The International Museum of Art & Science invites families to celebrate the start of the school year at its annual Back to School Bash on Aug. 16 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The family-friendly event offers free admission and a full day of interactive learning, creativity and community connection. Back to School Bash, supported by McAllen Public Utility, H-E-B Helping Here and Wonderful Citrus, will feature hands-on art and…
The demographics of Winter Texans are changing and professionals in the tourism and hospitality industries are calling for more frequent studies and research into this vital group of visitors with deep connections to the Rio Grande Valley. Leah Woolridge, the vice president of Visit McAllen, sees an age shift among Winter Texans. Retirees are younger, more active and looking for things to do, she said. “You use to be able…
As school has started or will very soon, let’s ease off the accelerator and keep an eye out for our little ones. Hot summer temperatures of course are really kicking in, and so are the classroom doors for a new year of learning, growing and exploring. Back-to-school sales, stuffing the backpacks and new sneakers are all part of daily lives this month. The roads are again congested, and the frequent…
McAllen native Will Collins has built a formidable retail and commercial real estate company whose developments span much of South Texas. From its headquarters in San Antonio, Merit Commercial Real Estate shows on its webpage dark blue diamonds pinned on a Texas map. Each pin represents a Merit development project with clusters of them in the Rio Grande Valley and the San Antonio-area market. Collins comes from a banking family.…
Princeton University student Wendy Kopp formulated the idea of Teach For America in 1989 for her undergraduate thesis. The first participants in the nascent TFA program began their lifelong pursuit of educational excellence in 1990. Teach for America Rio Grande Valley was founded the following year. The national organization and its affiliates around the country are non-profit institutions. They recruit and train recent college graduates and professionals to teach in…
The Delta Area communities of Edcouch, Elsa and La Villa are a cluster of cities along state Highway 107 and located away from the main strip of regional business activity along Expressway 83. These communities are steadily getting a foothold in raising their collective profile in the Rio Grande Valley. Elsa is seeing retail growth and the rooftops of new homes along FM 88 that are located near a Wal-Mart…
The footprint of the Rio Grande Valley’s citrus industry has largely retreated to the northern reaches of Hidalgo County from what once was a regional reach of over 100,000 acres. The RGV citrus industry of today counts about 25,000 acres of grapefruits and oranges. The turning points for an industry that historically defined the region’s early agricultural history were the freezes of 1983 and 1989. The damage from those weather…
Israel Vega is a nurse practitioner who dabbles in renovating classic Chevys and is a founding member of a Rio Grande Valley-based semi-pro soccer team. Since January, you can add co-owner of a Los Fresnos coffee shop to his portfolio. PJ’s Coffee is a shop he co-owns with his business partner and fellow Los Fresnos native, Adam Abrego. They wanted to create a sense-of-community kind of place where people could gather…
The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, in partnership with the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation and the UTRGV Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center, is now accepting applications for the Startup Texas Accelerator Fall 2025 cohort. The accelerator helps early-stage startups refine their business models, access funding opportunities and build the connections necessary for growth in Brownsville. The program focuses on entrepreneurs in high-impact sectors such as cybersecurity, digital health, e-commerce, automation, environmental technology…
The International Museum of Art & Science will host its premier black-tie fundraiser, the 46th annual Collage Gala, on Sept. 6. IMAS will honor John Sharp, retiring chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, in recognition of his leadership and impact on education and public service throughout the Rio Grande Valley. “The Rio Grande Valley is a place we’re proud to call home, and IMAS represents the heart of what…