Sanger Courier (Sanger, Tex.), Vol. 101, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 11, 1999 Page: 1 of 18
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November 11, 1999
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Volume 101, Number 3
Home rule beckons
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For the second consecutive year, parents, businesses and individuals in Sanger
are coming together to show young people that they can celebrate their graduation
from high school without drugs and alcohol in an event called Project Graduation.
As activities for this year’s Project Graduation start to gear up, event chairwoman
Leslie Duncan said that the success of last year’s Project Graduation is proof of just
how firmly the community believes in keeping its young people safe.
By Lisa Hardy
Sixty-seven percent of those voting in
the city’s charter election last week voted
in favor of adopting the charter, but that’s
not saying much, since only 141 people
voted.
Earlier this year the Sanger City
Council appointed a 15-member home
rule charter committee to write the char-
ter. Leading the committee was former
Sanger Mayor Nel Armstrong.
Armstrong said that she was pleased
that the charter passed, because she
thinks it is good for Sanger. However, she
By Lisa Hardy
A 10-year-old Sanger boy was one of
43 chronically and/or terminally ill chil-
dren and their families to go to Walt
Disney World in Florida with Kidd’s Kids.
Kidd’s Kids, a 501 (c)3 not-for-profit
organization within 106.1 KISS FM, was
founded in 1987 by morning radio person-
ality Kidd Kraddick. Each year, Kraddick
takes children with special medical needs
on a trip of a lifetime to Walt Disney World
in Florida. All expenses are covered by
Kidd’s Kids.
The Sanger boy, Aaron Graham Autry,
his brother, Wyatt Everett and his mom
and dad, Damon and Vanessa Broxson,
departed on the trip to bisney World Fri-
day. According to Graham, as he likes to
be called, the trip was great, and the best
part was riding the Tower of Terror.
“When it goes down, it takes you out
of your seat,” he said “My mom didn’t like
be good for Sanger. I studied it enough
during the 12 years that 1 was mayor that I
know that it is a good move for the city.”
Sanger City Administrator Jack Smith
said that Monday, Nov. 15, the City Coun-
cil will pass an ordinance regarding the city
charter. Following its passage, he said,
Sanger will become a home-rule city effec-
tive immediately.
Nevertheless, it may be some time
before citizens see any changes in the way
(he city government works. “'I'he way the
charter is, that is the way we have been
functioning for a long time,” Smith said.
ments on how good it was from the kids,” Duncan said about last year’s event.
A Project Graduation meeting is being held at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15 at Sanger
High School, and Duncan said that she would like to get more businesses and stu-
dents involved.
Once again the Project Graduation Committee is planning to hold a three-on-three
basketball tournament as its major fund-raiser. It will be held March 18.
1 hincan said that the committee is determined to tap resources in the community
that have never been tapped. “We realize there are other ways we can help businesses
help us. And, we would like to get kids more involved so that they know it is for them,
about them and what they want.
“I was so pleased with last year’s success. It just tells me we can do it again, and
we can do it better,” she said.
For more information about Project Graduation, please contact Duncan at (940)
458-5622.
1
or Kay Phillips, chamber administrator, at (940) 458-7702.
Sanger parents prepare for
communitywide project
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Friday, November 12
7:30 p.m.
Wilkerson Sanders
Memorial Stadium
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Sanger Indians
District 9-AAA (6-4)
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District 10-AAA (10-0)
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Graham Autry spends a moment with the horse he received from the Make A Wish
Foundation in April.
And, he said that although a lot of
girls at his school like him, there is one
that holds a special place in his heart.
Graham did not know that his par-
ents had attempted to enter him in the
Kidd’s Kids trip until three weeks ago
when his mother found out for sure that
he was going. His mom explained,
“When I picked him up for school that
day, I asked him, ‘If you could go any-
Deadline set for program applicants
Applications for the Sanger Chamber of Commerce’s Little Angel Program are
available to be picked up and returned to the chamber office, 300 Bolivar St., no later
than 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19.
