The Olton Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture held their annual banquet to honor the outstanding citizens of the community on Saturday, March 2, 2024.
The Educator of the Year award was presented to Mr. Travis McCulloch by the 2023, Recipient Shelli Rose.
Travis McCulloch has been part of the Olton community for thirteen years. He was born and raised in a home filled with music and he has dedicated his life to sharing that joy of music with others. He was always highly competitive and never hesitated to try new things.
As a High School Student, he served as a camp staffer at the Interlochen Center for the Arts camp in Interlochen, Michigan. He attended Wayland Baptist University’s School of Music which afforded him the opportunity to study music technology such as sound mixing, recording, multimedia productions, and stage lighting. The community of Olton has certainly benefited from his knowledge of amps, microphones, and sound systems. He performed with the Wayland Baptist band and choir in in Valencia and Madrid, Spain in 2003,and in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia in 2006. That same year, he was commissioned by his Alma Mater, New Deal High School, to write a special composition for a full band. He officially became a published composer when he wrote his piece, “Wild Fires”.
He is a member of the Christian fraternity Kappa Upsilon Chi. Their motto “as iron sharpens iron” has become his life mantra. He also filled in as a cheerleader during his time at Wayland. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in December 2006. After serving as an assistant band director at Highland Park in Amarillo, then as an assistant in Slaton from 2008 to 2010, he took the head band director position in Olton in the fall of 2010.
Under his direction, the Olton Mustang Band enjoyed Division I ratings in marching for five straight years. And again in 2019. Most recently this year eleven Olton students performed in the junior high and high school All Region Band, and two students made Honor Band. Nine students qualified for state solo and ensemble and will perform at State Competition in Pflugerville in May. In his time as director, the Mustang Band has earned three Sweepstakes trophies earning One’s in Marching and Concert Sightreading. He was selected this January to serve as the Association of Texas Small School Bands coordinator of the 1A/2A Jr. High Concert Band.
He has taught elective classes at South Plains Band Camp for more than a decade, teaching marching band fundamentals to junior high students from across the South Plains. According to his presenter, Shelli Rose, Mr. McCullough most loves “getting to create precious memories and a sense of family and belonging for his students”.
The Family of the Year award was presented to Tracy, Meghan, Dawsyn, Dailee, and Dylan DeBerry by the 2022 recipients Steven and Shelli Rose.
Tracy is an Olton native and he met his wife at Texas Tech. They are faithful members of the First Baptist Church in Olton and they serve the community in many ways.
He has been farming since he and Meghan were married following graduation from Texas Tech. She graduated from Tahoka High School in 2006, Tracy graduated from Olton high school in 2006. He received a Bachelor’s degree in sports science in 2010. Meghan received her degree in exercise sports science and studied secondary education in 2010. She taught at Frenship ISD for two years, and then taught at Olton for one year before staying home to raise her children.
They are the parents of three daughters that currently attend school at Webb Elementary where their mom serves in the ABC Club. She has also served on the Olton School Board for the past five years and is currently the board president.
The couple also work diligently at the First Baptist Church where they may be found teaching or working on bereavement, nominating, finance or youth pastor search committees. Brother David said, “They are both very involved and very much a part of serving the church and community.”
They have both been involved in Olton Youth Basketball for many years. She has been President of the OYB for many years, they also coached their girls in T-ball and they never miss watching their girls in the new softball program.
They have been in charge of the volleyball tournament during the Sandhills celebration for several years.
In 2017, Tracy took over an unexpired term on the city council where he has been serving for the past seven years.
Shelli Rose stated” Their willingness to serve in our community is a testament to their pride and love of our little town.”
The Support Staff of the Year Award was presented to Jimma Bradley
by the 2023 recipient, Denise Hasha.
Jimma Bradley started working at the bank in 1998 as a teller, she then became a loan officer and help set up new accounts. Her co-workers have said she goes above and beyond what is considered normal to make sure the customer had everything signed and taken care of. Or maybe you called to get advice on a 401k or IRA. For many people of Olton she set up their accounts, their kids accounts, and now their grandchildrens accounts. She will be retiring at the end of February to spend time with her own five grandchildren and her husband of over fifty-one years. She also enjoys working in her yard.
The Woman of the Year award was presented to Peggy Carson by the 2023 recipient, Brittney Redwine.
Peggy Carson is a life-time resident of Olton. Born on March 8, 1935, she grew up on a farm at the edge of the Sandhills with her parents and four siblings.
She married in 1950. The couple lived in Lubbock for a brief time before purchasing farmland and establishing their home east of Olton where they raised their daughter born in 1951 and their son born in 1955.
