Everything Nac

The final performances of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre’s production of the emo rock musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 7 and 8, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus. The show, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman and a book by Alex Timbers, takes a comedic look at the founding of the Democratic Party and portrays Andrew Jackson, America’s seventh president, as an emo rock star. Single tickets are $15 for adult, $10 for senior and $7.50 for student/youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.theatre.sfasu.edu. The show is recommended for mature audiences.

Stephen F. Austin State University graduate student Alyssa Abreu recently received the Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

The award was established in honor of Pegg, a New York City businessman who suffered a heart attack and stroke in 1986 at the age of 52. Pegg changed his lifestyle by altering his diet and adding exercise to his daily routine. These lifestyle changes helped Pegg live 27 more years.

Pegg’s daughter, Elizabeth Pegg Frates, and her family established the award to promote lifestyle medicine at the student level, according to the award’s website.

Dr. Mark Faries, associate professor of kinesiology and health science at SFA, serves on the board of directors of ACLM and can attest to the strong student competition associated with the award.

“Alyssa was competing against the best medical students and allied health students in the nation,” Faries said. “The competition was tough, and her application was reviewed by highly respected experts, including those from our highest-ranking medical schools. She is very deserving of this award.”

Abreu, a Spring, Texas, native, said the award came as a surprise.

“It was a really competitive award, so it’s an honor and exciting to know that I was chosen for it and am able to represent SFA,” Abreu said.

The award requires Abreu to create a lifestyle medicine interest group at SFA in collaboration with medical schools and other health care professional training programs in Texas. She will organize and market webinars where faculty members and practitioners with a passion for lifestyle medicine can present lectures to students and the community.

“Not a lot of people are familiar with lifestyle medicine, and the point of the award is to promote and educate people about it,” Abreu said. “Lifestyle medicine is a mix of kinesiology and medicine — the two things I am so passionate about. It’s about using lifestyle to prevent, treat and even reverse chronic diseases by treating their cause, rather than simply treating the symptoms of the diseases.”

Abreu has known she wanted to work in health care since she was a child, and she considered attending medical school. For three years, Abreu and her family lived in Douala, Cameroon, in Africa. It was there she witnessed medical disparities firsthand.

“If you get sick in America, you go to the doctor. People don’t always have that privilege in Africa,” Abreu said. “That’s where my passion started for health in general.”

A bout with Malaria further convicted Abreu to help underserved populations with health issues. Currently, Abreu is working as a medical assistant at Cline Family Medicine in Nacogdoches. She also is a graduate assistant for the Department of Kinesiology and Health Science at SFA. After graduating with her master’s degree, Abreu plans to attend physician assistant school and work as a PA in medically underserved areas.

“The people whom I’ve met at SFA and who I am involved with in this field have helped me realize exactly what I want to do in my career,” Abreu said. “The kinesiology faculty and staff members at SFA are amazing.”

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House will host the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Association’s annual membership and board meeting from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, at Cole Art Center.

Nacogdoches County Judge Mike Perry and Carl Watson, executive director of the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau, will welcome attendees.

Presentations will focus on archaeological research on the trail in East Texas and Louisiana, and the National Park Service will provide an update on the trail. Other activities include a networking luncheon with association representatives and agency officials from the NPS and Texas Historical Commission and a tour of trail sites between Nacogdoches and Geneva, Texas. The tour will include a rare opportunity to visit association property that was purchased with donor support in 2014 and which represents the largest concentration of remnants of the physical road anywhere on the trail, according to a press release from the association.

El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Association is an advocacy group that seeks to protect the historic integrity of the trail, educate the public about its significance, and promote resource development, interpretation and tourism along its path, according to the association.

Added to the National Trails System by the U.S. Congress in 2004, El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail commemorates nationally significant historic routes extending from the United States-Mexico border at the Rio Grande to the eastern boundary of the Spanish province of Texas in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Among the included trail sites are the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, the Alamo, Mission Tejas State Park, Caddo Mounds State Historic Site and The Old Stone Fort on the SFA campus.

As the seasons change and the holidays approach, Stephen F. Austin State University’s Jacks Council on Family Relations is preparing for its annual food drive, Thanksgiving Homebound.

In 2011, the student-led group started Thanksgiving Homebound as a way to help area families during the holidays. Initially, the group fed nine families. That number has now grown to more than 100.

The group of 19 SFA students asks organizations, departments, faculty and staff members, students and members of the Nacogdoches community to donate grocery items that can be used by families in its adopted organizations to prepare Thanksgiving meals. Adopted organizations include Solid Foundation, GETCAP Head Start and The Family Crisis Center of East Texas.

JCFR matches participants with families and sends participants a description of the family and checklist of items to purchase. The checklist includes grocery items such as potatoes, cornbread mix, vegetables and dressing. Participants also are asked to purchase a $25 gift card to help their family purchase perishable items such as meat, butter, milk and/or eggs.

After the food is collected, participants place the items in a storage bin and deliver it to the Education Annex Building, Room 133, on the university’s campus. Deliveries should be made between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Nov. 14 and 15 and between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Nov. 16.

For more information, contact JCFR at sfasujcfr@gmail.com.