Rack Room Shoes invited Tenie Holmes Elementary School to join their Shoes That Fit program this school year. This program partners local Rack Room stores with local schools to provide brand-new shoes to students in need. The Bay City store will fundraise throughout the year, and those donations will be turned into gift cards that allow our campus staff to select shoes for students who need them most. Contributed photo

Gena Lea Smith, Van Vleck High School’s Theater Director, laughs watching a boy’s successful maneuver under the limbo bar at Bay City's annual Santa's Fly-In event Dec. 11, at Bay City Regional Airport. It was a free, festive morning with storytime, milk & cookies. Bay City Public Library, Bay City Regional Airport, and Van Vleck Leopard Players partnered in the event. Sentinel Photo/Mike Reddell

Texas A&M photo Dr. Victor Rodriguez of Houston, left, and Dr. Partha Mukherji, a former Bay City resident, shared Texas Dentist of the Year honor. Both flash the well-known signs of their respective schools.

JSL photo Junior Service League’s annual JSL Angel Tree project was completed, with volunteers wrapping hundreds of gifts and delivering Christmas cheer to 64 students across 13 local schools.

Sentinel Photo/Jessica Shepard Before the official species tally began for the 126th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC), wildlife ornithologist and CBC compiler Dr. Brent Ortego, center, explained that he handed out a few “All Star” bird caps for new species Monday night. The Matagorda County Mad Island Marsh CBC is unofficially reporting 238 individual species with several rare birds needing verification before becoming official sometime next year.