Courtesy photo: Marge Rhode The third annual Habitat for Humanity Oktober-Feast fundraiser is set for 5 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church in Portales.

Freedom New Mexico

The third annual Habitat for Humanity’s Oktober-Feast fundraiser is Saturday at First United Methodist Church in Portales. This is a fundraiser to help raise money for the Habitat for Humanity and the projects they do.

Habitat holds the event in October because World Habitat Day is the first Monday in October each year. In recent years items have been added to the menu and activities that go along with the dinner such as a bake sale and this year there will be a silent auction.

The meal that is served each year is bratwurst, homemade sauerkraut, homemade German potato salad, red cabbage, drinks and dessert. Jalapeno brats were tested last year and are returning this year, according to Marge Rhode, Office Manager for Habitat for Humanity of Roosevelt and Curry Counties, Inc.

In the first year of the Oktober-Feast, 125 guests were served, and last year 175 were served. This year Habitat is hoping to top 200 guests, according to Rhode.

The ticket prices have changed and new ones have been added. This year a ticket for students at Eastern New Mexico University or Clovis Community College, as well as military servicemembers, is $7. The price for adults is $8 and children 10 and under is $5.

Dinner will be served from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and a quilt raffle will be at 7:30 p.m., The winner does not need to be present to win. The quilt is a log cabin pattern queen size quilt, which was pieced together by Gail Strickler, Melveta Walker and Elizabeth Lawrence. Raffle tickets are $5 each or six for $25.

To purchase tickets or contribute baked goods for the bake sale, call the Habitat for Humanity at 359-1344.

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Alisa Boswell: Portales News-Tribune Andrew Brunk moves window frames at the Habitat for Humanity Restore Friday afternoon in Portales. The Restore is one of the many ways Habitat raises in money and materials for houses along with events such as Oktober-Feast, which is being held today at First United Methodist in Portales.

Alisa Boswell

Funds from the third annual Oktober-Feast fundraiser will help build a new home for a Clovis family in a dire living situation, according to Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Joyce Davis.

Davis said the next family on the Habitat for Humanity waiting list is sleeping on the floor at their current home because of nighttime neighborhood shootings.

“It is our goal to eliminate poverty housing, but it is expensive to build homes, so we need a lot of help,” Davis said. “All of our fundraisers are for building somebody a home.”

Anyone in the mood for some German culture can come to United Methodist Church in Portales from 5 to 8 p.m. today for a bratwurst dinner with musical entertainment and a silent auction.

The original inspiration for this bratwurst fundraiser came from Habitat board member Joe Parie, whose homemade recipe continues to be used at the event.

“I was a food service sergeant in the Army, so serving food and stuff is enjoyable to me,” Parie said. “We used to do everything from scratch, butcher our own hogs and everything. We have them made commercially to our recipe now.”

Parie said he’s been using his bratwurst recipe as a means of fundraising for Habitat for many years, having done brat fundraisers for mission trips to Mexico, Haiti and more.

“Since they’re my brats, they’re my pride and joy,” Parie said. “Food’s my thing, so I enjoy doing this. And it’s always fun to do fundraisers for mission trips and homes and things.”

Davis said even more people attended the event last year than the first year, so she has hopes of the event growing more this year.

“We were pleased. I don’t think we served 200 the first year, but we probably served that many or more last year,” Davis said. “We are working at there being more people this year too. We anticipate that it will grow every year as people learn about it.”

Davis said items in the silent auction, which entails people writing their bids on sheets of paper next to the items, includes a variety of items, such as a grill, a charcoal broiler, antique glassware, a Thomas Kinkade painting (“Hyde Street at the Bay”), an internal hard drive upgrade kit, a garden fountain and more.

“It’s really a lot of fun,” Davis said. “Someone will bid on it and someone else will come and up it a little then someone after them will up it a little more, so it’s kind of a fun thing to do.”

Davis said Oktober-Feast raised several hundred more last year than the previous year, going from roughly $1,000 in 2009 to roughly $1,800 in 2010.

“This is an effort of the board of directors but we have many volunteers helping us,” Davis said. “This is one of our big efforts to raise money for houses every year and it takes a lot of people to make it happen. We are grateful to those who help make it happen and those who come eat with us.”

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CNJ staff

The Clovis High School marching band finished third Saturday at the Zia Marching Fiesta, held at University Stadium in Albuquerque.

The band has made the final for 32 consecutive years at the fiesta, which was won this year by Mayfield High School.

In preliminary competition, CHS finished second and took awards for best musical achievement and best visual effect. The band also claimed best musical achievement honors in the finals.

