you get involved in the essay contest and write about your dad? What made you want to do it? Well, jessica is a student at palm elementary. And she has written some rather magnificent things about dad. And dad, why don't you share with us some rather significant things about jessica.
>> I'm very proud of her. [indiscernible] she excels in everything she does. She's just the most wonderful child anybody could want and I'm just very proud of her for winning this essay. I'm very honored to be father of the year.
>> may I say a word, paul?
>> yes, by all means.
>> one thing that I have to add about jessica, she's a phenominally successful athlete in the united soccer club. She received an early offer for the division 1, '93 girls soccer team, of which I will be the assistant coach, she brings pride to our organization as well.
>> wonderful. [ applause ]
>> so, we are getting ready out in dove springs, June the 7th, that's this coming Saturday. And we've got a lot of f's. We have got family, we've got fun, we've got fellowship, we've got food, fajitas, that's another f and we have got fathers. And father role models. Now, not everyone is as fortunate, jess ask, as -- jessica as you are to have an involved dad in their lives, but that doesn't matter, we are asking everybody to come out because folks like paul are going to be there and there are going to be a lot of role models there for your kids. We believe that there's enough dads to go around to american tore children that don't have a dad, that's what we are trying to do. You get to be the grand marshal, they get to ride in a convertible. Ford maxwell, I will plug them, are providing the convertibles this year. We also have mrs. Texas and miss teen latino to also be in the parade. Then we have exciting time, it's open to the public, it is focused in our dove springs area. So if you get a chance --
>> starting at the dove springs library on nuckols crossing and it is the shortest parade probably it should be in the guiness book of world records, it's only four blocks long, but it is a parade, I will go from the library to the river city youth foundation at pleasant valley and stassney.
>> what time does it start?
>> it starts at 10:00. You know, ron, if you have a bike, you can bring it, you don't get to ride in the convertible now. But you can decorate your bike at the library. We are going to have balloon, all kinds of things. And we are asking all of the kids to bring either their wagons or bikes and they can decorate anything. We are going to have lots of that kind of good stuff there. So something for the family to do, it's going to be hot. Come dressed very comfortability. We will have lots of water, lots of good things to drink and it should be a lot of fun. So it's time, it's time for dads to get involved. And mentor the children that don't have the dads. Well, thank you so much, once again, for your attention and we look forward to seeing everybody there on Saturday.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you all, you are doing a great job, thank you. 777 we do have a couple of valuable proclamations for you here. [indiscernible]
>> thanks. Good to see you.
>> thank you so much.
>> thank you very much, nice job.
>> good job, thank you.
>> thank you very much, good job.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 4, 2003 9:52 AM