2025 Citizens on the Move include neighborhood and arts advocates

Hope McCoy, Becky O'Neal, Rachel Flores, the Long John Silver's franchise crew and Coors Cowboy Club are among 10 of the Amarillo Globe-News 2025 Citizens on the Move award recipients this year.

Look for the second half of Citizen honorees to be announced online and in the Dec. 14 edition of the Amarillo Globe-News. They will be honored, along with 2025 Man of the Year Four Price and 2025 Woman of the Year Glenda Moore, at an in-person luncheon awards ceremony in January. Look for the 2025 Headliners to be announced on Jan. 1, 2026. The awards are presented by FirstBank Southwest.

Tickets are now available online at Amarillo.com/mwoy .

Hope McCoy, Pleasant Valley advocate

Hope McCoy is helping lead a movement to reopen Pleasant Valley Elementary, while trying to preserve the heart of the community.

McCoy has risen up to be a leader in the modest, but tight community of Pleasant Valley, which is a smaller, more rural area much like where she was born in Quitaque, south of here near Caprock Canyon State Park. McCoy said there were barely 200 to 300 students from K-12, during the decades she lived there. "Our school was very important to us," she said. "My brothers were forced to consolidate in high school when Turkey and Quitaque towns were combined. Many kids dropped out," she said. "It affected me at an early age."

The consolidation left a lasting scar that was later to be reopened. "Quitique was great in her glory days," McCoy said, reflecting on the Mid-Way Drive-In Movie, Cattleman's large restaurant in a former bank and other places now gone. It made her aware of what she calls the "erasure effect" that is now happening in Pleasant Valley.

When her parents divorced, she moved to Pampa with her mother. Eventually, her mom remarried and they moved to Amarillo, where she relocated and has lived ever since. She met her husband, Bryce eight years ago, and she has three daughters, Brianna, an ER trauma nurse at NWTHS, Vanity, who lived in Fort Worth and Marina. McCoy shares a grandson, Axel, with Mary Herring, whose grandmother came to live in Pleasant Valley, with makes them have six generations of living in the community. Axel was only able to attend Pleasant Valley one year before it closed, and Hope wanted preserve some of his paternal legacy at the community school.

In addition to her work with her community, McCoy often takes care of her grandson and is also active in her church, Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church.

McCoy went to Amarillo College with the intention of getting a degree in teaching, but a motorcycle wreck, in which she suffered a head injury, sidelined the choice. She ended up working for the City of Amarillo Code Enforcement for a number of years. She sprung into action when Amarillo Independent School District announced plans in 2024 that they might consolidate some school districts, one of which was Pleasant Valley. That's when the wheels began to turn and McCoy started to do research, along with working with a group of like-minded citizens and information provided by Herring and her sisters, some of whom were teachers at Pleasant Valley.

The protest started began in earnest when then-AISD Superintendent Doug Loomis announced the consolidation process in December 2024. The small group mobilized and has worked to build up the community by getting petitions signed, showing up at meetings held by AISD as well as Potter County and the Amarillo City Council. Along with other volunteers, McCoy helped form the Pleasant Valley and River Road Neighborhood Revitalization Group to improve the quality of life for all residents in their area. Although the status hasn't changed far on the school closing, the group is looking at ways to utilize the building and to make the community a recognized neighborhood, so they can become a non-profit and apply for grants, holding cleanup events and fundraisers.

"It's not the same group I started with, but everyone that comes along contributes something," Hope said. "We are trying to do everything we can to save our community ourselves."

McCoy also is active in St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church, Amarillo Community of Sisterhood, Valentines for Veterans, and gathering dog food for Animal Rescue shelter as well as Halloween treats for Georgia St. Nursing Home.

Becky O'Neal helps assault victims heal while helping them find justice

Becky O'Neal, a resident of Amarillo for almost 40 years and a registered nurse for over 38 years, is also certified through the International Association of Forensic Nurses.

O'Neal, BSN, RN has been employed at Northwest Texas Hospital in the Emergency Department for over 35 years, was a charge nurse for many years, and has been the Sexual Assault Program Coordinator there for the past 16 years. She helped implement the SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) program at Northwest Hospital, which was a huge milestone, as it was the very first program of its kind in Texas and the second in the nation. As part of a multidisciplinary team, O'Neal works with law enforcement, district attorney prosecutors, counselors, child protective services, forensic interviewers, and advocates.

As a sexual assault nurse examiner, Becky has performed over 3,500 exams and has been sworn in as an expert witness in hundreds of sexual abuse trials in the Texas Panhandle. She has helped bring numerous predators to justice, while training others in her profession to help care for victims. Just this year, she helped coordinate and bring the "Texas Chapter of International Association of Forensic Nurses" to Amarillo. She does several training courses throughout the year and was a speaker at the Child Abuse and Team Coordinated Investigation Training.

Her selflessness is apparent in everything she does, from not only constantly giving to her community by helping neighbors and complete strangers, but also in providing kindness and care to her own family.

O'Neal doesn't consider what she does as a job, but a privilege. Victims from all over the Panhandle come for help, and sadly, a large percentage of those are children. She and her team have the opportunity to help these broken and abused children and begin their process of healing. O'Neal and the nurses that work with her give them the full medical attention they need, while most importantly caring for them in a calming manner and providing safety they need. While, like many, she wishes she could completely end sexual and physical abuse, she does what she can and has made it her mission to bring awareness and provide support and education to Amarillo and surrounding communities.

