Temporarily trimmed back, Texarkana's Hometown NFL Weekend this year will still have the centerpiece: a football skills camp put on by former NFL and collegiate stars.
Byron Williams, a Texarkana native whose NFL stops included Philadelphia, the New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts will be among a cadre of coaches, including former Buffalo Bill Preston Taylor; Shreveport linebacker Roosevelt Collins, who played at TCU and for the Miami Dolphins; and Atlanta, Texas, wide receiver Phillip Epps, who played for TCU, the Packers and the Jets.
The event costs $5, is open to youngsters in grades 1-12, and begins at 9 a.m. Saturday at Texas Middle School.
Some of the weekend's other events, like a celebrity golf tournament, were lost in the shuffle of transferring control of the event to Amachi Vision Corps, a Fort Worth-based non-profit founded by Taylor.
"We'll be back next year with a full slate of events," said Amachi Corps president Kristi Kendrick.
The non-profit, which has an office on Broad Street in Texarkana, develops youth and community programs while addressing core issues that commonly affect low-income communities, such as housing, education, employment and leadership development.
Right now the group is focused on finding ways to re-open the Boys and Girls Clubs on the Arkansas side and on equalizing educational opportunities on both sides of State Line. Kendrick noted that Arkansas schools do not have STEM-science and math education-programs that are as rigorous as the Texas side.
"The children on the Arkansas side are at a disadvantage," she said. "We intend to address that."