By Melissa Segrest

It started with a stomach bug that most everyone in the family got, around Christmas last year. Everyone got better, but 7-year-old Viviann Snow's stomach pain kept getting worse. 

The Rosanky second-grader ended up in an emergency room. A scan showed a mass in her abdomen. A quick biopsy followed at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. On Jan. 29 of this year, a doctor told Kelsey Snow that her only child, her "sunshine in human form," had a neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer. It was in the tumor and in her blood marrow.

A week later, oncologists at Dell Children’s Blood & Cancer Center started chemotherapy. Vivi, as she’s known by friends and family, was in the hospital for five days.

It was the start of a fight against a form of cancer that usually occurs in much younger children, often infants. As of late July, Viviann had received seven rounds of chemotherapy. Her treatment is led by Dr. Michael Mitchell at Dell. “He has been absolutely amazing throughout this whole thing,” Kelsey Snow said.
 

Childhood cancer by the numbers

• 483,000 survivors of childhood cancer in the U.S. between 1975-2018
• 15,700 cases of childhood cancer in the U.S. each year
• 1,800 youth younger than 20 are diagnosed with cancer in Texas each year
• 83.5% of families with a child with cancer experience financial hardship
• 4 out of 5 children survive cancer

Sources: cancer.gov, acco.org, dellchildrens.net (statistics vary slightly)

By the second round of chemo, Viviann’s long blonde hair had fallen out. She hated her “pork,” her name for the port implanted near her rib cage where chemotherapy drugs flow into her body. “She has had some challenging hospital stays, where the chemo hit her pretty badly,” her mother said. “She had a bad reaction to one of the chemo drugs, and we ended up being in the hospital for 17 days one time. It just about broke her.” Even FaceTime with her grandmother, Wanda Snow, and her beloved pug, Elvis Pugsley, couldn’t boost her spirits at that time.

Viviann, it seems, is tough. In recent months, she’s pushed through the nerve and joint pain as well as the nausea and vomiting that can come with chemotherapy. She has tolerated the daily shots that come after chemo, and the weekly checkups. Legos, Barbies and snuggles with mom to watch TikTok videos of pugs help.

Sometimes Viviann is reluctant to eat, leading to a self-prescribed, limited diet: Only spaghetti, then only Cinnamon Toast Crunch, then only McDonald’s cheeseburgers. Or just homemade burgers or just chicken nuggets.

Cancer is hard for grown-ups to understand, much less a child. “This is a mistake. I don’t feel like I have cancer. I feel like this medicine makes it worse,” Viviann has cried to her mother. “When will my hair grow back?”

Kelsey Snow has gone from a well-organized working-mom life to a scrambled week-to-week existence. “It’s been an adjustment,” she said. A recent return to her job in Austin at the Seton Mind Institute behavioral sciences program helped restore some order.

Viviann gets support and transportation to medical appointments in Austin from her grandmother and her father, Matt Martin. Kelsey Snow’s sister, Shannon Snow McGovern, has served as a sounding board, support system, meal provider and best friend.

Viviann recently had two days of specialized scans and other tests. “There is no more cancer in her bone marrow,” her mother said happily in late July. The mass in Viviann’s abdomen has shrunk, too, but it’s not gone. Next up is an MRI and then complex surgery to remove the tumor, possibly at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston or Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. That will likely be followed by more treatments, possibly radiation, and then lengthy rounds of in-hospital stem cell therapy.
 

5 common childhood cancers

• LEUKEMIAS, 28% — Cancers of bone marrow and blood
• BRAIN, CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM TUMORS, 26% — About 1 in 4 cancers in children; 4,000+ diagnosed yearly
• LYMPHOMAS, 3% HODGKIN AND 5% NON-HODGKIN — formed in lymph system, including lymph nodes, spleen, thymus, bone marrow or tonsils
• NEUROBLASTOMA, 6% — Most common in children younger than 1 year; about 700 cases diagnosed yearly
• WILMS’ TUMOR, 5% — In kidneys, most common in young children; under 500 cases diagnosed annually in U.S.

Sources: cancer.gov, cancer.org

Family, friends, neighbors and even strangers in and near Rosanky, 13 miles southwest of Smithville, are stepping up to support Viviann, who turned 8 in June. Aunt Shannon and much-loved 6-year-old cousin, Riyann, are next-door neighbors. Grandmother Wanda lives with Viviann and Kelsey Snow. All live on Bastrop County land that has been in the family for generations. 

