THE CONTENDERS: Last May, neighborsgo visited O’Banion Middle School in Garland to see the newly established Bison Boxing program.
The program was designed to help at-risk youth find an outlet for some of the tougher hands the students have been dealt at home and in school, and in 2010, Bison Boxing is set to try and make some more improvements in its original mission.

UPDATE: “We want to deal more within academics,” said Joe Sotelo, O’Banion Middle School teacher and boxing coach, in a December phone interview. “It’ll still be an at-risk program, but we want the kids to show us the grades they can go out and box with us.”
After the first sessions of Bison Boxing began in May, about 25 students gutted out the scorching heat and training and continued their workouts into the summer at the Garland Police Boxing Gym.
The students continued their workouts showing up three times a week at 8 a.m. at the gym to keep fit throughout the summer months.
This year the program will kick back up again after spring break when the school sports and traditional after school activities begin to wind down.

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LONG DRIVE: After graduating from SouthGarlandHigh School in June, Hayden Mitchell spent his summer preparing to move to Mississippi and continue his golfing career at the collegiate level with the Mississippi College Choctaws.

UPDATE: Mitchell has finished his first semester at MississppiCollege and he has found some increased levels of competition in the jump from high school to college, but the adjustment has been made easier with the help of an old opponent from days in Garland ISD.
Jack Gordy, a former standout at Rowlett high school is now Mitchell’s roommate and one of his best friends in Mississippi.
“Over the last three months, he’s become one of my best friends, and we it’s a little different because we competed against each other in high school, but he’s one of my buddies now.”
The biggest change in the game for Mitchell has come with the beefed up practice schedule that comes in college competition.
“The time you have to put in high school is so much different than in college,” he said. “There is so much more time spent working out, practicing, playing and traveling.”

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THE GOSPEL TRUTH: Last summer, neighborsgo visited with CB Luce, owner of the Garland Opry, and we learned about his love of Gospel music and finding a way to spread the message in a classic southern style. Today, he is still working to promote the Garland Opry as a music venue and downtown business.

UPDATE: Not every business owner can fulfill his dream at age 67, but CB Luce, owner of the Garland Opry, did just that.
Luce said he lives by his motto ‘It’s never too late to be what you want to be.’
He reached his dream five years ago when he performed on the Garland Opry stage.
“I have been singing all my life, but this was first time I really went out and was looking at entertaining larger audiences,” Luce said.
Luce purchased the venue in 2008 and runs it along with his board of directors, Bill Dunn and Mark Edwards.
The Garland Opry showcases a variety of music genres from country to gospel and welcomes performers of all ages and experience levels.  
In September, the Opry participated with the Garland Downtown Business Association in the Garland Wild West Cowboy Round-Up, to help connect the community back to the downtown area.
“It [Round-Up] was jointly sponsored with the Opry and the Downtown Business Association and our purpose was to get people to downtown Garland,” said Sally Hammond, Garland Downtown Business Association president.
Luce said one of the challenges the venue faced this year was not residing in a permanent location for the community.
Despite the setbacks, he remains hopeful the Garland Opry will thrive in the upcoming year. 
“I think building the Garland Opry back to a place of prominence in the Garland area is my 2010 goal,” Luce said.

Elizabeth Knighten, a neighborsgo correspondent, filed this update.

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MISSION TO UGANDA: Sam Garrett of Plano shared the story about a mission trip to Uganda that he and 16 other Dallas-area residents made. One of their stops was the Sanyu Babies Orphanage, where the Anglican Church of Uganda provides a haven for orphaned, abandoned and destitute babies, caring for 50 at a time, until new parents or distant relatives adopt them.

UPDATE: Despite its tight funding, the orphanage continues to place healthy, happy children into good homes in Uganda, the U.S. and Europe. Every placement makes space for another abandoned, orphaned or lost child.
Cathy Lancaster of Prosper with Olivia in the Sanyu Babies Orphanage playground.
After a family leave in the United States, Dr. Scott Kellerman and his wife, Carol, returned to the BwindiImpenetrableForest, a World Heritage Site in Uganda’s far southwest that borders Rwanda and Congo and is home to the Batwa Pygmies. They have expanded their hospital by 75 beds and, with support from the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, the Bwindi school population now exceeds 1,000 pupils. The Batwa are gaining in self-sufficiency, too: After neighborsgo ran the original articles, Dallas-based sales of Bwindi-made baskets doubled, and public interest in supporting the Batwa's efforts grew.

