Laurie-Anne Levin has been the center of the San Antonio bridge community since she opened the Fiesta Bridge Club in 2013. Laurie came to us from South Africa (for those of you who have noticed her slightly non-Texas accent!) She and her husband, Larry, fled with their sons from the country's harsh apartheid regime, choosing San Antonio as their new home. In 2011, Unit 172 honored her with our annual Goodwill Award, recognizing her service and the great spirit of encouragement she offers the bridge community. Laurie is a club director and an ABTA Master Teacher. She is a Gold Life Master who is noted for her friendly and enthusiastic support of players, both novice and experienced. Her club offers daily games and hosts various sectionals throughout the year; her diligent efforts and hard work on behalf of the Unit are always evident in all she does. South Africa's loss is San Antonio's gain!

Nancy Strohmer had been selected for Unit 174's 2018 Texas Star Award. Nancy was born in Tulsa Oklahoma and raised in an Air Force family. Her mother was a social bridge player and taught Nancy when she was in her late 30's. In 2003 Nancy and Hans were on a cruise that introduced them to duplicate bridge. In 2006, they started playing on a regular basis and they were both hooked.

To say Nancy was hooked is putting it mildly. She has a passion for the game and very quickly became involved in what makes our unit tick. Nancy has served on our unit board for the past six years. In that time she has served as President, Vice President, Secretary, Publicity Chair, Charity Coordinator, ABA/ACBL Pair Game Chair, and she co-chaired and chaired tournaments including our 2016 Lone Star Regional. Besides these responsibilities, in 2012 Nancy created a newsletter for our website that included Events and Classes. She has continued as editor until this year when she passed the baton. As you can tell there is not a hat that Nancy cannot or will not wear

Additionally, Nancy is a lifetime member of the ACBL National Goodwill Committee, and in 2016 was elected to the ACBL National Charity Foundation. She currently serves as District 16's 1st Vice-President, Unit 174's President, and 2018 chair for our Lone Star Regional.

At our tournaments the board of Unit 174 wears a large button that says, "Ask Me", and players will ask! It's a great way to communicate with people in our unit. However, our players seem to think Nancy's is permanent. If she doesn't have an answer at the time she will have it within an hour. Nancy is dedicated to the growth of our unit, and working with youth to learn bridge including sending her grandchildren to bridge camps, and promoting Mini Bridge. Every single week you will see Nancy at different bridge clubs and community centers in Houston, none of them close to one another. She will always have a huge smile, making players feel at home and ready to help. She always goes the extra mile. If we just had a few more Nancy's!

Over the past several years Cheryl Clark has done any and everything for the Dallas Bridge Association. Having served six years on the Unit Board, Cheryl most recently served as President for 2 years, and as Treasurer for 2 years. She filled in as our business manager, saving the Unit money and managing through issues. While moving the unit forward, Cheryl was a unifying and stabilizing force. She trained many new board members and was always a supportive team player. She led the way to more savvy investments and better business practices.

While Cheryl recently stepped down from the board due to term limits, she continues to help Unit 176 by serving on the financial oversight and advisory team. Unit 176 recognizes and applauds all that Cheryl Clark had done to lead us. Unit 176 is pleased and honored to present our 2018 Texas Star to Cheryl Clark.

Unit 183 nominates Janet Jordan for the Texas Star Award.

Janet serves our Unit in many ways. She is a long-time director, running multiple games each week. She takes a particular interest in new players, running limited games for them and teaching classes to help them improve their games.

Janet has served on the Unit board for the past four years, where her contributions are frequent and highly valued.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Janet volunteered to be thrown into the deep end of the pool three years ago when our long-time Tournament Chair left that position. With absolutely no experience in this area Janet hit the ground running and did a fantastic job. Tournament sites have been upgraded, the financial results have been much better, and our Unit has gotten a reputation for serving some of the best food around.

Janet is the most cooperative person we know, and the easiest to get along with. She is always ready and willing to take on new responsibilities, which she does frequently, and she does everything with the utmost grace and charm.

Our nominee for the Texas Star to be awarded in Houston is Eleanor Sherwyn.

Eleanor began her bridge career learning in December of 1990 while living in Saudi Arabia and having some free time. She learned the basics quickly and became engrossed in the game. By March of 1993 she was teaching beginners in Saudi and traveling out of the Kingdom to Regionals and NABCs in the US, Europe and Ireland as well as the Middle East. She enjoyed the lessons given in the Kingdom by Mike Lawrence: in 1996 she was nominated to the National Good Will Committee by Max Hardy, an honor which she treasures to this day. In 2000 Eleanor met Don Varvel, and in 2001 she moved back to the States; in 2003 Eleanor and Don were married at the Philadelphia Nationals between sessions...They won the afternoon session but lost the evening session after their wedding! Don and Eleanor continue to be partners to this day!

Eleanor has been teaching a beginning/intermediate class on Tuesday afternoons at the Bridge Club of South Texas, in Corpus Christi. Anyone is welcome on any Tuesday.

Eleanor is a dedicated member of our Unit teaching newcomers and supporting our games - she should receive the Texas Star for her good works.

The nominating committee for the Unit 197 Texas Star Award is proud to nominate Paula Park for this year's Texas Star Award. She has served as Unit president for the last 2 years and has done an admirable job. She has also served on some club boards. She helped bring food and organize a Christmas party a few years ago and has always been a great supporter of all our games. She has also helped with lessons for beginners. We are proud to present Paula with this award.

