Fun N Sun, San Benito, Texas, September 19,
2015
Nelson’s Notes #102
RUNNING ACROSS AMERICA
Cyndi Graves,
daughter of Fun N Sun’s Glen and Virginia Hindman, did just that- – ran across
America coast to coast. The experienced athlete has run across
Tennessee (Vol State multi-day race) on three different occasions, and has
run 50-mile and 100-mile races as well as about 50 marathons (26.2 miles
each). She also completed
5 full Ironman triathlons (Each
triatholon had a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles of biking, and a 26.2 mile run).
Cyndi at the “Finish Line” with husband David and sister Sheryl
For 78 days, starting
on April 1 and ending on June 17, 2015, the 51-year-old pounded the highway
(mostly US 60) starting in Venice Beach, California, and finishing in
Virginia Beach, Virginia, for a total of 3,108 miles. She started with
another runner, John, but their different paces kept them physically
separated for about half the trip.
Somehow, while doing all this, Cyndi blogged about her adventures, You can read and enjoy them (like I did) by going to cgravescrossing.blogspot.com.
Cyndi lives in Texas
with her husband David and their three dogs. Here she is with her daughter
at Lauren’s graduation from SMU (Southern Methodist University.)
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED
Please clip Boxtops and Labels for Education
and mail them to me (see my address below) or deposit them in a special can
in the Mail Room at Fun N Sun. The Boxtops and Labels are given to Sunny
Glen Children’s Home (a neighbor of Fun N Sun) to buy school and play
equipment. Sunny Glen is a home for children who can no longer live in their
own homes or for children who have been taken away from their parents. Some
have been placed at the Home temporarily and some live there all their
childhood.
Fun N Sun resident Martha Wing is the
Boxtop/Label Volunteer Coordinator. She got the “job” in 2002 when she asked
if the Home needed a “Grandma.” Martha said, “Last year we wanted to buy two
iPads but had enough points for only one. One label is worth anywhere from 1
to 25 points and it takes 20,000 points to buy one iPad. If I can get
25,000 additional points this school year, I’ve got enough points “banked” to buy 2
iPads.”
Things to remember when saving Boxtops and
Labels for Education:
Soup labels must have the barcode submitted
with them (boxtops do not need barcodes).
Labels do not expire but Boxtops do (so watch
the expiration dates).
You’ve hit the jackpot if you find a big box
of Cheerios because it is worth 5 Boxtops for Education (it says so in a big
strip across the front). Martha found a box of sandwich bags that was worth
4 Boxtops. She feels so strongly about the good that Boxtops and Labels do
that she chooses products with Boxtops or Labels for Education over products that do
have them. In August she returned to Fun N Sun with a
suitcase full of Boxtops and Labels she had saved over the summer.
Mail your Boxtops and Labels to: Marianna
Nelson, 1400 Zillock Rd. #T-414, San Benito, TX 78586. Thank you!
FUN N SUN’S NEW ACTIVITY DIRECTOR, TIFFANY
WALLON
I invited Tiffany to our place so I could
learn more about her for Nelson’s Notes. She sat on my couch and said, “Ooh,
this couch, it is sooo comfortable! Sometime you’re going to come home and
find me on it -- like Goldilocks.”
After 20 years of event planning and working
in hospitality, Tiffany is used to a hectic schedule. She has organized
1,141 weddings over 8 years (“and ate that many pieces of cake!”) plus
planned family reunions, corporate and team building events, and retreats
for churches and other groups.
The youngest of seven, Tiffany has two
children - Gabriel age 8 and Emily Grace, age 5.
They all love the beach. That’s why Tiffany moved to Laguna Vista from
Arlington, Texas, last year and then to Port Isabel this summer. Her sister
Christine, who is used to Tiffany’s hectic schedule, has relocated near them
to lend a hand.
The amount of knowledge in the park amazes
Tiffany as well as the residents’ deep sense of patriotism. She says she and
her team will work together to make Fun N Sun as great as it can be and
added, “After I bragged so much about this place to my parents, they are
looking into getting a trailer here.”
Tiffany claims to be directionally challenged, saying, “It took me a week to find the Rec. Hall.” Put that admission aside and it’s easy to see that Tiffany is very observant and perceptive. She also is a “quick read” with names -- the speed at which she learned all our first names amazed me.
Recently Tony
introduced Tallulah as “the new hire in the front office.” Here she is with
my granddaughter Sarah and son Craig.
.
Tallulah’s former life was spent on a shelf in
the back room of the Activity Office. Her rebirth came the day Sheila Durham
was helping clean the back room. When she spotted something stuffed against
the wall, she pulled on it, and out came the torso of the cloth mannequin.
Laughing, Sheila grabbed a cowboy hat lying on a shelf and with Tiffany
carried the mannequin to the front office. They sat her at the manager’s
desk placing her hands on his keyboard (note that she was wearing only the
cowboy hat). Sheila and Tiffany were not there when Tony returned and found
the naked mannequin at his desk.
He loved her! All she needed was a name –
“Tallulah” was Tiffany’s idea -- and she needed clothes -- Sheila outfitted
her in a red dress and gave her a blond wig. Janie Paz painted her lips and
Tony added sunglasses. Tony says he will have fun with Tallulah this season.
He will move her from place to place and ask park residents to guess, “Where
is Tallulah today?”
When Tallulah was introduced at Koffee Klatch,
Maria Torres asked, “Why doesn’t she have legs?” Tiffany’s on-the-spot
answer was: “One day Tallulah was riding in the back of a pickup truck
strumming her guitar. When the truck went over a pothole, Tallulah was
thrown out and had to decide whether to save her guitar or her legs. The
guitar won -- Tallulah was found cradling it like a newborn baby.”
What Tallulah needs now is a guitar, don’t you
think?
PHOTO GALLERY
In July, our daughter Teri and son-in-law Ken
are with Bruce at a restaurant on South Padre Island called Parrott Eyes --
say that fast and you get “Paradise.”
An unplanned electronic reunion with six
Nelsons happened while Teri and Ken were here. Our daughter Kristi called on
one phone and son Craig on another.
The street that goes by the back of our house was one of the few lucky ones to get an overlay in July. What a difference the new surface makes!
Bruce’s new workbench and tool rack.
Yippee – he enlarged my computer desk from
this . . .
. . . to this. Now there is room to plug in a keyboard. It is so much
easier to use than the laptop keyboard (fewer mistakes).
Marianna Nelson, September 19, 2015