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TRIUMPHANT TALE: Last July, we shared the story of Back Elementary fifth-grader McKenna McGough, whose bond with a tail-less dolphin helped her cope with a hearing disability. Winter lost her tail as a result of being caught in a crab trap as a baby. The four-year-old bottlenose lives at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida where she inspires amputees, special needs children and other visitors at the rescue, release and rehabilitation facility.

UPDATE: “McKenna is doing well,” Stacy McGough, McKenna’s mother, reports. “She was able to go back to see Winter in October when she was part of a webcast with Scholastic Books for the release of “Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned To Swim Again.”
The webcast was viewed by more than 350,000 kids from all over the world. See it at scholastic.com/winterstail.
McKenna was recognized by Garland ISD with the Evidence of Excellence Award for her philanthropy and dedication to Winter and the aquarium.

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STAR-SPANGLED FOURTH: Neighborsgo Garland editor Marcus Murphree went through some Garland city budgets with a story explaining why for the first time in a decade, the City of Garland would not host the Star-Spangled Fourth Celebration. Mayor Ron Jones has since changed his mind a little bit. See Ray Leszcynski's story below for more.

UPDATE: Ron Jones knew last July Fourth that the only fireworks he’d encounter at FirewheelTownCenter probably would be directed at him.
In a year of cutbacks, the city canceled its annual Star Spangled Fourth event, held at the mall the previous few years.
“I went out there just to find out for myself how the citizens and merchants felt,” Jones said. “And I got an earful. They missed it. They were extremely disappointed.”
The economic situation in Garland is no better this budget cycle, but the mayor is determined to put the community festival back into play. He led the City Council in directing Bryan Bradford, the city's senior managing director of budget and research, to see what kind of funding would be available for 2010.
Bradford reported back Thursday night that budget possibilities totaled $101,703 from four funds. The net cost of the 2008 festival was $240,000.
“We set the bar on Star Spangled Fourth activities, and we were considered the premier city for that holiday,” Jones said. “I think we're going to be able to do something. Exactly how we do it, I don't know.”
Nor do city officials know where. There has been sentiment to move the festival back downtown, where it enjoyed a decade-long run. Harbor Point on Interstate 30 at Lake Ray Hubbard is also being considered.
“We cannot afford not to do this for next year,” Jones said.

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ROCK’N’ROLL MOM: Garland’s rock’n’roll mom becomes a member of the neighborsgo family with her blog “The Chick That Plays Harp,” and soon her neighborsgo stardom blossoms beyond the city boundaries. A month later she gets invited to show off her harmonica skills on 92.5 The Bone’s Bo & Jim’s morning show after they found her blog online.

UPDATE: There is a good reason that you get into rock and roll when you are 17. 
The practice all afternoon, hear live music at bars until 2 a.m. and sleep until noon mantra is not so easy for a 52-year-old single mom. Throw in spending every free minute helping a son research and apply to colleges and doing multiple re-writes on a screenplay – and the harmonica playing gets rusty.
So, no – I don’t have a standing gig at a blues club and no one has requested a harmonica version of “Silent Night” or “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” at the holiday parties.
Shortly after my story about attending Rock’N’Roll Fantasy Camp in Los Angeles was printed in neighborsgo, I received notice that my screenplay I had written made it to the Second Round at the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Contest.
I have since met wonderful people at the Dallas Screenwriters Association and Harmonica Association of Texas and heard some amazing harp players around town. I practice my harmonica to a “How To” DVD and can foresee actually sounding good on it. 
Rock’n’Roll Fantasy Camp will be filmed for a reality TV show and they invited me back to attend, but I will pass on that. After all, no teenage son should have to see his mother on a reality TV show. 
I am well into my second screenplay, “Who Brought Their Mom” about a mom that goes to Rock and Roll Camp and accidentally becomes famous and ends up playing onstage with Aerosmith.

Susan Newton, AKA "The Chick Who Plays Harp," filled us in with this update.