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Texas Farm Credit Employee Honored As 2022 Tommy Dean Shearrer Community Champion

Farmer and young son working on the farm

Hillary Curry has received Texas Farm Credit’s 2022 Tommy Dean Shearrer Community Champion Award, which includes a $2,500 donation to a charity of her choice.

Curry has selected Small Town Helping Hands, a non-profit organization that provides funds for individuals and families with rising financial hardships in Fannin, Lamar & Red River counties.

An insurance administrator at Texas Farm Credit, Curry has attended events for Small Town Helping Hands and led organizing giveaway items for them, along with other benefits for community members.

“I couldn’t think of a better beneficiary than this charitable organization,” said Curry. “I am over the moon I was selected and ultimately got to choose them to receive this money.”

She is involved in the Women’s Professional Networking Group of Fannin County and sits on the board for the Sandy Cemetery Association. Curry has donated her time to the Kueklahan Ranch Rodeo in addition to her time spent with Small Town Helping Hands.

Curry was selected for this award by Texas Farm Credit’s Inclusion Leadership Council because of her ongoing passion and volunteer efforts within her community. This donation is part of Texas Farm Credit’s Passion Forward initiative which aims to give back 2% of their annual net income to local agricultural and charitable organizations each year.

The Tommy Dean Shearrer Community Champion Award was created in 2018 in remembrance of Texas Farm Credit’s former customer and board member who was killed while assisting a stranded motorist in 2012. The Atascosa County farmer and rancher would often say, “We need to support the community where we live. Our community provides for us, and we should be involved in our community.” Shearrer was known for his strong sense of civic duty. He joined the FFA in high school and later advanced to FFA state vice president in 1975. He became active in the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce and Pleasanton Cowboy Homecoming Association to help promote his hometown. An advocate of weather research and technology, he was president of the local, state, and national chapters of the Weather Modification Association. He also had been a county commissioner and was an elder at his church.

Texas Farm Credit (TFC) is an agricultural lending cooperative that provides competitive rates, flexible terms, and personal service to farmers, ranchers, rural residents, and agribusiness firms from the Red River to the Rio Grande Valley. Not only does TFC finance a wide range of farming and ranching operations, it also offers home and rural real estate mortgage loans, as well as provides a variety of insurance services to its members. Headquartered in Robstown, Texas, TFC serves 100 Texas counties and is part of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of rural lending co-ops established in 1916.