July 2020 Introducing your new* leadership for 2020-2021!

President: Mack Skinner ‘79

Treasurer: Jennifer Campbell ‘00 Vice President: Could be you!

Scholarships: Erin Nelson ‘04 Communications: *Elizabeth Kaminecky ‘16

Get to know Elizabeth: I grew up in Brenham and graduated from Brenham High School in 2012. I attended Texas A&M and graduated in 2015 with a major in Telecommunication Media Studies (I still consider myself class of 2016). In the last year, my fiancé Brock and I moved back to the area. I work in marketing at Germania, specifically in corporate communications. I enjoy running, traveling, and looking after my 16-pound cat Mustang. I am also looking forward to marrying my college sweetheart this year!

Funniest A&M Memory: I’m not sure if this is funny or not, but I met my now-fiancé at A&M our sophomore year. I found out he lived less than 30 minutes from my hometown (Brenham) and we never even crossed paths until we moved to College Station!

Favorite A&M Memory: I interned with The Eagle during my senior year at A&M, and one of my first assignments was to interview the “new” Reveille and her handler. She was a young puppy at the time, trying to learn her new role, so it was very cool to sit down one-on-one with them to meet and learn about her!

Membership: *Casey Henly ‘11

Get to know Casey: I graduated from TAMU in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science. For the next 7.5 years I worked in outside sales for cooperatives around the state providing Animal Nutrition and Animal Health products to end users. Haley and I got married on July 20, 2013 and now have two wonderful and wild little girls. Brooke is three and Quinn is ten months. I am currently a Financial Associate with Thrivent Financial is Brenham since 2018. My roots are in cattle, and I still enjoy all things about them. Like most Aggies, I enjoy A&M football on Saturdays in the fall. Crossfit has become a fun hobby that I enjoy week in and week out.

Funniest A&M Memory: My funniest A&M memory (that is appropriate for the newsletter) is probably in regards to my wife, Haley. I met her in 2009 while working at the Beef Center for Texas A&M, but she didn’t give me the time of day and thought I was a jerk. Then two years later we were placed on the same intern commit- tee at the HLSR and she sent me a Facebook message to re-introduce herself! And as they say, “the rest is history.” Boy how Karma works!!

Favorite A&M Memory: My favorite memory is probably being able to attend the 2010 Nebraska game at Kyle Field that we won 9-6. The amount of white towel shred that was floating in the air that night I will never forget!! Speaker Coordinator: *John Channing ‘79 Get to know John: Class of ’79 - Class Agent, Married for 41 years to Betty Wolfskill Channing ’79, Daughters – Jennifer ’06 and Jessica ’09, Father Class of ’56, Father-in-Law Class of ’53. Hobbies – golf, fishing, grandkids, Aggie football, Aggie baseball, Aggie .

Past President of the Baton Rouge A&M club and Beaumont A&M Club. Only missed 3 away football games since joining the SEC. Have been to every SEC football stadium!

In 2019 we moved to Brenham. Shortly after moving I left a long career in Executive Sales of Controls and Software to move into Real Estate. I am involved in multiple local service organizations including Miracle Farm, CASA, and several Real Estate professional organizations.

Funniest A&M Memory: Thought we would go to Waco and the bear…no way!

Favorite A&M Memories: Meeting my wife our Sophomore year. tu game in ’67…Hargett to Long, …Sirr Parker “He gotta touchdown…, The hit, Holiday Bowl beatdown, Cotton Bowls with Bo Jackson, Tim Brown

Events Coordinator: *Erica Ross ‘07

Get to know Erica: I graduated from Texas A&M in 2007 with a degree in Biology and recently completed my master’s in Biological Sciences from Texas A&M Commerce. Currently, I am able to use my love of science in teaching High School Biology at Brenham High School. I’m an active member at St. Mary’s Catholic Church where I serve as a leader for Blessed to Be A Mom and teach religious education. My three kids, Addison (10), Gretchen (8) and Miles (4) keep me on my toes and I enjoy being a Girl Scout leader for both girls, and watching them grow through their various childhood activities and sports. My husband, Danny Ross, is also the proudest member of the class of 2007 and I am blessed that I was able to spend my time at A&M with him and raise our family of little Aggies in our hometown of Brenham. This spring /summer has definitely been strange and an adjustment for us all but we have embraced the time that we have been able to spend together. We love travelling, hiking, camping, playing games, working on projects and anything that brings us together as a family. I am looking forward to serving the Washington County A&M Club as special events coordinator and hope that we will be able to get everyone together sooner than later!

Funniest A&M Memory: The funniest memory that I have at A&M occurred during finals week on a night that very well may have been an all-nighter at the library. I had been studying at Evans library and needed a change of venue and some coffee. My now husband, Danny, walked with me from Evans to West Campus Library. There is a gazebo lined with bushes in between Kleberg and the meat science building. As we were walking towards the gazebo, we saw these heads start popping up from behind the bushes. It was very dark and we were functioning on very little sleep and lots of caffeine, confused as to who was hiding behind the bushes. Out from Kleberg, comes a student running full speed in boots and overalls with a shepherd's hook hollering, “Don’t mind the sheep!” From behind the bushes, a flock of sheep take off running and the student chases after them. To this day, we don’t know if he recovered all his sheep but, at the moment it was so funny and we will never forget that scene.

