By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com

Teaching is more than a career for Strawn resident Jennifer Elmore. It’s a calling and a passion for her that extends beyond the classroom.

“I came from a long line of teachers. It was what I always wanted to do,” Elmore said. “It was a natural thing for me.”

After obtaining her teaching degree from the University of Texas – Arlington, Elmore spent two years with Mineral Wells sophomores teaching English before returning to her roots.

“It was a lot of fun,” she recalled. “Some of the people I taught are now teachers.”

For 36 years, Elmore’s upbeat countenance was seen in the halls of the high school and later the elementary campus until her retirement in 2007. Her classes ranged from English, language arts, theater arts, Spanish and history to the elementary level where the classes were “self-contained.”

“Teaching in one place for so long, I was teaching the grandchildren of former students – an experience you only get when one stays in one place for a long time could have,” she said. “I loved the atmosphere of teaching. It’s a new day every day. I loved those ‘light bulb’ moments when you see it [comprehension] in their eyes.

“It’s also being a part of their lives, someone they can share with, turn to.”

The transition of teaching high school students to elementary level classes was prompted by a desire to focus on her family more.

“After I had two daughters [Julia and Stephenie], I wanted to change that part of my life,” Elmore explained. “In high school, I sponsored the yearbook, you go to the games [but] I felt it was time to concentrate a little more at home.”

Elmore’s eldest, Julia, was a challenged child who could never live completely independent. Her desire to provide a place where Julia could continue to learn, grow and become as independent as she was able was the spark that became Palo Pinto Challenge Inc.

“When Julia was moving from junior high to high school [in 1993], I attended a transition meeting for special education at the school,” Elmore recalled. “It’s where you look into the future and say this is where I want my child to go.”

When she was asked what she wanted for Julia, Elmore said, “‘I want her to have an active and happy life. What is out there?’ and they had no answers.

“They said there’s just not really anything for Julia’s level of ability and understanding. We really didn’t have anything in Palo Pinto County. There were jobs for higher functioning people and jobs for other levels but Julia’s in the middle.”

That’s when Elmore decided to take the initiative.

“I knew I was going to have to do something so Julia would have a place in the world,” Elmore said. “The next summer, her teacher [Barbara Cranfill] had made some salsa that Julia loved. I got to thinking about the salsa and thought maybe we could try to make salsa and sell it to teach life skills to the life skills class.”

She explained that the skills the students learned in salsa making could then be applied in their lives – measuring, counting, using a can opener and blender, cleanliness in their workspace and personal hygiene, for example.

“I talked to Barbara about it and she thought it was a good idea,” Elmore recalled. They next spoke with Connie Smith, who was the coordinator of special education at the time in Mineral Wells ISD who agreed. The district bought the supplies for the first batch of salsa.

According to Elmore, the first salsa batch was a struggle to make but the students accomplished their goal and made a good product.

“I told the class if they could sell $200 worth of salsa, I’d make a batch of fudge. I thought it would take a while,” she remembered. “They had the $200 made the next week.”

Elmore gave them another challenge – to raise enough money through their salsa sales for a trip to Fort Worth.

“They made the money. The salsa was good and people were buying it,” Elmore said. As it wasn’t in stores, word-of-mouth and samples at area businesses generated customers.

“What started out as a skills project grew into a business. When Julia was getting ready to graduate, Barbara and I talked about taking the business out of the school and into the real world,” Elmore recalled. “I couldn’t quit working as a single mom.”

Cranfill and Elmore decided to pray about the salsa situation and something Elmore’s preacher said about there are times we need to let go and let God do things.

“I decided to let go of it and see what happened,” she said.

In 1999, things began to happen. According to Elmore, an opportunity came to obtain a building from the Development Corporation of Strawn and Cranfill resigned her teaching position to help with Palo Pinto Challenge.

But even before they had their own building, Elmore said they were making salsa in the First United Methodist Church’s fellowship hall for a number of smaller grocery stores in the county like the Pepper Mill in Graford, Pak-A-Sack and the grocery in Gordon.

“People kept saying we should see Mr. Bill Kiker at Super Save in Weatherford,” Elmore said.

When Elmore, Cranfill and Julia met Kiker, “he wanted to talk to Julia about how the salsa was made, [that] they do all the work. He was satisfied and said to bring him some.”

That, she said, was their first big store to carry their salsa. Since then, the Palo Pinto Challenge salsa has spread to 17 stores in Palo Pinto, Parker and Erath counties.

What began as a classroom lesson on life skills for challenged students has developed into a non-profit organization that gives those out of school a place to call their own.

“I wanted a place for her and I felt like for her to have a place, I was going to have to go into a business in some way,” Elmore recalled.

She said she’d noticed Julia’s classmates from high school weren’t out in the community.

“I began to ask ‘where are they?’ Connie said they were at home because there was no place for them to be,” Elmore said. “I didn’t want that for Julia.”

As a parent, Elmore agreed she’s seen Julia, now 31, make improvements in her own personal abilities.

“Julia can do laundry, cook quite a few things, she’s learned more about keeping herself clean and helps with the house,” Elmore said. “The biggest change is that when it was the first time they gave out salsa samples at the high school, she wouldn’t talk to people, always shy and withdrawn. As she started giving out salsa samples, it has given her self-confidence she didn’t have before. She feels good about being Julia and I like that.”

According to her mom, Julia is also able to buy groceries, go to the bank and walk her daily five miles in Strawn.

“She’s really grown up with Palo Pinto Challenge and it was a lot of work and still is but it’s worth it. When I see how much those guys grow and have pride in themselves, it makes it all worth it,” Elmore said.

Elmore hopes the organization teaches the public in addition to its participants.

“One of my goals is that people need to see challenged people as individuals, talented individuals,” she said. “People see us as a salsa business but it’s also continuing job and life skills training. They’re learning and we’re learning every day. It’s a different kind of teaching but it’s very rewarding.”

Since her retirement, Elmore said she spends a lot of time at Palo Pinto Challenge – at least twice a week, though its usually three or more days a week by her own admission. It’s a place she obviously loves because of what it provides for her daughter as well as the other participants.

“I know how scary it is to think that your challenged child will most likely outlive you. I know what it is like to want to know that your child will be OK after you are gone. That is what Palo Pinto Challenge is for me an assurance that, when I am gone, Julia will have skills to survive and a place to belong. She will have job skills and social skills that make her a valued member of the community,” Elmore said. “It is what all parents want for their children, challenged or not. For me, Palo Pinto Challenge is that assurance, and it can be for other parents who are willing to work with the program to make their child all he or she can be.”