Dancing to success at PTHS

The PTHS Leadership Class would like to thank everyone who supported this year's Dancing with the Stars. The evening was a huge success. Our stars and students did a fantastic job.

The evening started with great food provided by Mario's Mexican Bistro, Ronald Porter of Remarkable Parties, GZ's, and Glory Bee Bakery. Shalon Buck created delicious petit fours and chocolate-covered strawberries. Bobby Osburne (Made-Rite), as usual, took care of coffee and water. Our gentlemen were decked out in tuxes from The Tuxedo Company and our ladies had great hair compliments of Pat Hightower at Guys and Gals Hair Salon.

The Longview News-Journal did an awesome job of keeping our event in the news. The voting was fun and the blogs were great. Paula Allison and Lori Ashby made our room glow with their great talent for decorating. Emerald Gardens supplied us with some of the most beautiful plants imaginable. Thanks to the Zonta sisters who came out and helped with our tables. Numerous businesses were generous in their donation of goodies for our gift bags for the stars.

Archie and Barbara Williams, David Strube, Katie Bourque, and Diane Conrad were gracious with their time as our judges. Chuck Conrad with KZQX was kind enough to be our master of ceremonies. John Carrington was an absolute joy to listen to as he opened our evening with outstanding music. He is a master pianist. We can't forget Sal Landeros, our choreographer. He is great. Our stars and students had a blast with practice. Sal makes all of the hard work seem like fun.

Last but not least, the community supported us with its presence. As you can see, we are very blessed to be supported by so many wonderful people. We thank each of you very much for believing that we could make this an outstanding event.

For the PTHS Leadership Class:

Terry Barrett, sponsor

Craddock column stirred fond memories

I enjoyed Van Craddock's recent column "Cruising down the drag to Golden Point." I know it brought back memories for so many. One memory I have of those years is about my dad, Billy Joe Ferguson (Fergy as many called him), working countless hours as security for the Golden Point. He was one of those men in blue. He was a Longview Police officer for nearly 30 years, most of that time as a motorcycle patrolman. Police officers often work security on their off hours to help with finances, especially those with families. My mom used to tell us that he helped raise a lot of the kids back then.No matter where we go, there is someone coming up to him telling him how much they appreciated him helping them through their wild years or a parent telling him thank you for helping them raise their teenagers. Thank you again, Mr. Craddock, for taking us down memory lane.

Debbie Hill, Diana