Oh Christmas Tree

When my own children were small, I insisted we get our own live tree. My husband, not so fond of this tree search adventure but agreeable to what I wanted, took us out to find a tree. We did come home with a tree. It was scragglier than I really wanted, but I loaded it with ornaments, bare spot to the wall, as tradition goes. All was well until Christmas Eve when we hear a loud crash. It might have been a tad barer on the wall side than trees past, and I may have placed more of the heavier storebought ornaments because the kids didn’t have that much school under their belts yet to have made a collection. Our son later confessed that he woke but didn’t get out of bed and thought Santa took a fall. We re-erected the tree with a haphazard decorating job to get us through the next day.

The trees always came down the day after Christmas at the latest. Because no matter how well watered, by then it was starting to brown, the tips of its branches fell off, and the thrill of having cedar stickers stuck in the bottoms of our bare feet was gone. We were tired of wearing socks all the time.

One year, Mom mentioned a fake tree so she could decorate early and enjoy it longer. I was neutral since both finding a tree and having it up longer sounded good to me. But even then, I recognized Dad’s look of disappointment when she mentioned it, so she never mentioned it again as long as I was still home.

And oh, those icicles… Dad made us pick all of them off the tree and save them for the next year before the tree was discarded. That was the worst. Not until a few years ago did I find out how cheap they are. Even back then when we had to save them, though, we loved the icicles, and the tree was dripping with them every year.

We’ve used an artificial tree for years now, since the kids are teens and we are out of town some of our Christmases. But I still find myself proclaiming, now and then, about a tree spotted on the side of the road or in the median: “That tree over there, it’d make a perfect Christmas tree.”

Maybe this is the year of the live, barespot, found-deep-in-the-woods, shortened, memory-making Christmas tree drenched in silver icicles. I can’t imagine anything more lovely than that. l When you shop local 68 cents of every dollar spent STAYS local. Keep Russellville Merry and Bright by shopping downtown this season.

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Children’s Benefit Ball 2021

It is with great pleasure and excitement, Junior Auxiliary of Russellville invites you to Fire & Ice Gala, our annual Children’s Benefit Ball to support the children and families of the River Valley. The event is scheduled for March 13, 2021 at the L.V Williamson Boys and Girls Club. While things may look a little different this year, we look forward to continuing the tradition of bringing the community together while raising funds to enrich lives in the River Valley. The evening will begin at 6:00 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres followed by a seated dinner. There will be entertainment, silent and live auctions and a wild card raffle where one lucky winner gets their choice of any live auction prize package.

Junior Auxiliary of Russellville has served the River Valley area for over 55 years and the Children’s Benefit Ball is a major factor in our ability to provide assistance to the community. All monies raised at this event are directly invested back into our community. JA is able to supply numerous grants and support various projects to help the children and citizens of the River Valley. Every ticket sale, auction item purchased, and donation helps support the Equestrian Zone of Russellville, Boys and Girls Club, Russellville School District Cyclone Care Fund, and Joseph’s House, just to name a few.

Covid-19 has impacted every facet of our society. This is especially true of the children, youth and families served by JA. Your support is needed now more than ever. Please join us for a Fire & Ice Gala! Tickets are $100 for an individual and $175 for a couple. For more information contact Brooke Taylor, Public Relations Chair, jaofrussellville@gmail.com.

Junior Auxiliary would like to thank Formal Affairs and Joshua’s Fine Jewelry for the beautiful dresses and pieces worn by members. We would also like to thank Crystal Malloy Photography. Bowen receives President’s Award from NASPA Region IV-West

Dr. Robin E. Bowen, Arkansas Tech University president, is the 2020 recipient of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Region IV-West President’s Award.

According to NASPA, the award is a special recognition reserved for a college or university president who has, over a sustained period of time, “advanced the quality of student life on campus by supporting student affairs staff and programs.”

Nominees must also have direct involvement in enhancing the quality of student life on campus, participate in active attempts to involve students and student life in governing the institution and demonstrate contributions to the profession that have an impact beyond an individual campus.

