TJJD News & Announcements

The Gainesville State School Student Support Council will host its annual Celebrity Wait fundraiser from 5 pm to 9 pm Monday, August 6 at Luigi’s Italian Restaurant in Gainesville. The fundraiser will benefit the youth who reside at the facility. The evening will be filled with local celebrities as well as agency celebrities from Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) coming together to wait tables for a great cause. The tips from the evening will be donated to the Student Support Council, which is a non-profit entity whose purpose is to provide support and services to the youth that the state may not be able to provide.  Programs that are currently supported by the Student Support Council include, but are not limited to sports programming, incentives, Christmas gifts, educational tutoring and recognition, on-line driver education, PAWS, Tornado Ranch, audio/visual training program, family programs, chaplaincy programs, and the Men of Distinction program. Some of the loc...

Several staff members from Gainesville State School participated in murder mystery theater event benefiting the Visto food bank last week. The food bank assists more than 17,000 people in crisis in the Cooke County area and has raised more than $140,000 for these families. The Visto (Volunteers In Service to Others) Vintage Murder Mystery posited a crime in which “Barry Underwood” met his doom somewhere in wine country. The mission: Sniff out the perpetrator. Team Gainesville was on it, interviewing Underwood’s fiancé “Tina Bubbles,” his cousin “Ralph Rottingrape,” beauty queen “Marilyn Merlot,” Hollywood movie star, “Hedy Shablee,” owner of a neighboring vineyard and “Papa Vino,” who helped develop the Underwood Wine Estates. There’s more, but you get the idea. Game participants each got to interview two suspects and then came together with their respective teams to deliberate and try to solve the murder. After putting on their Colombo hats, (but not really) the team determi...

HARLINGEN, Texas – Students from Edna Tamayo Halfway House and Harlingen High School’s Ruben Trevino helped the Harlingen Rotary Club raise $40,000 dollars for Loaves and Fishes at an event Feb. 27, 2018.  Loaves & Fishes is one of those few organizations that cut across every ethnic, cultural and socio-economic barrier here in Harlingen Texas.  Loaves and Fishes offers food, shelter, job training and placement for the city of Harlingen and surrounding areas.  The students from Tamayo House sold tickets and cooked more than 1500 lbs. of shrimp. People at the site complimented the youth for their contributions, saying  "We would not have done this in one day without the students of Tamayo House."

BROWNWOOD, Texas – The Brownwood Community Resource Council (CRC) raised $1,482 with a raffle it held last month on behalf of youth at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex.   Youth in the woodshop class participated in the fund-raising raffle by creating a beautiful picnic table. Weakley Watson Sporting Goods also provided a raffle prize, a Yeti 75 Tundra cooler at a discount price. Each member of the CRC, a group of volunteers that supports activities and projects at Ron Jackson, supported the raffle by offering tickets to the community. Lynn Humeniuk, director of the Criminal Justice Program at Howard Payne University, won the raffle and is enjoying both the picnic table and the cooler. Some may remember Humeniuk’s husband, Dan Humeniuk, who was the superintendent at Ron Jackson from 1993 to 2006. Proceeds go into a fund that supports scholarships, incentives, 4-H, choir, drama and events such as graduation receptions at the Ron Jackson fac...

MART, Texas – The McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility is hosting their 1st Annual Golf Tournament at Battle Lake Golf Course on September 16, 2017. Entry fee is $80 per person and includes green fees, cart, catered lunch and beverages. The funds raised will benefit the McLennan County Community Resource Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rehabilitating the youth in TJJD. Payment to Tanya Rosas at MCSJCF due no later than September 8. Contact Tanya at 254-297-8289 for more information.