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Texas Farm Credit Makes Donation to Special Hearts in the Arts

Farmer and young son working on the farm
Special Hearts in Arts receive a reward check from TFC

Pictured from left to right: Carrie Zepeda of Texas Farm Credit, Sherri Davis Director of Special Hearts in the Arts, and members of Special Hearts in the Arts Will Ruzicka, Morgan Butler, Ethan Glover, Vicky Hinojosa (front row), and Idali Duarte

Carrie Reagan Zepeda of Calallen has received Texas Farm Credit’s 2020 Tommy Dean Shearrer Community Activist Award, which includes a $2,500 donation to a charity of her choice.

Zepeda has selected Special Hearts in the Arts, a non-profit organization that provides fine arts classes and performance opportunities to individuals with special needs from the Coastal Bend community.

Zepeda, the Sr. Operations Administrator at Texas Farm Credit’s corporate office in Robstown, says kids with special needs have always held a special place in her heart.

Currently at Special Hearts in the Arts, there are 45 students enrolled ranging from ages 9 to 44 who participate in theatre, dance, music, art, and film classes. Students perform at various events throughout the Corpus Christi area, including Corpus Christi Hooks games, HEB’s share your Christmas and back to school events, nursing homes, city council meetings, and parades. The final musical performance for family and friends is the highlight of the semester.

In the past, Zepeda had donated to larger organizations that support individuals with special needs but saw a performance from the kids at Special Hearts in the Arts at a Hooks game, leading her to research the organization. Now having a child of her own with challenges, it has become even more important to her to support smaller, local charities that serve children with special needs. After speaking with Sherri Davis, the Founder and Executive Director of Special Hearts in the Arts, Zepeda knew this was the organization in which she wanted to bless with her donation, noting that the passion they have for these children and adults is very special.

Award Commemorates Late Director Tommy Shearrer

Texas Farm Credit created the Tommy Dean Shearrer Community Activist Award in 2018 in remembrance of its former customer and board member who was killed while trying to help someone in 2012. The Atascosa County farmer and rancher would often say, “We need to support the community where we live. Our community provides for us, and we should be involved in our community.”

Shearrer was known for his strong sense of civic duty. He joined the FFA in high school and later advanced to FFA state vice president in 1975. He became active in the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce and Pleasanton Cowboy Homecoming Association to help promote his hometown. An advocate of weather research and technology, he was president of the local, state, and national chapters of the Weather Modification Association. He also had been a county commissioner and was an elder at his church.

About Texas Farm Credit
Texas Farm Credit finances agricultural operations, agribusinesses, homes and rural real estate, and offers a variety of insurance services. Headquartered in Robstown, Texas, it serves 100 Texas counties and is part of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of rural lending cooperatives established in 1916.

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