Texas, Beaumont | featured news

Participants donned festive holiday headgear as they joined in in the children's 1K, 5 and 10K races during the 27th annual Sea Rim Striders' Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning in downtown Beaumont. The event this year benefits The Rainbow Room, which supplies emergency materials to the Department of Children and Family Services as they aid neglected and abused children in the community. For many, the event has become a holiday tradition, with runners taking part from a far away as Boston while home spending Thanksgiving with family.

Tom Posey ran down the menu for his Thanksgiving dinner, checking items off on his fingers as he went: turkey, ham, sweet potato casserole, green beans, yams, cake, pies.
"You name it, we'll have it," he said. He started cooking Tuesday, firing up barbecue pits, chopping vegetables and emptying massive boxes of seasoning.
Posey, 65, has been cooking since he was a kid, learning from his mother and grandmother, who owned a grocery store. He's used to cooking large meals, selling them from his food truck, Oza's Diner, off MacArthur Drive in Orange.

A group of alumni from a shuttered Beaumont high school are hoping to start a trend this holiday season by using a social reunion as a way to give back to their community. Michael Oszczakiewicz, a 1975 French High School graduate and Beaumont surgeon, said he and other alumni, affectionately known as "The Herd," decided after Tropical Storm Harvey to give to a nonprofit or holiday charity that was non-political. They selected The Beaumont Enterprise's Empty Stocking Fund, which annually provides Christmas toys and books for area children in need.

Empty Stocking Fund Providing food & toys since 1914 Goal: $50,000Today's total: $5,680 First United Methodist Church Estate Committee to provide books for children $1,500 In memory of Mary Lou Wilson from Anonymous $1,000 Marion L. Streetman$250 In memory of Joyce Saia from Joseph Saia $200 Merry Christmas from the Knippa family$200 In loving memory of John W. Saladin Sr. from Frances Saladin $100 In honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Dr. & Mrs. Sam Giglio $50 In memory of Dr. William P. "Bill" Kane. By Lucille A. Kane 7 from Ann-Marie A.

We wish all of you a wonderful, safe holiday. Happy Thanksgiving.