Unit 201 proudly nominates our President, Carolyn Worsham, for the 2018 Texas Star Award. Her contributions to our club began soon after she joined ACBL in February 2011. Her computer skills have been an invaluable asset. Webmaster Jack Evans recognized this and welcomed her help to not only improve the website, but increase communications with members through emails.

Carolyn chaired two sectional tournaments, as well as the 2016 Spindletop Regional Tournament in Beaumont. Her innovative use of the hotel's technology to publicize information and winners' photos, etc. was very appreciated by all attending the tournament.

Her biggest efforts have been to chair the Longest Day for five years, raising about $20,000 in those events for a cause about which she is passionate.

She has served on the U201 board since 2012 and as President since 2014. She also is District 16 Publicity Chairman.
Carolyn is a person who always goes the extra mile in whatever she is involved. Her attention to details and willingness to take on the toughest part of any project herself are some of her many attributes. Her caring for U201 members is proven by her unfailing efforts to send out get-well, sympathy, or "we miss you" cards to members.
U201 members are so accustomed to her work that when she goes on vacation the common saying is "I sure will be glad when Carolyn gets back." We all know we are spoiled because no one can "fill her shoes" since she takes on so much responsibility and does so many jobs so well.

Capital of Texas Star Award: Unit 207 has selected Joyce Cooper as the recipient of the Texas Star Award for 2017. Joyce was selected for long term contributions to Unit 207. She served as Secretary of the Unit for 5 years and as Vice President for 1 year. She came up with many innovative ideas for improving bridge in Austin, ran many successful tournaments, and wrote the Unit's Scorecard article for 5 years, using that vehicle to interview local bridge members and tell their stories to the community at large and to introduce them to Central Texas.

Joyce is originally from North Alabama, having come to Texas directly after college graduation. She has lived in Dallas, Houston, and Austin. She began playing duplicate bridge in 1999, and has been hooked on bridge ever since! Congratulations Joyce and thank you for being part of the Austin bridge family.

Our Texas Star recipient is a lady of many achievements. She is a wife, a mother, an educator, an avid bridge player, director and devoted Catholic. Born in Lebanon, she received her college degrees in Damascus. She moved to London and met her husband, Russell Blumentritt. He is an American who hailed from San Angelo, Texas. Upon moving to Midland in 1975, she began her teaching career at Midland College and later taught math and Computer Science at UTPB. Marlene and Russell are the parents of two daughters who live in the Austin, Texas, area. She began her bridge life with the "gusto" of everything she does. She gained her life master in 2017. She provides her energy, time and computer skills to the Midland Club and helps the Odessa Club when needed. She has served as board member and other offices in the unit and club.

Our 2017 Texas Star recipient is the vivacious and energetic Marlene Blumentritt.

When Sandy Hilliard moved back to Canton, Texas, 24 years ago she became seriously involved with volunteer work. Her efforts were focused on several worthy causes including cancer prevention and cure, the local community and especially the protection and care of foster children in the area. Over the years Sandy has worked passionately and steadfastly to help those in need. For her outstanding contributions, she was recognized in 2012 as Volunteer of the Year for Texas by the Texas Council of Child Welfare Board and in 2013 was chosen as Volunteer of the Year by the East Texas Council of Governments. Sandy has served in various positions on the Texas Child Protective Services Board and is currently Vice President of the State Board.

Sandy also found time to get involved in the world of duplicate bridge. A Life Master since 2000, she then became a director and in 2013 opened Nannie's Bridge House. This house was originally a part of her husband's family farm and, with a few modifications by Sandy, was turned into an attractive and welcoming place for playing duplicate bridge every Tuesday. She started a Monday evening game as well and offers a free mini lesson to focus on attracting and supporting new duplicate bridge players. Additionally, Sandy has been instrumental in teaching duplicate bridge to third, fourth and fifth graders at Canton Intermediate School. She recruited several duplicate bridge volunteers to help and the program has grown during the past three years. The children show keen interest and enjoyment in learning the game, while feedback from teachers at the school indicates that bridge has improved the students' math and logic skills. The result is a definite win-win. In recognition of Sandy Hilliard's contributions of lasting value to her community and to bridge, Unit 225 is proud to honor her with the 2017 Texas Star Award!

Mary has given of her time and talent to our unit may times over the years. The spring of 2017 Mary taught 2 eight week sessions of beginning bridge at the Bridge Studio in Temple. Mary rose to the challenge of teaching a class which was half brand new bridge players and the other half, party bridge players who wanted to learn new concepts. As a result of these two classes, about a dozen people signed up as new members of ACBL. A new 0-20 club was established at the Bridge Studio specifically to help new members feel comfortable and to encourage them to continue playing. Several of them have joined in our regular games and played in the Bridge on the Brazos Tournament in Waco.

Several years ago Mary taught bridge during lunch at the Temple High School to introduce bridge to teenagers.

For the past several years Mary has volunteered to bring food for the Temple Tournament hospitality. At the 2017 tournament, Mary outdid herself by supplying all of the lunches on both Friday and Saturday.

By far the best reason for nominating Mary is her friendliness to everyone, making them feel at home, whether playing in Waco or Temple. Mary is known