The band is on the road against this weekend for a pair of competitions in St. George, Utah — the Utah Music Educators “Red Rocks” festival on Friday and the Bands of America Western Regional on Saturday.

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CNJ staff

PORTALES — Eastern New Mexico University women’s soccer team clinched third place in the Lone Star Conference on Sunday, beating Angelo State 1-0 at the ENMU soccer pitch.

The Zias (8-5-3, 6-3-3), with matches remaining at West Texas A&M on Friday and at Midwestern State on Sunday, will finish ahead of Angelo State (6-9-2, 5-6-2) and Texas A&M-Commerce (7-8-2, 6-9-2). They can catch MSU (10-4-2, 8-3-1) for second and earn a first-round bye in the upcoming six-team LSC tournament by winning both matches if conference-leading Abilene Christian (15-0-1, 11-0-1) wins or ties on Friday night at MSU.

Sophomore midfielder Gerilyn Armijo scored the only goal of the match, her first of the season, on an assist from freshman midfielder Angela Sandoval with just over 13 1/2 minutes to go in the first half.

Senior goalkeeper Sierra Cardenas broke her own school single-season shutout record with her sixth, recording five saves against the Rambelles. It was ENMU’s first home win over ASU since 2006.

ENMU men 2, Northeastern State 1 — At Tahlequah, Okla., the Greyhounds began a rough finishing stretch by avenging a non-league loss to the RiverHawks earlier this season in Portales.

Junior midfielder Diego Santos scored his second goal of the season three minutes into the second half to snap a 1-1 tie.

Junior midfielder Andy Wilkinson put the Greyhounds (8-3-4) in front in the 20th minute, taking a through pass from sophomore midfielder Julian Roberts. The RiverHawks (9-3-3) tied it with a goal from Michael Wilson with about five minutes left in the half.

ENMU, looking to qualify for the NCAA Division II tournament for the first time, hosts non-league Fort Hays State on Friday, then takes a 3-0-1 LSC record against top-ranked Incarnate Word (10-2-1, 2-1-1) on Sunday at home with a chance to wrap up the conference title. The teams played to a 1-1 tie earlier in San Antonio.

The final regular-season match is on Nov. 4 at second-ranked Midwestern State (10-3-1, 1-3-1), which blanked UIW 3-0 at home on Friday night. ENMU beat the Mustangs 2-1 earlier in Portales.

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Band takes third place

The Clovis High School Marching Band claimed third place Saturday at the Tournament of Bands Marching Contest held at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

Clovis scored 85.35 points, just .05 points behind runnerup Onate and .3 points behind champion El Paso Coronado.

In addition, the Wildcat Marching Band won the “Greg Randall” award, given to the top New Mexico band in preliminary competition.

The band is under the direction of Bill Allred and assisted by Brandon Boerio, Karl Powell, Travis Pruitt, T.J. Guevara, Keith Sacane and Ty Frederick.

Education Digest is compiled by CNJ staff writer Kevin Wilson. He may be contacted at 763-6991, or by e-mail:

kwilson@cnjonline.com

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Freedom New Mexico

DENTON, Texas — Eastern New Mexico University provided little scoring support for senior Precious Herrin and dropped a 51-44 decision Wednesday to Texas Woman’s.

Herrin matched her season average with 19 points in the Lone Star Conference matchup, but only on other Zia (Kiara Tate, six points off the bench) had more than four points as ENMU (2-6, 1-2 LSC) dropped its third straight game.

Herrin was 7-of-18 from the field and made 5-of-7 free throws.

Brittany Nuzman had three 3-pointers and 13 points for the defending conference champion Pioneers (6-1, 2-1) and Tabbatha Thurmond added 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Neither ENMU (32 percent) nor Texas Woman’s (28 percent) shot well from the field, however the Pioneers made 7-of-26 3-point attempts while the Zias were 0-for-10.

It was the first time in 58 games the Zias failed to convert a 3-pointer.

After a back-and-forth first 30 minutes, Texas Woman’s took the lead for good at 34-31 with a little under nine minutes to go Taylor Swift’s 3-pointer.

ENMU pulled with 40-38 with just under two minutes to go on a pair of Herrin free throws, but Nuzman hit a 3-pointer and Thurmond added two free throws to stretch the Pioneers’ lead back to seven.

Cambria Smith (10 points, six assists) made 6-of-6 free throws in the final 13 seconds to seal the win.