Kelsey Snow has good health insurance, but the cost of Viviann’s treatments are astronomical, she said. Family and friends organized fundraisers and more are planned, including an October music event featuring local talent and perhaps a high-wattage country star.

“The amount of support has blown me away,” Kelsey Snow said. “I’ll see people I don’t even know wearing purple ‘Cancer Picked the Wrong Princess’ T-shirts,” which were sold as part of a fundraiser for Viviann. Cousins and family friends created Vivi’s Villagers benefit fund because “it takes a village.” Donations can be made at any First National Bank of Bastrop or via the Venmo money transfer app to @Vivis-Villagers. Keep up with fundraisers and activities at facebook.com/vivisvillage.

Kelsey Snow balances loving care with firm consistency. “I tell her: ‘It’s OK to be sad. We’re going to have a few minutes to have some cry time, to feel our feelings, and then we’re going to stand up and we’re going to keep going,’ ” she said.

“Ever since she was little, anywhere we would go it would take twice as long as it should because Vivi would talk to everybody, always smiling, always happy, making jokes and meeting people,” her mother said.

“She still has the smile. I don’t know how she does it. Kids are resilient. And she is a fighter, for sure.”

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas

Ronald McDonald House Charities keeps families with critically ill or injured children together when they are in the hospital, offering complimentary housing in their facility, rooms for rest in hospitals and comfort items delivered to children’s bedside. The Ronald McDonald House offers families who travel from home a place to stay near their child’s hospital. The Ronald McDonald House also provides families with home-cooked meals, laundry facilities and entertainment including video games, playground and a fitness facility.

Ronald McDonald has family rooms, for those to rest at the hospital, while their child is there. They also have a Healing Hearts program, a free six-week bereavement support for families that experience loss. Their Happy Wheel Carts program cruises through hospital halls to bring families drinks, coloring books, toys and toiletries. There are two Ronald McDonald House locations in the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative region , one in Austin, another in Bryan.

• Since 2018, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative has donated $5,475 to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas
• There were 7,545 overnight stays at the region’s two Ronald McDonald Houses in 2020. 
• 699 families in Bluebonnet’s area have been served by a Central Texas Ronald McDonald House
• Families stay, on average, 27.6 days in a Central Texas Ronald McDonald House
• Six Ronald McDonald Family Rooms are available for overnight hospital stays. Four are located in Austin at St. David’s Women Center of Central Texas,  Dell Children’s Medical Center, St. David’s Medical Center and Seaton Medial Center Austin. Two family rooms are located in the Brazos Valley area, one at CHI St. Joseph Regional Health Hospital and the other at CHI St. Joseph Health College Station Hospital. Each room can accommodate two or more families. 

Helping Kids with Cancer

These are some of the non-profits, groups and organizations nationally, in Texas and regionally, that strive to make life better for kids with cancer and their families.

• A Shelter for Cancer Families, located in Houston, provides families a place to stay and support while their children are receiving cancer care at the Texas Medical Center. To learn more visit cancerfamilies.org, or call 713-497-5365. 
• Sunshine Kids, located nationally, with operations out of Houston, provides a variety of local activities and excursions for children while battling cancer. View more information at sunshinekids.org, or call 713-524-1264. 
• Heroes for Children, services Texas families, to provide financial and social assistance to provide. The organization hosts events in Houston and Austin to raise money for local families. To get involved, visit heroesforchildren.org, call 832-790-6788 or email info@heroesforchildren.org. 
• Project Joy & Hope for Texas, located in Pasadena and serving the Houston area, provides housing and financial assistance for families referred by the Texas Children’s Hospital. The organization also has a 24-hour parent support line, for those that help, beyond housing, when a child is undergoing treatment.  To learn more, visit joyandhope.org, call 713-944-6569 or email, info@joyandhope.org. 
• Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Family Alliance, with at Texas Children’s Cancer Center and at The Children’s Cancer Hospital at MD Anderson Cancer Center. The organization provides families emotion, educational and practical support. For more information visit candle.org or call 713-270-4700. 
• The Children's Blood & Cancer Center of Dell Children's in Austin has multiple resources for children and their families. Beyond care and treatment, they offer patient and family resources to connect with other families and provide educational and support resources. To learn more, visit dellchildrens.net/childrens-blood-and-cancer-center, or call 512-628-1900. 
• Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas, serving Austin and Bryan-College Station, provides families a place to stay in a facility, at various hospitals and comfort items and support. For more information, visit rmhc-ctx.org, call 512-472-9844 or email info@rmhc-ctx.org. 
• The American Childhood Cancer Organization (ACCO), is a national organization that supports childhood cancer research, awareness and provides educational resources to children and their families. To learn more, visit acco.org or call 855-858-2226. 
• American Cancer Society, a national organization, conducts funding and research for cancers of all types. The organization supports patients, provides expert information and spreads knowledge about prevention. For more information, visit cancer.org or call 800-227-2345. 