NASPA Region IV-West includes institutions of higher education in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming in the United States and Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada.

As a regional award winner, Bowen is now a nominee for the national 2020 NASPA President’s Award.

MerryChristmas

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Bowen was unanimously elected the 12th president of Arkansas Tech University by the Arkansas Tech Board of Trustees on April 22, 2014. She took office on July 1, 2014.

ATU has celebrated multiple record enrollments during the Bowen presidency, including an all-time high of 12,101 students during fall 2018. In addition, ATU has earned national acclaim from the CollegeNET Social Mobility Index as the top performing institution in Arkansas and among the top 10 percent of institutions in the U.S. when it comes to providing students with access to an enhanced economic position following graduation.

The freshman four-year graduation rate at ATU has increased by 15.8 percentage points over the past two years, while the ATU-Ozark graduation rate has increased by 13.3 percentage points over the past four years. Overall, Arkansas Tech conferred 4,072 degrees and credentials during the 2019-20 academic year, most in a single year in the history of the institution.

The institution has developed and enacted a new strategic plan, new campus master plan, new strategic plan for inclusive excellence, new mission statement and new vision statement during the Bowen administration.

Bowen is the first female president of a public, four-year university in Arkansas. She is identified by the Arkansas Business Publishing Group as one of the Arkansas 250, an annual list of the state’s SavetheDate ENGAGEMENTS List your engagement or wedding announcements in the pages of ABOUT the River Valley magazine at no charge. You can email yours to: editor@aboutrvmag.com or mail to: ABOUT Magazine, 220 East 4th Street, Russellville AR 72801. A phone number must be included for verification.

DECEMBER

Daly Dufrene & Ty Lanphere (5th) McKenzie DuVall & David Meeks (12th)

JANUARY 2021

Andrea Vega & Tyler Griffin (8th) Maegan Payne & Daniel Cloud (16th)

FEBRUARY 2021

Andrea Kindrick & Michael Mullen Hannah Sanderson & Lane Benefield (27th) Carlie Taylor & Hunter Hobby (27th)

MARCH 2021

Bethany Freeman & Jackson Hogue (tba)

APRIL 2021

Avery Elliott & Brant Collins (24th)

MAY 2021

Bailey Harris & Logan Gilbert (1st) Madison Van Horn & Cody Davenport (15th) Maebre Hale & Luke Curtis (22nd) Alix Ann Laws & John Harpool (28th)

JUNE 2021

Alivia Eckart & Chance Stines (5th)

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In 2017, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville College of Education and Health Professions presented Bowen with an outstanding alumni award in recognition of her achievements in and contributions to higher education. She was selected as a 2016 recipient of the INSIGHT into Diversity Presidents and Chancellors Giving Back Award, the only national award that honors college presidents and chancellors for their commitment to diversity by giving back to their campus and community.

Bowen has previously been recognized as one of AY Magazine’s Most Powerful Women, and she received the Arkansas Traveler certificate from the State of Arkansas.

She received her Doctor of Education degree with an emphasis in higher education administration from Texas Tech University. She also holds a Master of Education degree in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Arkansas and a Bachelor of Science degree in occupational therapy from the University of Kansas.

Bowen and her husband, Doug, are parents of son, Brock; and daughters, Alexa and Brynn. l

Wishing you

Politics at the local level

Story by KRISTIN FOSTER

I have loved politics ever since the first time I ran for office. It was a heated campaign for fourth-grade class president. I ran on a platform of better lunchroom options while my opponent promised extra recess time. After a grueling one week campaign cycle, we each retreated to our homerooms to wait for every vote to be counted. I should have known that my common-sense approach never had a chance against her flashy neon-pink campaign signs and empty recess promises. I stillI remember that sickening gut-punch of defeat when the results came in and I didn’t hear my name announced over the intercom. Luckily, in fourth grade, a landslide victory for the opposition could be healed with ice cream and that promise of extra play time.