In the first half, Herrin hit the jumper and the subsequent free throw to ignite a 9-2 ENMU run, giving the Zias a 17-15 lead. Lace Clark’s layup with 35 seconds left in the half gave the Zias their largest lead of the game, 23-17.

ENMU led 23-19 at halftime.

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CNJ staff

For the third year in a row, Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors will be hosting a “Random Acts of Kindness” Christmas Outreach Project today.

The project involves ambassadors going to local supermarkets and giving money to customers to help pay for groceries. The recipients are selected at random.

The ambassadors have contributed personally to the fund to help support their endeavor.

“With Christmas approaching soon, there are a lot of people in need and we as the Chamber Ambassadors want to brighten someone’s holiday.” said Pat McCullough, ambassador chairman for the project.

The Chamber Ambassadors act as the promotion arm of the Chamber of Commerce such as greeters at numerous events.

Information: 763-3435.

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CNJ staff

Fred Van Soelen announced Tuesday he will not seek a third term in March.

“When I first ran for office in 2004,” Van Soelen said in a release, “I had a three-part platform: Improving pay for our police and firefighters, improving our parks, and improving our streets. I believe that the city has made great strides in all of these areas since 2004.”

Van Soelen noted during his term, the city commission put forth a step-pay plan for firefighters and an increase in police pay, a refinancing of a parks bond to start a parks improvement plan and street paving project to prioritize street projects in each district.

Van Soelen, an attorney, won a close three-way race in 2004, taking 285 votes over Len Vohs (248) and incumbent Gloria Wicker (245). He held on for re-election in 2008, defeating Ben McDaniel 604-442.

No one else has announced an intention to run for the seat.

The filing date is January 10.

The March 6 election includes the mayor’s race, four commission races, and a ballot question to change the city charter to bar dual service on the Clovis City and Curry County commissions.

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Courtesy photo Comedian Carlos Mencia is planning a Jan. 27 show at the Clovis Civic Center. The Honduras-born comic said he’s in a much different place than the times he performed in the Clovis-Portales area in the late 80s and mid-90s.

Comedian Carlos Mencia is making his third stop in eastern New Mexico this month.

He’s been performing for roughly 23 years. During that time, he’s released three albums and six performance DVDS, appeared in numerous movies and TV shows and hosted his own Comedy Central show, “Mind of Mencia,” for three seasons.

We caught up with him this week, and asked him about his career in standup, his previous times here and how he’s different coming into his third area visit — scheduled for Jan. 27 at the Clovis Civic Center.

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CNJ Staff Photo: Benna Sayyed Clovis Christian Elementary teacher volunteer Suzanne Brockmeier shows third and fourth grade art students techniques of picturing writing.

Benna Sayyed

Third and fourth grade Clovis Christian Elementary students are learning to write by making observations of their artwork.

Clovis Christian art teacher Patsy Delk started “picturing writing” lessons at her school in January to get students excited about learning to write. The project will last 18 weeks. Delk’s students are each writing and illustrating a book.

“It is an opportunity to get kids engaged in the writing process,” said Suzanne Brockmeier, retired teacher volunteer at Clovis Christian Elementary. Brockmeier said children struggle with writing and the project effectively helps them learn to write.

“They’re excited about it. Even when I say it’s writing day, they say ‘yay writing day.’”

Delk’s students meet Thursdays to produce the art portion of the project. Every art lesson has four parts. Brockmeier first reads to students from a picture book and discusses pictures, various literary forms and techniques and picture ideas with the class.

Next Brockmeier demonstrates how illustrations are to be produced. Students then create original work following the teacher’s model. Thursday lessons conclude with students offering peer criticism on the work of two classmates and the class discusses whether or not the session was progressive.

Students later write the pages of their books by observing their paintings in language arts class. Brockmeier said students learn various conventions of writing including mood and setting.

According to Brockmeier, the project focuses on time of day, so students are working on landscapes.

“We’re talking about what the sun is doing, what the sky is doing, and you’ll see that in their writing,” Brockmeier said.

She said students have to explain aspects of their text and illustrations.

“I could say that my sun is a lemon yellow but if they painted theirs orange they’re going to have to come with descriptions for it.”

Fourth-grader Dede Wofford said she likes picturing writing lessons because they let her express her creative side through art and writing.

“This can make me a good drawer and writer when I grow up and I can teach other people how to do this,” Wofford said.

Fourth-grader Ryan Worrell believes picturing writing will give him important skills to pass on to his future family.

“I like that I get to paint and enjoy time with art,” said Worrell, who advised his friends and family to try what he does in art class.

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