Download this story as it appeared in the Texas Co-op Power magazine »

In June, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative completed construction of a new substation northeast of Caldwell, in Cooks Point. A substation converts high-voltage power that comes in on transmission lines to lower voltages that go out on Bluebonnet’s distribution lines to homes and businesses.

The Cooks Point substation will allow the cooperative to better serve members in the area by splitting up existing distribution lines into shorter segments. More than 1,200 meters will be served, including some larger commercial sites, along with future growth in the area. 

The new facility will reduce the distance from the substation to the meters, which will decrease exposure to issues that can cause outages and provide more reliable service.

The substation will also allow Bluebonnet to install devices that can reduce outage times. This is one of many projects intended to improve electric service reliability across Bluebonnet’s territory.

Download this story as it appeared in the Texas Co-op Power magazine »

Story by Kristin Finan
Photos by Sarah Beal
They are the pops of color that liven up Main Streets, historic buildings and city parks across the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative serve area, which stretches across 3,800 square miles of Central Texas. Behind every bright mural that can be spotted in local cityscapes is a story. 

One eye-catching mural pays tribute to a town’s juicy famous fruit, while another gives a nod to its community’s industrial roots. New murals pop up with some regularity, while older, fading murals can show visitors a side of a city’s past. Another plus: The larger-than-life murals are on public display all the time.

“The murals in downtown Brenham have become a destination for people in the surrounding area and beyond. They are available for viewing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. From family photos to senior portraits and even car shows, the murals provide a colorful backdrop to capture a memory,” said Jenny Van Dorf of the Texas Arts and Music Festival. “Each mural is unique to Brenham and tells a different story.”

If you’ve been looking for some new spots to shoot a selfie or family portrait, or simply want to learn more about the region’s bigger-than-life art scene, here are seven outdoor murals that can make for a perfect day trip stop.

“Giddings Pride”

GIDDINGS

Los Angeles-based artist Matt “Kiptoe” Dean painted the15-by-90-foot “Giddings Pride” tribute to the city on the wall ofOrsag's Furniture, 201 W. Austin St. Dime Box Distillery, which helped pay for the artwork, owns the empty lot facing the artwork. The mural, created in late October 2020 over a fiveday period, incorporates images relevant to Giddings history such as trains, oil derricks and buffalo.

“It had been many years since a mural had been painted (here), and we thought that one that depicted Giddings heritage would be a source of pride for residents as well as another reason for travelers to stop and stretch their legs,” said Michael Leidel, Dime Box Distillery owner. “Since it was painted, we have seen people photograph quinceañeras, wedding parties, family portraits, classic cars and gleaming motorcycles in front of it.”

The mural was paid for by the City of Giddings, the Giddings Economic Development Corporation and Dime Box Distillery. This was Kiptoe’s first mural in Texas.

Watch some of Kiptoe’s five days of mural painting »

“Owl Family”

BRENHAM

Jeepers, creepers, where’d you get those peepers? Animal enthusiasts and anyone who enjoys large-scale art won’t want to miss downtown Brenham’s brilliantly hued “Owl Family” mural, where huge-eyed, soulful creatures stare back at their inquisitive visitors. Created by renowned muralist Jeff Soto as part of the Texas Arts and Music Festival in Brenham in 2017, the mural stands four stories tall on the back of the historic JH Faske Building, 114 E. Alamo St., facing Commerce Street.

Many colorful murals featuring animals, Brenham-centric icons and other striking images adorn walls on Commerce and adjacent streets.

“We know this creates excitement downtown and has visitors returning to see what’s new,” said Jenny Van Dorf, a member of the arts festival board. “We have seen the vital importance over the last year of something that can be enjoyed 365 days a year. Even while folks were staying socially distanced, they were able to walk around downtown and take in the beautiful colors and murals.”

The festival is about more than downtown art. “We provide funding for different programs that encourage and support students in their efforts to pursue art and music education,” Van Dorf said.

The annual Texas Arts and Music Festival is Oct. 16-17 this year. It is free and open to the public. Get information about the festival at texasartsandmusicfestival.com, and look for information on the Art Walk on the visitbrenhamtexas.com website.