It’s been a long time since I was a 10-year-old student council candidate. I’ve volunteered or been a staffer for dozens of campaigns since then, but election night has never gotten any easier. When the polls close and the last ballot has been cast, no matter how confident I am in the polling, I still feel my stomach drop and my throat clamp down as we wait for the returns. This year Americans everywhere seemed to share that feeling on election night as we collectively held our breath, waiting to learn who would be sworn in as the President of the United States on January 20, 2021. Each day that we didn’t have an answer my social media was filled with friends and family sharing their feelings of hopelessness, anger, and confusion at our divisive political system. So much distress over the election of one man every four years makes me heartsick for our community when there is so much work to be done here at home.

From choosing which roads get repaired to who will provide emergency ambulance services, every month important nonpartisan decisions are being made at the local level. The Pope County Quorum Court meets on the first Thursday of each month at 5 p.m., and is tasked with overseeing a budget of $26.7 million in tax revenue. Russellville City Council meets on the third Thursday of every month at 6 p.m., and oversees a $14.2 million annual budget. Even our children’s education is administered by elected officials at the local level. The seven-member Russellville School District Board of Education manages more than $54 million in tax revenue. The school board’s regular monthly meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.

In the coming weeks and months, some of the decisions that will be made in these public meetings include: pay raises for county elected officials, the future of Hickey Pool, downtown utilities and water, the purchase or construction of a new county coroner facility, plans addressing the aging county jail complex, COVID-19 related restrictions, and the possible approval of a temporary casino site. Each of these issues can be influenced by a handful of engaged citizens.

Arkansans also happen to benefit from some of the best public disclosure laws in the country under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (AFOIA). The AFOIA gives every Arkansas resident the right to observe public meetings and the right to obtain and inspect public records. Still, our elected officials are being allowed to make policy decisions and spend millions of dollars in tax revenue with almost no input from the taxpayers themselves. It doesn’t have to be this way. We begin to combat polarization and hopelessness from the ground up when we engage on local issues.

All these years after that first fourth-grade campaign the nervous energy is still there on election night, but winning and losing have started to feel basically the same. I know that no matter who is in office the real work will still be there waiting the next day, and we will be ready to meet it. That gives me hope.

Civil rights icon Diane Nash once said, “Freedom, by definition, is people realizing that they are their own leaders. There is a source of power in each of us that we don’t realize until we take responsibility.”

No fancy politicians are going to swoop in from Washington D.C. and save us from our dysfunctional politics. That responsibility rests with each of us individually and it starts at the local level. l

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RIVER’S BLEND GRILL & SEAFOOD 303 WEST C STREET RUSSELLVILLE

Surf and local turf

Photos by LIZ CHRISMAN Story by JOHNNY CARROL SAIN

A COUPLE OF MENU ITEMS that will always get my attention: locally sourced food and seafood.

If I can find both of those on the same menu, well, that’s a restaurant I’ll be eating from regularly. Sadly, locally sourced seafood just isn’t a geographic possibility here in the landlocked River Valley, but there are local alternatives that might surprise you.

Locally sourced means that the food, be it meat or veggies, was grown and processed nearby. The benefits to a local economy are obvious. But the benefit of local food to your palate is that you get to taste the flavors of the region, which are often quite different from the standardized, globalized fare offered everywhere else.

And the good thing about seafood? It’s seafood — enough said.

River’s Blend Grill & Seafood is one of those restaurants that offer both of those excellent menu options.

We started off with the loaded seafood fries — a mountain of golden potato goodness drenched in a creamy garlic sauce and covered with crustaceans. Then it was on to a bucketful of fisherman’s feast including boiled shrimp, snow crab legs, whole potatoes, and corn on the cob. We finished off with a delightful honey-lime glazed ahi tuna and washed it down with made-inhouse root beer, one of several in-house sodas offered at RBG.

Sadly we didn’t get to try the locally sourced entrees, but that just means we know exactly what we’ll be having next time along with the possibility of Arkansas caviar. Yes, real caviar from the Natural State, perhaps the best blending of local and seafood(ish) eats around. l