Two Texas women have been winning bidders in the Skyline Mascot Monkey of the Month silent auctions. July’s monkey winner is Becky Heston. She has bid several times through the Champion@getgoin.net mailbox but this is her first win.
Ms. Heston is a native Texan whose ancestors founded the town of League City, over on the Gulf Coast north of Galveston. It was originally called Clear Creek.
She makes her home in Austin where she is a principle in the corporate property management firm Endeavor Real Estate Group. This work puts her in contact with her local fire departments frequently and she is appreciative of well-trained firefighters like the volunteers of the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department.
She is an accomplished sailor and world traveler. On a recent trip to Italy she was reminded of the roads and highways around the Champion area where she visited a few years ago. She hopes to come again now that there are easy direct flights to Branson from Austin.
Her childhood monkey was “lost to the tides of time and barn storage in a box that was not barn proof.” Monkey Girl now sits with the big rag doll that her Aunt Pearl made.
Another of her aunts has the original pattern for monkey-overalls, which the monkey-maker of the Skyline Picnic Society hopes she will share. This organization sponsors the monthly silent auction at Henson’s Store in downtown Champion as a way to assist the Skyline VFD in making their big fire truck payment. The truck is big and so is the payment.
September’s Mascot Monkey winner is Eulalia Jasmin. In October of 2007 she wrote to congratulate Douglas County on the Sesquicentennial Celebration. Her travels had incidentally brought her through Ava on the eve of the Grand Ball. She bought a paper and accepted the invitation to make comments in the Champion column. She has bid on every monkey.
“I’m thrilled to have finally been the winner, however, since I cannot take delivery at this time, I will just rededicate this monkey to the cause of your wonderful Skyline Volunteer Fire Department. Expect the money in the mail. Make this one a Halloween monkey and put him back on the block. Good luck! I’ll start the bidding at $9.00.”
Ms. Jasmin currently has no permanent dwelling though she does not consider herself to be homeless. “I am a citizen of the world and transient in it, as each of us ultimately is.” No picture is available of this flamboyant personality, but her support is appreciated by the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department Association Ladies’ Auxiliary Picnic Society.