In the 1960’s, she became the leader of her daughter’s Girl Scout troop and through the years she volunteered when needed in her community and the First Baptist Church which she attends still. She proved her entrepreneurship through the years as she provided products to the Olton community selling Shaklee herbs, Mary Kay makeup, perfumes, and jewelry. She was awarded top honors for her sales thru the Shaklee and Mary Kay companies and was a senior supervisor for the Shaklee Corporation. Her salesmanship and sense of fashion and design landed her a job in the Lubbock Mall in a fashion store. She also enjoyed working at the Mini-Mall for several years.
Her love for preserving the history of the community of Olton led her to the position as director and curator of the Olton Sand Crawl Museum for as long as anyone can remember. She has worked tirelessly to set up new displays in the museum and the museum yard as well as the Heritage House and orchestrated events to raise money for the museum. Her festive Christmas displays have filled the Library and Museum windows for years. Her continual work to create a place to honor those who established, worked, and lived in Olton has not gone unnoticed. She was awarded the Citizen of the Year award in 2010 and was the recipient of the Volunteer of the month awarded in January 2017 by the Ready to Serve Volunteer Program of Plainview. She and her husband were honored as the Parade Marshall and Queen for the 2018 Sandhills Celebration Parade.
At the age of 88, she hasn’t stopped. She has visualized a revitalized Main Street with new Facade, and paintings depicting the heritage of Olton. That may be her next project!
Peggy is the daughter of the late Buck and Martha Nicholas and was married to Wayne Carson for 69 years. She has two children, Cathline McClain and Alan Carson, son-in-law Charles McClain and daughter-in-law Noreen Carson, seven grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren with another great granddaughter to arrive in April. She has three sisters, one brother, numerous in- laws, nephews, nieces and four beloved cats.
The Man of the Year Award was presented to Mr. Lupe Ruiz by the 2023 recipient, Blake Neinast.
Mr. Lupe Ruiz is a lifelong resident of Olton. Described by many as the most selfless person they know and he has a servant’s heart. Some of his volunteered duties include serving on the Olton city council and he is currently a volunteer driver for the Olton ambulance. Mr. Neinast stated,” This man will drop anything not only to help his family but his neighbors throughout the Olton community. Whether it is trimming trees, mowing lawns for people that aren’t able to do it themselves, taking people to doctor appointments or even cutting your hair! He has done it all with no expectations. Neinast stated “Myself knowing this man my whole life he’s always greeted me with a smile and a very welcoming hello. With his servant’s heart this man is everywhere. I would drive by one house seeing him do the yard work there, then it seemed like 10 minutes later he would be at another house mowing away with a smile on his face. What a great role model he is for his kids, grandkids, and even great grandkids.”
Graduating from Wayland with his Bachelors Degree and Masters from Texas Tech, he taught first and third grade in Olton. He served as Elementary principal for a year, before working as an Educational Administrator for South Plains College where he eventually retired.
Married to Norma for 45 years, he has three daughters-Jennifer, Brenda and Selia. Nine grandchildren and eleven great-grandchil- dren.
The Citizen Thru The Years Award was presented to Pam Roberson by the 2023 recipient, Barbara McFadden.
Pam Roberson began her teaching career when she came to Olton in 1978 from Austin, Texas to be the High School English teacher and One Act Play Director. This was the beginning of her teaching career.
She came to Olton as a young single teacher with no desire to live in a farming community and swore she would never marry a farmer. However, within two years she was married to the love of her life. And within three years they had two children. With the children in school, she became active in Booster Club and in Band Boosters as a very active Band Parent.
Her students speak well of her as a teacher. She was always smiling and happy. She was very diligent in her teaching and made classes very enjoyable. As one of her students stated,”She was so tiny that if the wind was blowing very strong, they were concerned it would carry her away”. Our Citizen also has a heart for all children and would see to it that they had rides to and from the church Auxiliary, and children’s choir at church. She has a heart for all children and when a teacher at school had a premature baby and needed someone to watch the child because he could not be around other children until his immune system was better developed. Pam volunteered to care for the child. She loved and cared for him until he entered school and throughout his life.
She has served more than twenty years as worship leader/Piano player at the First United Methodist Church in Olton, over ten years active in Running Water Draw Care Center and over ten years weekly pianist at RWDCC and Sandhills Village and has served on the RWDCC Board of Directors.
She has over twenty years as Dispatcher, driver and EMT for the OVAA, as well as on the Board of Directors, and has been the bookkeeper for 10 years.
Another area that she has been a part of is the Museum and Library. She has created a book club at the library and has painted the back room of the museum and painted the curb yellow in front of the library to make the step more visible for the elderly, an important safety measure.