(Erica Ross continued)

Favorite A&M Memory: There are so many memories that make me smile just thinking back on my time at A&M but, Aggie sports are definitely a part of my favorite memories. Aggie sports were what originally drew me to Texas A&M. I was a first generation Aggie but had a connection watching Aggie football and cheering on the Aggies with my Mammaw and Dad since I was a little girl. Whether the Aggies were winning or losing, the favorites or the underdogs, we were always the 12th man waiting with anticipation for the game or cheering on until the end. I attended my first Aggie football game as a freshman at A&M and never looked back, my soul was sold to the A&M gods. The sporting events that stood out are a 2005 football game and a 2006/2007 basketball season. In 2005 we camped out, as a part of a rotation of several people, for TWO WEEKS to pull football tickets. We got a coveted spot on the first row of the third deck and made “Gig ‘Em USC” shirts to wear when we played UT that year. Yes, that was the year that “they” won the national championship, and in hindsight, it wasn’t the best sportsmanship, but we garnered TV time and enjoyed the moment. It was also the infamous “listeater” game where a girl went to the front of the ticket line and ate the ticket pull order list that had been kept up with for two weeks for all that were camping out for the best seats they could pull. The and Acie Law 2006/2007 basketball seasons at A&M were some of the most exciting sporting events to ever be on campus. A few memorable games stand out including a Big Monday game with Dick Vitale announcing that we had great seats for, “the Shot” where Acie Law beat Texas with a 3 point and we flooded the court and, of course, going to the sweet sixteen. The Aggies played Louisville in the second round of the tournament on St. Patrick’s day and we watched the game at O’Bannons, celebrating our Irish heritage and then went to meet the team as they arrived back home off the bus. I’ll never forget that it was St. Patrick’s day because in my picture with Billy G, I have a huge shamrock on my head. Needless to say, my senior year at A&M wrapped up with an unforgettable basketball season. Separate messages (due to social distancing) from our Incoming and Outgoing Presidents!

Howdy Ags! Howdy Ags!

To say the least, 2020 has been a challenging year We blinked and it's July! We produced the April newsletter with great for all of us. However, as Aggies, we band together hope that we would be back enjoying Club happy hours and luncheons and overcome challenges! That's when the true sooner than later, but the circumstances surrounding the COVID Aggie Spirit shines! pandemic continue to dictate otherwise. As much as we would love to

hug necks and gather for some fun, there continues to be uncertainty As your incoming 2020 Washington County A&M surrounding the safety of gathering in large groups, and we have Club president, I want you to know that our club is decided to cancel our July Quarterly Luncheon. Ever the optimists, we still here to promote Texas A&M in Washington are hard at work planning for Aggie Family Fun Night in August (stay County. While the Covid-19 epidemic put a halt to tuned for details on that)! Come what may, you can count on the fact this year's official Muster ceremony and temporarily that as soon as it's safe for our members, the Washington County A&M suspended our quarterly meetings, please be aware Club will be back to business as usual! that we are still making plans to support local

Aggies. In a typical year, we would have conducted our yearly business meeting

at Muster and introduced the Club's new Officers - we hope to be able to Our club will again current Aggie students do that at Aggie Family Fun Night in August. We have an incredible through our scholarship program. We will continue group of incoming Officers who have great ideas for building on the to communicate with our members through momentum of a great 2019-2020 year where we introduced new events newsletters and emails. And, at the appropriate and had a gathering every single month (until COVID)! We were time, your board of directors is committed to excited to see the enthusiasm that was building in the Club as we resuming activities, with safety being our foremost gathered more often, and it's a joy to see old friendships reinforced concern. Right now we are in the early stages of while new ones are built. This newsletter includes an introduction to planning our outdoor Family Fun Night in August. each new Officer, so be sure to read through and get to know them. Details will be sent to members once plans are

finalized. Hopefully we will be able to resume The past year would not have been nearly as successful without the hard quarterly meetings in October. Additionally, we are work and energy of our outgoing Officers. After several years of serving hoping to have one or more football watch parties the Club, we have a few who have completed their service as an Officer. and various Aggie Happy Hour events. To those listed below - your contributions have been vitally important to

the growth and health of the Club, and we are deeply grateful: There are a lot of things happening in our world and

at Texas A&M University. And yes, some of it has Casey Finke ’01 a lot of people upset. However, let's not overlook Brooke Huckert ’03 the great students at A&M or the excellent teaching Clint Kolby ’10 and research that continues at our school. Always Chris Ann Stroech ’00 keep in mind these words, "We are the Aggies, the Sam Sommer ’06 (who can't seem to shake us), although no longer an Aggies are we, true to each other as Aggies can be." Officer, has graciously produced our newsletter every month for several

years. He does a great job of reporting club news and spotlighting I am looking forward to serving you this coming members in a fun and creative way - we truly appreciate it! 2020-2021 club year.

Mack Skinner ’79, Jennifer Campbell ’00, and Erin Nelson ’04 will stay Mack Skinner ’79 on for the 2020-2021 year.

The remainder of 2020 will, no doubt, be an adventure. As we walk through it, we know that the Aggie Family remains strong in our love for our University and most of all for each other. Let's keep reaching out to each other, let's all keep safe, and let's come out in droves when we can finally get back together to enjoy that world famous Aggie fellowship!

Gig 'em!

Jennifer Campbell ’00 Scholarships! Applications are now available for all current Aggie students and those bound for A&M, provided they are Washington County residents or have parents that are members of our club. Those that have previously received a scholarship are not eligible. Your continued support of the club makes these scholarships possible. Pass the attached information on to any eligible Aggie you know!