The weather was sunny and warm at this year’s Hot Pepper festival in Palestine, TX. There were games, local vendors, food trucks and delighted children chasing roaming bubbles down the street, hands full of lemonade and candied pecans. The parade of floats from local organizations, bright red fire engines and seniors showing off their snazzy sports cars began at 10, followed by the entire downtown area full of pedestrian wanderers.
I was lucky enough to share a booth with the Altrusa club this year. Altrusa, as it’s name suggests is an international service organization that develops and implements effective community services and leadership programs. Recently, Altrusa partnered with Palestine’s Mayor, Steve Presley to raise funds for the children’s literacy program in Palestine, “Operation Read” in which money was raised, and new books were bought and given to local school children to take home. The “kid-in-a-kilt” was more than happy to donate a couple of books to this project as raffle give aways during the Pancake Breakfast fund raiser.