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Mother’s Day is traditionally celebrated on the second Sunday in May since it became an official national holiday in 1914. The example our mothers give us on how to be caring, giving adults is truly invaluable. They show us that being present and active in children’s lives creates better humans. And in that same way, teachers often become surrogate mothers (and dads) for their students since teachers are with them anywhere from 7-9 hours a day. No single event demonstrated better how competent and caring the teachers in Forney ISD were than the Spring of 2020 when schools had to close due to COVID protocols. And did they rise to the occasion! Helping parents become classroom competent and still teaching--going straight from in classroom to virtual teaching in basically a week. And the support staff stepped up to keep the students fed by creating daily availability of breakfast and lunch.

Summer is a season for recreation. Warm weather beckons people outdoors every day and during every season, but a quick glance outside your living room window in June, July and August will illustrate just how much people cherish any chance to spend time in nature when the mercury rises. So how are people spending their time outdoors? According to a recent report from the Outdoor Foundation that studied participation in various sports and activities, the most popular outdoor activity in the United States is running. The Outdoor Foundation report indicated that more than 61 million U.S. residents did some recreational running in 2019. To put that in perspective, 61 million people represents roughly 19 percent of the American population ages six and up. Fishing was the second most popular outdoor recreational activity among adults in the U.S., attracting more than 50 million participants. Outdoor recreation also is popular in Canada, where winter-dominant sports like skiing, snowboarding and hockey aren’t the only ways to enjoy the great outdoors. For example, the Trans Canada Trail, a recreational trail that connects every province and territory in Canada, attracts cyclists, joggers and hikers throughout the warm weather seasons.

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Mathew Lombardo

The splash pad at Forney Community Park will open Friday, May 27, 2022. Hours will be 10 am to 8 pm, 7 days a week.

Today I was overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude. This isn’t a given for me, at this point in my life. Sometimes I feel the opposite of gratitude; for that I am sorry.

After recent scattered rains and the warmer temperatures, fire ant mounds have begun to pop up again. Late April to early May is an ideal time to treat fire ants with a bait product before it gets hot. Baits are relatively inexpensive, require little labor to apply, and are safe for both you and the environment. The biggest drawback of baits is that they cannot be used all year round. Instead, applications must be timed to periods when fire ants are actively looking for food. More on baits in a moment.

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” -- Norman Vincent Peale

When my middle son was a toddler, he had a thing about food texture. In the family video vault, that place where VHS tapes go to die, there’s film footage of him sitting at the bar in a random rent house somewhere. He’s probably 3. He swears we had stuffed his mouth to capacity with green beans, French style, to be exact. He doesn’t know. He was 3. Ask me, the mom who was there. At most, there were 3 green beans hanging from his mouth. Also, there was lots of slobber and tears. See, he didn’t care for green beans or green anything or, really, any foods at all. Any edible substance placed into his mouth would result in a full, catastrophic melt down of epic proportions. He began dropping weight. The pediatrician became concerned. “Let’s try and get this guy to eat, shall we?” I cried all the way home. How dare that self-absorbed doctor dare to look at me and assume the problem was my lack of trying! So, I tried harder, hence the green bean episode. Finally, I caved. Fine, let the kid eat the only thing he’s willing to eat. Enter Peter Pan creamy peanut butter. That’s all he consumed until he turned 12. I am not kidding. If we were at a family wedding with a delicious buffet of barbeque and mashed potatoes and Czech delicacies like klobase and strudel and apricot kolaches (those sausage things at the doughnut store are pigs in a blanket, not kolaches, FYI), out of my mom purse would appear 2 slices of white bread and a jar of peanut butter. Relatives began gifting him with the industrial cans from Sam’s Club, as a joke. But, the real story was a mom win. I supplemented his 2-ingredient diet with Slim- Fast. I mean, there are nutrients in there. There was no Ensure back then. There were no calorie dense protein powders. It was the 90s. Eventually, he turned 12 and ate a hamburger at a friend’s house. I cried because I wasn’t there to witness the miracle. At least there were no more sightings of a kid who lived off of diet drinks and peanut butter. It was magic, though, that formula. That’s what mommas do. We make magic.

“One of the decisions was what kind of ice cream I wanted, strawberry or vanilla,” says Christen, 11. “That is a hard decision for me. I really don’t know how God showed me the sign, but I picked strawberry.”

The first annual Blackland Prairie Student Film Festival was held on Thursday, April 21, 2022, at Film Alley in neighboring Terrell, Texas, featuring the work of students throughout Forney ISD. Presented by the Forney Education Foundation, the event began on the red carpet with photos and a Meet & Greet with the stars of the films. Surrounded by fans, family members, and FISD administration, the student filmmakers signed movie posters and posed for photos as the crowd anxiously awaited the start of the festival.

The North Forney Indoor Percussion Ensemble has had an incredible season that culminated in the group’s second appearance at the Winter Guard International (WGI) World Championships in Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday, April 21 and Friday, April 22. Entering the preliminary competition at the WGI World Championship as the 2022 North Texas Colorguard Association (NTCA) Percussion Scholastic Concert World Class Champions with a score of 92.75, North Forney was in place to defend its 2019 sil ver place finish.

Tate Tarpley will play the role of Harry the Horse in the upcoming SAU Theatre and MHS Theatre production of the musical “Guys and Dolls” on April 21-24, 2022.

Springtime and catfish angling are back at Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) Neighborhood Fishin’ Lakes across the state. The program provides friends and families the opportunity to participate in the Texas traditions of outdoor recreation and reeling in catfish close to home.