By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
The Copperas Cove Education Foundation held its annual Boots and Buckles Gala fundraiser at the Copperas Cove Civic Center on Saturday evening, where they inducted two more Copperas Cove alumni into the Hall of Honor: Mike Wilburn and Donald Buckram, Jr.
The Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization made up of local business and community members, parents and alumni who are committed to enriching and enhancing educational opportunities for Copperas Cove ISD students through community involvement and support.
The Education Foundation awarded its first grants in December 2008, and since then, it has distributed more than $606,000 in grants to teachers and staff across the district, funding innovative classroom programs, equipment, and experiences that would otherwise not be possible.
Education Foundation President Jennifer Cotter welcomed attendees to the gala with a reminder of why the evening matters.
“Tonight is more than just having fun,” she said. “It’s about impact. It’s about the opportunities we create together- opportunities to inspire innovation in the classroom, support our educators, and ultimately shape the future of Copperas Cove. Because of supporters like you, this Foundation continues to invest in creativity, creative teaching, provide resources where they’re needed most, and bring learning to life in ways that go far beyond the traditional classroom. Your presence here tonight speaks volumes about your commitment to our schools and to the success of each student in our district.”
Before the evening’s festivities continued, Cotter paused to honor a woman who meant a great deal to both the Foundation and the broader Copperas Cove community: Linda Ledger, a Hall of Honor recipient who passed away earlier this year in February.
“Linda was not only a Hall of Honor recipient, but a true champion for education,” Cotter said. “She believed deeply in the power of education and gave her time, energy, and passion to ensure that students and teachers had the support they needed to succeed. Her legacy is woven into the very fabric of this Foundation and this community.”
Gifts made in Linda’s memory have totaled more than $3,000, Cotter added.
“As we move forward this evening, let’s carry that same spirit of generosity and commitment,” Cotter said. “Together we make a difference: one classroom, one teacher, and one student at a time. Go Bulldawgs!”
J.C. Stubbs, Executive Committee Member At Large and Scholarships Committee Chair for the Copperas Cove Education Foundation, spoke to the crowd about the full scope of what the Foundation does beyond classroom grants.
“It’s not just grants to classrooms and campuses, where we’ve given out over half a million dollars in the lifetime of the Education Foundation to every single campus in the district,” he said. “It’s also scholarships: dual credit for kids taking high school and college education classes dual. It’s also, vocational scholarships for students that want to go into things like nursing and auto mechanics and likewise. It’s also collegiate scholarships for those going on to higher education.”
Stubbs also highlighted the Foundation’s annual Walk of Fame, held each May, where exemplary seniors select a CCISD teacher who had an outsized impact on their education and honor that teacher in front of their families. He encouraged the crowd to make the most of the evening’s fundraising opportunities, which included three silent auction tables, a bottle pull, and a heads-or-tails ring game.
There was also a live auction, with Copperas Cove ISD Superintendent Dr. Brent Hawkins donning his auctioneer hat for the evening to auction off four items including a 55-inch television, a three-night stay at a lake house for a party of 12, tickets to an Ella Langley concert, and tickets to the Florida Gators vs. Texas Longhorns football game.
The highlight of the gala was the induction of the latest honorees, Mike Wilburn and Donald Buckram, Jr., into the Hall of Honor. The Hall of Honor was established to recognize the achievements and accomplishments of Copperas Cove High School graduates. Nominees must have graduated at least 10 years prior to the nominating year and also be recognized as having made outstanding contributions to their community and/or profession. They must also be positive role models for youth in their community.
Plaques in the honorees’ names will be hung on the walls of the Lea Ledger Auditorium alongside past recipients: John Hull, Joan Manning, Dr. Karen Harrison, Keith Turner, Glynn Powell, Terri Jernigan, Bradi Diaz, Eddie Wilson, Les Ledger, Linda Ledger, Beverly Smith, and Larry Letzer, Jr.