Watch Soto’s three days of Brenham owl mural painting » 

“A Charm of Hummingbirds”

BASTROP

Send your heart aflutter at this mural, “A Charm of Hummingbirds,” in Fisherman’s Park, 1200 Willow St., in Bastrop. The mural commemorates the city’s 2020 designation by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Audubon Texas as one of four Bird City Texas-certified communities.

Nearly a dozen rainbow-hued hummingbirds fly across the mural that was created by artist Maria Montoya Stayton of Bastrop in partnership with artists Theresa Dawson of Red Rock and Jeffrey Stayton of Bastrop.

The 25-by-8½-foot mural was painted in August 2020, “the hottest month of the year during a pandemic,” Montoya Stayton said. It features rubythroated, Rufous and black-chinned hummingbirds, which can be spotted in Bastrop. The mural was commissioned by the Bastrop County Audubon Society in celebration of the Bird City designation.

“During a time of pandemic, when one of the few things people could do was to walk or hike outside, this mural provided the community an opportunity to watch as it developed,” Montoya Stayton said.

The artists selected an abstract composition that is “colorful, can be seen from far away, and blends in nicely with the environment. ... It is also interactive and allows people to hold the trumpet plant in the mural,” she said. Don’t miss the whimsical, animal-themed mural on the flip side of the building, either, painted by K.M. Fritz.

“An outdoor mural is intended to stay fresh amid the elements for many years,” Montoya Stayton said. After preliminary treatment, she uses professional grade acrylic paint and varnish, then tops that with “sacrificial” varnish to guard against graffiti. “If the steps are not taken, murals will not last,” she said.

Get more information about Fisherman’s Park at visitbastrop.com (search for “Fisherman’s Park”) or about birdwatching in Bastrop (search for “birding in Bastrop.”)

“Dive into the Divine”

SAN MARCOS

Thanks in part to more than 200 springs at the headwaters of the San Marcos River — and mostly to the Aquarena Springs theme park that operated there from 1951 to 1994 — mermaids may be the most beloved mascots in this bustling college city.

For several decades, the Aquamaids donned fancy swimwear and even mermaid tails to perform graceful underwater shows for tourists who filled the park’s glass-bottom boats.

If you want to snap a picture with a mermaid, stop by the Root Cellar Catering Co., 202 E. Hopkins St., where the vibrant “Dive into the Divine” mural by artist Morgan Haberle Egan of San Marcos and fine art and sign painter Jana Swec of Austin reminds passersby to “Keep San Marcos Beautiful.”

The 19-by-14-foot mural was completed in 2016 as part of the City of San Marcos Mural Arts Program, paid for by hotel occupancy tax collections. The program provides artists with grants and design assistance to paint murals on private property throughout the city. “Murals can enliven an otherwise drab alley or parking lot and add to the character and sense of place in a community, and can also beautify an area by covering and preventing graffiti,” the program’s website states.

Other can’t-miss art sightings in San Marcos include the vibrant underwater scenes by San Marcos artist Mabel Sirup in Children’s Park, also a project of the mural arts program, and the Mermaid March, a public art project from the San Marcos Arts Commission that showcases 10 mermaid sculptures, each 7 feet tall, around town.

At Spring Lake, where the mermaids swam, the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment has been conducting research since 2012. Visitors to that Texas State University facility can still see the pristine waters from glass-bottom boats.

Get information and make reservations at meadowscenter.txstate.edu.

See more of San Marcos’ art by going to the Art Map on the sanmarcostx.gov website. 

“Quilts … History in the Making”

LA GRANGE

This intricately detailed 13-by-85-foot outdoor mural depicts 15 traditional 19th century quilts. It was designed by Austin artist Duana Gill and painted in 2011 by muralist Brent McCarthy, who lives in the Hill Country. The mural’s centerpiece is the museum’s emblem quilt — a red, white and blue Founders Star.

“The mural was one of the best things we did,” museum manager Julie Maffei said. “It’s a wonderful complement to our one-of-a-kind period garden.”

The colorful garden was patterned after a typical “city garden” in a Central Texas town in the 1890s, when the museum’s buildings were erected. It is called the “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” in tribute to a Depression-era quilt pattern that is still beloved today. Each year the quilt mural is touched up by McCarthy to eliminate stains and fading, Maffei said.

Get more information at texasquiltmuseum.org.

“Welcome to Luling”

LULING

The 19-by-18-foot mural was created in 2011 by Luling artist Joshua Farrell. It was commissioned by Luling Main Street, an organization of local business owners committed to revitalizing the Main Street District.