Rachel Flores breathes life into Arts in the Sunset

Under the leadership of Rachel Flores, the Arts in the Sunset has become a magnet for gatherings, exhibits, festivals and fun events and it keeps growing.

Flores is the Executive Director of the Amarillo Art Institute, a nonprofit art school that has now expanded to become the manager of the art center called Arts in the Sunset. One of the biggest challenges she has solved is to give artists a place to work and a place to grow their skills, while also offering a place to showcase and sell their artwork.

"I have loved art from a young age but was drawn into the nonprofit sector after college. I developed skills in nonprofit management, grant writing, fundraising, etc., and when a position in my hometown came available to work as the director for the Amarillo Art Institute, I jumped at the opportunity," she said.

Flores said that she was proud to see that over the past nine years she been there, the organization has grown exponentially, with their reach increasing from around 1,200 individuals a year to now around 18,000. "We are helping people focus on their mental health, we've created a community where people feel encouraged to create and be themselves," she said.

Starting in the late '60s as the first indoor mall in Amarillo, the site hosted many top department stores as well as shoe stores, fashion shops and jewelry stores, along with Woolworth's and their soda fountain. But with the building of Westgate Mall, stores began to head west, and the occupancy dropped radically. It was sold to W.C. Crouch and revived to a degree before his death; then, his wife, Ann, followed her dream of making it a mecca for Amarillo and area artists, letting artisans rent the shops and decorate them as they wanted. Under Crouch's direction, First Friday began and was a big success. Her death was a blow to the art community, and it took years to bring the venue back to prominence.

Now the remodeled and repurposed building is enjoying a newfound success, serving as a meeting place for many different groups, housing new tenants such as High Plains Public Radio and hosting a record number of events and festivals, including the Hoodoo Festival. Small events such as the Glow Festival and the Amarillo Film Festival are enjoying the facility for its easy access, parking spaces and number of event halls, while it is opening up new avenues for larger events like Hoodoo.

Outdoors, it has also been a location for live music, a line of food trucks along the walkway, as well as the recent weekend stop of the national Christmas tree. The inside of the center has featured local artists as well as interactive temporary exhibits, such as the popular "Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition." And First Friday has blossomed back into a popular meet and greet event, a revival of happy artists and regular citizens who come to the gathering point to see one another as well as enjoy the music, art and festivities.

Long John Silver's crew adds to spark to Amarillo's restaurants

Restaurant chain co-owners and longtime business partners James Bryan, Randy Burnett of Kansas, and Denis Schoenhofer of Oklahoma, charted their course to bring a once popular seafood chain back to Amarillo.

A building located at 4402 S. Bell was purchased, and remodeling began on the new place. Bryan had been a Long John Silver's fan when he lived in Wichita, Kansas, during the '70s and '80s when it was hopping. But at that time, former management let go of the reel and the restaurant began to sink. All of the six locations in Amarillo closed, and people who craved the crispy fish and chicken for years had to travel to Lubbock or Clovis to get their fish fix.

Bryan studies trends of restaurants and noticed that all Long John Silver's was going off the chart. He and his team went to several Long John Silver's grand openings and were impressed, according to Burnett. Bryan had moved back to Amarillo and knew the market was ready for a new site, so they decided to start the process. Burnett also owns 22 Kentucky Fried Chicken in the southwest including six in Amarillo and understood the market.

Although the process took longer than expected due to weather and other delays, the crowds were extra supportive on opening day in August, as the Amarillo branch broke all records for the franchise with its strong beginning, which has lasted for months. With the great success of the chain seafood shop, plans are to open another one on the other side of town.

Coors Cowboy Club stays true to 'the Cowboy Way'

Many groups within Amarillo are deserving of recognition for their efforts, and that includes the the Coors Cowboy Club, formed 25 years ago.

Since 2000, they have stayed true to their mission to promote Amarillo and the cowboy way, which entails helping your neighbor. Now with about 100 members from Amarillo, the Texas Panhandle and all over the country, the CCC was formed to help provide volunteer manpower for events and charities in Amarillo and around the region. The group was inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2022.

Current officers of CCC are Dennis Horn, president, Steve Rael, Vice President, Chris Gilbert, Vice President, Shawn Venhaus, Secretary and Ryan Ahern, Treasurer.

The main event sponsored by Coors Cowboy Club (CCC) is the Coors Cowboy Club Ranch Rodeo in June, presented in conjunction with Amarillo Tri-State Fair and a continuing tribute to Western heritage. The rodeo, which had its 37th run this year, includes the iconic cattle drive downtown on Polk Street that travels to the Tri-State Fairgrounds, as well as a chuckwagon cook-off. A washer pitching ties in with the Route 66 celebration. You can also find their food at various community events throughout the year, including High Noon on the Square. CCC members volunteer their time, skills and services to raise funds for various organizations that benefit children in need, military service members and veterans, law enforcement and more.

Money from their events goes toward scholarships and other ventures to keep the cowboy spirit alive in what was once a Cowtown in the west. The club provides support and helps with other national events in Amarillo, such as:

• National Cutting Horse Association

• U.S. Team penning Association competitions

• Gun slingers competition

• Cowboy Mounted Shooters

• Community & Charity Support such as 100 Club of Amarillo and area law enforcement

This story has been updated with an additional photo and because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: 2025 Citizens on the Move include advocates, volunteers