A pack of dachshunds turned a fall fundraiser in Canyon, Texas, into a lively afternoon of racing, music and community support for a high school choir headed to a statewide stage.
The Canyon High School Chamber Honor Choir is preparing for the Texas Music Educators Association’s annual convention in San Antonio in February 2027. The 65-member ensemble was selected as one of seven Texas choral groups invited to perform, an honor that puts students before an audience of educators and music fans from across the state. Canyon choir director Brandon Farren told Canyon News the convention draws more than 30,000 people.
The students’ travel goal is $40,000. A community OctoberFest at The Lumber Yard on Oct. 10 added just over $2,500 to the effort, according to choir booster board member Tina Finke, who spoke with the Canyon News. Fundraising will continue. The venue’s official event page lists the festival as supporting the Canyon choir, and events manager Joe Marion told the paper the business made the event available to help the community raise money for students.
For several hours, the benefit mixed performances by current students and Canyon alumni with contests and family activities. Ovation, the high school’s show choir, opened the music program. Alumni acts followed, including PRVDNC, the duo of brothers Christian and Jack Theiss, as well as Sann Allison, Cody Jasper and Dayton Cornelius. BADFIGS brought together choir directors from Canyon High, West Plains High and Randall High. Another group included Canyon alumnus Landon Finke and Pinnacle Intermediate choir director Zoe Sells.
The music made the school connection visible. Senior James Petty, a member of both the Chamber Honor Choir and Ovation, said being in choir helps students connect with one another. Their February trip will put that student ensemble among seven groups selected from across Texas, while the October benefit brought some of the school’s former singers back into the program.
The most unpredictable performers had four legs. Choir booster board member Tina Finke and parent volunteers signed up 36 dachshunds for ten race heats. Many dogs seemed more interested in their owners or the other dogs than in running straight down a course. Owners learned to coax the dogs toward the other end. One sophomore tried to enter his miniature poodle, Twix, dressed in a hot-dog costume; volunteers kept him out of the dachshund heats, and he mingled instead.
Four dogs made the final. Lloyd Christmas won this year’s six-inch trophy, reversing the result from the previous race, where Rex had taken first and Lloyd second. Rex’s owners, Pedro and Tana Limas, said they had practiced with him for about a week and brought along a bright, oversized stuffed banana as a new toy. Lloyd’s owners said the dog responds to squeaky bacon balls and his mother; another owner credited squirrel-chasing with helping him prepare.
The races were one part of the festival’s mix. The schedule also included yodeling, beard-and-mustache and stein-hoisting contests. Visitors could play cornhole, giant Jenga and ring toss, or use a bounce house. Food was available inside the venue. It was The Lumber Yard’s second annual OctoberFest, and this year the business shared the event with the choir’s supporters. The venue’s event page listed the day’s hours as noon to 10:30 p.m.
The convention performance is planned for Feb. 11 and 12, after the choir travels to San Antonio by bus on Feb. 10. Finke said supporters can still help the boosters as they work toward the travel goal; she told the Canyon News the group is seeking sponsors, vendors and families interested in advertising in the convention program. The local report also listed a Canyon Choir Boosters donation page.
OctoberFest offered a way for the wider Canyon community to contribute through a shared event: students and alumni supplied music, volunteers handled the races, and the venue opened its festival to benefit the school. The result was not only a fundraising total, but a day where neighbors could meet the choir behind the trip and root for dogs that sometimes preferred making friends to reaching the finish line.
Reader responses