You can time your visit to Luling with the Watermelon Thump, always the last full weekend of every June since 1954. Or, you may simply revel in a relaxed day trip or weekend escape that, in addition to mural sightings, may include antiquing, shopping boutiques, enjoying barbecue or sampling produce, including watermelon, at the Farmers Market at 700-798 FM 1322.

Look closely at the mural to get some hints at Luling’s heritage: Learn more at lulingmainstreet.com/projects.php.

“Welcome to Smithville, Train 286"

SMITHVILLE

Smithville, known for its railroad history, offers a mural of a barreling train to welcome visitors to town. The ‘‘Welcome to Smithville, Train 286’ mural, 217 Main St. at Loop 230, was painted in 1976 by a local Presbyterian minister. The train art is painted on the side of a building that used to be the Bayer Pharmacy and now houses a law firm.

Smithville works to prioritize the arts, from nearly a dozen stages and venues for live music and theatrical productions to three art galleries. The city recently opened the new home for the James H. Long Railroad Park and Museum, at 106 N.E. First St. The building also houses the city visitor center and chamber of commerce.

There are other photo-worthy murals in town, including the rainbow-adorned sprawling piece on an exterior wall of Smithville Elementary School at Bishop and N.E. Seventh streets. That mural was featured in the 1998 Sandra Bullock film, "Hope Floats."

Get more information about the city’s murals »

Download this story as it appeared in the Texas Co-op Power magazine »

By Lisa Ogle

In May 2021, Altman Plants energized the first solar array in Texas that floats on water.

At 750 kilowatts of production capacity, it is one of the largest arrays on Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative’s electric grid. Large commercial solar installations make up 37 percent of the total renewable production capacity of 21 megawatts on the cooperative’s system.
 

About Altman's Array

• 750 kilowatts of production capacity, enough to power 93 homes
• 2,592 solar panels
• 94,145 square feet, roughly the size of two football fields
• 1,122 tons of carbon dioxide offset, equivalent to planting 26,089 trees

Floating arrays are unusual. Elsewhere in the United States, a few dozen of them can be found, mostly in California and on the East Coast. They are more expensive than land-based installations but provide interesting additional benefits.

Altman’s array, for example, helps preserve the valuable water reservoir it rests atop because it reduces water evaporation, keeps the water cooler in summer and greatly reduces the growth of algae. Its size is intended to offset the energy costs of the huge commercial nursery and reduce its carbon footprint.

Mark Rangel, an executive vice president of New Braunfels-based Speir Commercial & Industrial, helped shepherd the idea of a floating array as a solution to avoid taking up valuable real estate, but knew the additional costs would need support from other sources.

Federal tax incentives took care of 50 percent of the cost, and a USDA Rural Energy for America Program grant paid for another 25 percent. The nursery is expected to see a return on its investment in six to seven years, Rangel estimated.

Rangel and Altman’s construction project manager Daryl Noack worked with French-based floating solar specialist Ciel & Terre to build the floating devices, anchoring system and aluminum rack that secure and house the solar panels.

Anchoring the rack was one of the biggest hurdles. They initially estimated a need for six to eight anchors and ended up with 34, Noack said.

“We didn’t think it was going to be that many anchors,” Rangel said. “Driving it into the side of a bank is challenging. Not a lot of contractors do that specific kind of work.”

Another challenge was working safely on water.

The workers were using personal watercrafts, and “we had to make sure our guys could swim,” Rangel said. It involved a little trial and error — and getting wet. And muddy.

The solar panels were assembled on land in sections. Each section was floated across the water and then pinned in place on the rack.

“It was interesting to watch it being built,” Noack said. For the last section, “it was a perfectly calm day.” He remembers seeing the set of panels gracefully float across the water right in place. “It was really cool.”

Bluebonnet worked closely with the team for about a year to get the array connected to the grid and help maximize consumption of the solar power. Excess power is returned to the grid, and Altman is paid back at a set rate.

“This was a unique project for us — seeing how a floating array comes together and working with a commercial member in a way we’ve never done before,” said Wesley Brinkmeyer, Bluebonnet’s manager of energy services. “As with all of our members, we work to try to find ways to help them achieve their goals. In the case of Altman’s project, we worked to consolidate multiple meters by adjusting the infrastructure, coordinated on long-term plans and evaluated all of the options. We learned a lot along the way.”

This wasn’t the average solar project, Rangel said. “It definitely took a team — a community — to get this project done.”

Download this story as it appeared in the Texas Co-op Power magazine »