Recently, the National Ranching Heritage Center honored a Frenship staff member, Saundra Wimberley, as the Volunteer of the Year. Wimberley began volunteering at the NRHC Candlelight at the Ranch in 1980 when she was a student at Frenship High School. She has sponsored her class at this same event each year since she started as a teacher at Crestview Elementary in 2001. Over the past 23 years, Wimberley has had approximately 450 students play the parts of pioneer children in the one-room schoolhouse. Wimberley and her students have been a huge part of the living history displayed at Candlelight each December. In 2023, approximately 8,000 visitors observed them as they acted as a classroom full of pioneer students and their teacher.
Wimberley and her students have been featured and pictured in NRHC magazine, several national travel magazines that advertise the museum and event, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper, Texas Tech newspaper, and various Lubbock civic and business magazines through the years. They are frequently pictured on social media, as well.
“The teacher in the one-room schoolhouse pictures has changed over 23 years, but the kids never seem to change,” said program director, Lea Ann Lust. “They look like a picture frozen in time, with children in period clothing, laughing, learning, singing, writing, and enjoying school. It’s quite clear that Mrs. Wimberley has enjoyed sponsoring the Crestview children all these years, as she is quite animated in her dramatic role as a teacher, too. Everybody loves looking into the schoolhouse at Candlelight at the Ranch.”
Wimberley has also been an active volunteer through the years at camps, Ranch Day in the spring, and working with the museum on curriculum and supplies for classrooms of other local teachers. She and her fellow first-grade teachers brought their entire class in September to be the very first visitors to the new Cash Family Ranch Life Learning Center.
The National Ranching Heritage Center, associated with Texas Tech University, is a highly acclaimed museum in Lubbock, Texas. They contribute to Lubbock’s appreciation of ranching history and heritage in the area. NRHC volunteers are numerous and add life to the experience at the museum.
At the recent Volunteer Appreciation Lunch, Wimberley was presented with the 2023 Volunteer of the Year Award by Jim Bret Campbell, NRHC Executive Director, and Lewis Neely, President of the Ranch Host Board. She received a certificate and a Ranching Heritage cattle brand. They announced that her name would be engraved with past recipients’ names on the Volunteer of the Year plaque that hangs in the museum. Wimberley was accompanied by her son, Sam Wimberley, her father and his wife, Bobby and Gayle Beale, and two of her fellow Crestview teachers, Wendy Killough and Megan Winnett.
Wimberley graciously accepted the award and stated how honored she was to be acknowledged in that way. She added that she was most grateful to be allowed to participate all these years. “This experience is something I love, but I mostly am happy for the opportunity to enrich my student’s lives with such a rich historical experience. A classroom and a good museum are just natural friends,” she said.
Frenship is proud of the continued dedication and commitment Wimberley has provided to her Crestview students and the National Ranching Heritage Center. For additional information on the NRHC click here.