What an awesome weekend. I had the opportunity to attend my first Karnes County Youth Stock Show and it was wonderful. What a great group of young people and what fantastic support from the county. Congratulations to the all the competitors and winners. I look forward to working with this outstanding group of young leaders in the future.

Friday, Jan. 25, the Karnes County Horned Lizard Project will be hosting Dr. Dean Williams, a horned lizard researcher at TCU and Ashley Wall, a TCU Master’s student, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the USDA Farm Service Center in Kenedy at 491 N Sunset Strip St. Ste. 102. They have come to study the level of movement, population and habitat dynamics of urban horned lizards in our county. They will spend Thursday thru Saturday in our area visiting sites and plan to reach out to area schools and communities to educate residents on the importance, status and conservation of horned lizards. Volunteers will be needed to assist in DNA sampling, so come on out, get involved, learn something new and have a great time searching and learning about the horned lizard.

South Texas Trail Riders, Inc. will be riding into the county Monday, Feb. 4. Barth’s Restaurant and the Kenedy Chamber of Commerce will be at the Waylon Rouse Ranch on CR 743 to provide lunch for the wranglers beginning at 11:30. The group will leave from there and end up at the Karnes County Show Barn for the evening. Rathole Drilling will be providing their evening meal and at 7:30 p.m. there will be a “Kids Night” where all are welcome to come out visit and enjoy the fellowship.

Relay for Life, Ladies’ Tea & Salad Luncheon sponsored by the Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church will be held March 2 at 1 p.m. at the Ruhman Franklin Civic Auditorium. Entertainment will feature Karnes County’s own John Wayne Schulz. There will also be door prizes and a raffle. Admission is $20 and can be purchased by calling Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church at 830-583-2285 or any of the Good Shepherd church ladies. Limited tickets will be sold at the door.

Congratulations to Jimmy Albert. Jimmy was recently elected as a Director for the American International Charolaise Association for Area 5. Jimmy will be sworn in and begin his Directorship in March 2013. Jimmy and Dilley Albert were the Kenedy Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Family of the Year in June, 2012.

Welcome to all the new businesses that have joined the Kenedy Chamber of Commerce. We have recently crossed over the 100 member mark and continue to grow at a very fast pace. There are several ribbon cuttings in our future. Everyone is welcome to come and join us for these events!

The new building will be ready to move into this next week and we are looking forward to hosting an event for all of our members. I’d like to thank all of the members who have called, e-mailed or come by to check me these past couple of weeks. You are all awesome and have made a huge impact in my life.

With so many things going on, the Kenedy Chamber board is now going to hold two board meetings per month. They will be on the first and third Tuesdays. Feel free to stop by and see what your chamber is doing. The next meeting is Monday, Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. Until we meet, live life to the fullest and be blessed, Brenda Hansler.