Applications distributed at local campuses in the Sanger Independent School Dis-
trict must be completed and returned to the schools or chamber office no later than 4
p.m. Nov. 12.
According to B.J. Ruff, chairwoman of the Little Angel Program, the program was
started to provide assistance to children living in the Sanger Independent School Dis-
trict in the form of clothing, toys and/or food during the holiday season. All Little
Angels must be between newborn and 14 years old.
All information will be kept confidential. However, it may be cross-checked with
other agencies offering similar programs throughout Denton County.
For more information about this program, please contact Ruff at (940) 458-3725 it,” he added.
But, the Clear Creek Intermediate
School fifth-grader has faced scarier things
than the Tower of Terror. Graham has
been battling medulloblastoma, a tumor
on his brain stem, which was discovered
Dec. 31. On Jan. 4 of this year, Graham
under went surgery to remove all of the
tumor, and the surgeons were able to get
it all. Nevertheless, he still needed six
weeks of radiation, and his chemotherapy
treatments will last through next Febru-
ary.
After that time he will have a MRI, and
“'File kids were great. They all had a blast, and we received numerous compli- if all goes well, he won’t have to have any
more follow-up visits for the next eight
years.
Unfortunately, in addition to losing his
hair from the chemotherapy treatments,
Graham lost his hearing as well, a result
of the drugs damaging his auditory
nerves.
Throughout it all, Graham said that
his parents have always been there for him
and been his biggest source of strength
and support.
Mrs. Broxson described how she felt
when she first learned what Graham was
facing. “It was like a bomb dropped on our
family. 1 was pregnant with Tucker Bill at
the time, and he’s 5 months old now, but I
think I’m still trying to handle it.”
Yet, she said it is their faith in God and
their friends at church who help keep
them going.
“I try to keep him from feeling sorry
for himself,” Mrs. Broxson said. “But, he
never complains and he doesn’t cry when
he gets shots, and he gets shots every 10
days and has blood work done every
week.”
She adds that he has been a good ex-
ample for his younger brother, Wyatt, 4,
because when Wyatt had to have blood
drawn, he faced it as stoically as Graham.
“Graham is brave - as much as he has
had to go through,” his mother acknowl-
edged.
Despite cancer’s invasion into the
lives of the Broxson family, Graham’s par-
ents have tried to keep life as normal as
possible for him and his brothers. Like
most boys he enjoys drawing, horseback
riding and building with Legos. He also
enjoys playing football, having played last
year, and he hopes to play again next year.
Due to the fact that one of his chemo-
therapy drugs affects his legs, he is un-
able to run, but he hopes to build his
muscles back up in time for the next foot-
ball season.
He credits his classmates for being
_______ good friends and his teachers, Ms. Tamara
SHS Band Beau Dillon Jenkins and SHS Band Sweetheart Meredith Miller were recog- Blythe and Ms. Lori Prestage, for helping
nized during halftime of Friday night's football game. him keep up with his school work.
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where in the world on vacation, where
would you like to go?’ He said, ‘Disney
World,’ and I said. ‘Good, because we are
going.’ He was very excited.”
Mrs. Broxson said that Graham’s has
a 60 percent chance for full recovery, and
she and her husband choose to believe he
will triumph. “We have faith in God. and
we just believe that he is going to be
around.”
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said that she was disappointed in the turn-
out and wished that more people would
have voted.
The voter-approved charter should
help the city in the future, Armstrong
said, because up until this time all the city
could do was what the state said it could
do. Now, like other home-rule cities,
Sanger will be responsible for its own des-
tiny.
“It gives local citizens control
through elections and so forth,"
Armstrong said. “I wouldn’t have been a
part of it if I didn’t believe that it would
Sanger boy takes trip to Disney World
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Hardy, Lisa. Sanger Courier (Sanger, Tex.), Vol. 101, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 11, 1999, newspaper, November 11, 1999; Sanger, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1337766/m1/1/: accessed May 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sanger Public Library.