September 30 Rotary Program Focuses on the Annual Sacred Springs Powwow in San Marcos, October 3-4

The 16th Annual Sacred Springs Powwow, October 3–4, 2026, will be held at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment in San Marcos, Texas. Bobbie Garza-Hernandez speaks to Rotary on September 30 about the event. She is the projects director for the Indigenous Cultures Institute, sponsor of the Sacred Springs Powwow. https://www.sspowwow.com/

“The Sacred Springs Powwow is a two-day celebration of Native American culture, arts, music, dance, food, and community. Each year, thousands of people gather at the sacred springs to experience traditional and contest dancing, powerful drum groups and singers, Native arts and vendors, food, and opportunities to learn about the Indigenous peoples and cultures of Texas and across Turtle Island.
 

Hosted by the Indigenous Cultures Institute, the Powwow honors the sacred springs known as Ajehuac Yana, one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in North America and a place of profound cultural and spiritual 
significance to Indigenous peoples.” 

Bobbie Garza-Hernandez  is a  San Marcos native with deep Indigenous and Mexican American heritage. She is the founder of Pink PR, a firm dedicated to giving voice to minority communities, advocating for fair business practices and ensuring that historically marginalized groups have a seat at the table.  She is a graduate of St. Edward’s University, Austin. 

Kirsta Melton has spoken at Rotary events several times on the topic of human trafficking in Texas. She will address the club again on September 23 about this important subject.

Kirsta held traffickers accountable for a decade of her 25-year prosecutorial career, most recently as the Deputy Criminal Chief of the Human Trafficking and Transnational/Organized Crime Section of the Office of the Attorney General of Texas.  Responsible for several of the State’s first life sentences for trafficking, as well as regular verdicts of 40 years or more. 

She has a BA degree from Cornell University, a Masters from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT, and a law degree from UT. She is currently the founder and CEO of the Institute to  Combat Trafficking. 

Marilyn Love Speaks to Rotary About Hays County Master Gardeners on September 16

Marilyn Love speaks to the Rotary Club of San Marcos on September 16 about the Hays County Master Gardeners Association (HCMGA). Love is a certified Master Gardener and regularly speaks to groups about native Texas plants, rain harvesting, and Earth-kind landscaping. She was born in Texas but lived for 35 years in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states before retiring back to Texas in 2010. She has served HCMGA as president, vice president, trainer and membership chair.

Love will share information about the national and local histories of Master Gardening organizations in the U.S. Her focus will be on community service projects the group does around Hays County. There are about 145 volunteers in the group who put in more than 7500 hours of volunteer time each year designing, installing and maintaining landscapes in the county. In 2020, the Texas Master Gardener Association gave HCMGA first prize in their annual awards for outstanding work creating Jacob’s Well Greenhouse and Demonstration Garden.

 The Texas Master Gardener program is part of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, training and supporting a network of volunteers to provide horticultural-related information within communities all over Texas.

Rotary meets on Wednesdays at noon at the VFW Hall, 1701 Hunter Road, in San Marcos. Visitors are always welcome at Rotary meetings. 

The Rotary Club of San Marcos packed hundreds of bags of school supplies on September 2. Most are heading to eight villages in rural Mexico. Some are going to child-serving nonprofits in San Marcos. This is an annual service program of SMTX Rotary.  SMTXrotary.com SMTXrotary@gmail.com