Mike Wilburn graduated from Copperas Cove High School in 1966. After earning his college degree, he returned to his alma mater and spent 36 years as an educator in Copperas Cove, as a teacher, a coach, and the overseer of the Bulldog Baseball program as the city continued to grow. He served as the principal of J.L. Williams Elementary School when it first opened, then as principal at Copperas Cove High School, before moving to Central Office as the executive director of Secondary Education and Technology. After retiring from that role, he devoted 18 years as an elected trustee to the CCISD Board of Trustees before stepping down in November 2025.
“It is an honor to be here tonight, and I thank those that nominated me,” Wilburn said. He recalled how his path into education was shaped by a moment of faith as a college freshman, when his pastor told the congregation that Mike had come forward to say the Lord had called him to teach.
“I looked surprised, because I didn’t actually say those words,” Wilburn said, “but I took that as a voice from the Lord and went forward with it from that point on.”
Through every role he held in Copperas Cove, Wilburn said he returned to the same guiding philosophy: “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
“That was a driving force in everything, particularly with my administration,” Wilburn said. “Many athletes, students, and staff have returned to express to me that they knew how much I cared for them, and that made a big difference to hear those words, and that made them not want to disappoint me in any way. But they knew I had high expectations, and they would strive to meet my expectations.”
Donald Buckram, Jr. graduated from Copperas Cove High School in 2006. He was a star football player for the Bulldawgs and went on to play running back at the University of Texas–El Paso before returning to Copperas Cove, where he has coached and taught at Copperas Cove High School as an AVID teacher.
CCISD Director of Communications Kurtis Quillin introduced Buckram by describing the breadth of his impact.
“Coach Buck works relentlessly in the classroom to help first-generation college students get a higher education,” Quillin said. “As a coach, he has taught his athletes that being a good teammate isn’t just in the locker room. It’s about service in the community. Coach Buckram has led the Bulldawgs’ Peanut Butter Bowl efforts, where in the past three years, they’ve collected more than 30,000 jars of peanut butter to stay right here in Cove and feed the families who need it.”
Buckram gave thanks to his fellow honoree, Mike Wilburn, saying that he and his son, Coach Wilburn, had inspired him to get into education. He added that other coaches, like Wilburn, Coach Shuck and Coach Southern, had opened his eyes to what he could do to actually change people’s lives in the immediate community.
“This is why I’m doing it, so I can actually see kids blossom, to see the kids grow up into actually young men now,” Buckram said. “Growing up, I heard the saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a kid,’ and if you look to your left, look to your right, look all the way through this room- I don’t know how many people came up to me and said, ‘You earned this,’ ‘Congratulations,’ and ‘You deserve to be up there. Don’t second-guess yourself.’ I greatly appreciate the city of Copperas Cove and everyone who supports me through the ups and downs, all the crazy ideas I have.”
Buckram added that he wanted to share a message with people that they can make a change in their own community.
“I guess the change that I want to talk about is the immediate change we can make in our community,” Buckram said. “Y’all know a lot of stuff is going on in the world, and a lot of that stuff is out of our control, but things that we can control here in Copperas Cove is what we need to focus on. It’s what I try to focus on as a human being of what kind of impact can I make here directly that’s going to help the kids here and the families here, not what can I do in Killeen or in Austin or Temple. What immediate change can I make here in Copperas Cove, and that’s kind of what I take pride in. And on top of that, I was a knucklehead as a child, and so I know the more that we pour into the kids here, the less knuckleheads we’re going to have in our community, so we can guide them in the right way with the Copperas Cove kids in the Copperas Cove way of being a Bulldawg.”
Buckram finished his speech with a toast, inviting the audience to raise their own glasses.
“May your neighbors stay loud, your connections stay real, and us people stay close,” Buckram said. “Here’s to all the connections and relationships that you create along this journey that we call life.”
For more information about the Education Foundation, the teaching grants, or scholarship opportunities, visit https://www.ccisd.com/page/education-foundation, or call 254-547-1227.
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