By Lisa Schulz

Sunray sits in the middle of nowhere much like many little communities in the Texas Panhandle. 

Sunray is an agriculture community, most jobs are provided from the school, the farms, the grain elevator and the Valero plant outside of town.  Much like most small towns, the school is the heartbeat.  

Sunray has had its share of hardships the past year. In March of 2025, school was in session, playgrounds were full of kids, people were at work, some at home but all heard the explosion. An explosion that put the entire Texas Panhandle into instant prayer and awe; nobody cared who beat who in any sport or bad blood of any sort, people prayed. The massive grain dust explosion landed five workers in the University Medical Center burn unit in Lubbock with a long road ahead. 

Thankfully, there were no fatalities but the beloved elevator that was a staple driving into Sunray from any direction was a loss. The explosion blew all the way through the work floor, pit, some bins and up the elevator head houses. The community of Sunray spent the entire summer watching the elevator be demolished, piece by piece, a very slow and sad process. 

If you live in the upper Panhandle, you know the Sunray Co-op. If you have lived in Sunray, you probably have a story of the elevator or a family member who has worked it bringing grain in and out at a rate of speed few elevators can provide. Sunray lost a piece of the town that day and the Texas Panhandle lost a vital farming operation felt by many for miles and miles. As of today, the demo is still on going and the feel and look of Sunray as a town is different. Someday it will become normal, but that will be a generation away.  

On the night of Aug. 2, when football two-a-days was set to begin on Monday morning, a straight line wind storm came through town and one of the biggest hits was to the town’s football field. Anyone that is an alumni from a small town in Texas, knows what a football stadium holds; pride, memories, Friday night lights and fun. It also boosts your economy on home game nights, bringing in out of towner crowds to spend money on gas, food or snacks. 

All of that was lost for the Bobcats 2025 season when mother nature mixed a potion of ample moisture, instability and highly anomalous wind shears resulting in 90-100 mph straight line winds. The night was scary knowing the emergency workers were out yet again working another dangerous situation. It deflated the town as people drove around the next morning looking at the destruction in yards, Main street businesses, the little league field who had the most beautiful trees shading moms and dads spending entire weekends there in the heat and the football stadium. 

After the devastation of the elevator and watching all summer, football was something the community was looking forward to, the excitement of two a days, and this was another big hit.  That deflation only lasted a few hours when determination took over and clean up began.  

This cleanup has been different from watching the elevator be brought down and cleaned up in such a big magnitude, this was community driven. People helping people, neighbors from other towns coming in to help, farmers rounding up help and tools to disassemble the stands deemed unsafe, schools like Stinnett and Dumas offering up their stadiums for ‘home’ games, Stratford and Dalhart taking all gate money and donations to give back to Sunray, their opponent; all reminders of why we live where we live.  

The extent of work needed to be done on the football field is big and extremely costly. Yes, there is insurance, but it will not fit the bill. The community obviously would like to build back better and greater than before, bring in T Mobile. T Mobile does a contest each year called Friday Night 5G Lights which is geared towards helping award major upgrades to deserving high school football fields in small towns across the nation.  Schools in towns with populations under 150,000 can apply. 

A major component to this contest is community engagement with social media postings showing school spirit and garnering support. They start with giving 450 schools $5000, next was a $25,000 prize and a T Mobile hosted home game to the 25 top finalist which Sunray was awarded in an exciting Jr. High pep rally yesterday afternoon! Sunray is a top 25 finalist and is pumped up to try to make it to the Grand Prize of 1 million dollars, but they need help! As a town of 1,700 up against towns of much bigger numbers, they need our help from the entire Texas panhandle to vote.   

You can search T Mobile Friday Night 5g Lights to find their website and read more about it and voting is found by scrolling down to Sunray, TX.  If you can make this part of your daily routine, this little community of great people would appreciate it beyond words, voting ends October 24th! Did I mention it includes Super Bowl champion NFL players Pat Mahomes and Rob Gronkoski visiting.

To help Sunray

Here is how you can help; simply visit sunrayisd.org and click the link. Vote by entering your email, simple as that https://www.sunrayisd.org/