The Hempstead Chamber of Commerce held the 2^nd Annual Watermelon Festival Appreciation Dinner on Saturday, September 15^th.  Approximately 60 volunteers and sponsors gathered at The Cryin’ Coyote Ranch for dinner, music, and socializing. 

Steed Henderson, owner of Beans n’ Bacon Caterin’, prepared a delicious dinner on his chuckwagon then served homemade peach cobbler and his famous Cowboy Cappuccino for desert.  Steed entertained the crowd with cowboy poetry and his authentic old west style. 

Buck Johnson and his band donated their time to provide some excellent guitar pickin’ and singing.  As a side note, the Chamber wishes Buck and his beautiful wife, Ka’ren, congratulations on the birth of their baby boy.

After dinner, hostess Sherri Rumph announced the winner of the Chamber, “Volunteer of Year” Award.  This year’s winner is Melissa Newcomb of Oak Shadows Cottage.  Melissa has been working hard for the city of Hempstead and the Chamber for many years.  This year she was the driving force behind the Street Banner Project.  She worked not only with the Chamber, but also with the city, TXDOT, and Shirts Caps and More to get sponsors, have the locations approved, and have the banners designed and hung.

In the past she has worked diligently on the Watermelon Festival and was instrumental in having a web site created for the Chamber.  We can’t thank Melissa enough for her devotion to this community!

We wound down the evening with door prizes for all in attendance and more entertainment by Buck.

The Chamber wishes to thank the following people for their generous donations to this event:  Danny & Sherri Rumph of The Cryin Coyote for use of their beautiful ranch, Rick Hunley of Country Living Mortgage for sponsoring the wonderful dinner, John and Cheryl Durrenberger of Mike Hopkins Distributing and James Walker of Brookshire Brothers for sponsoring the beverages, and Michael and Connie Wawarofsky of Connie’s Creations for donating the ice.