The Fannin County BEST (Bonham Empowerment Support Team) and FEST (Fannin County Empowerment Support Team) is a unique collaboration of individual’s and business interests throughout the Fannin County, Texas community.

The next BEST/FEST meeting is set for 8:00 a.m. Thursday, December 10 at Morning Star Academy.

Morning Star Academy

Originally the BEST group was started by the Bonham Area Chamber of Commerce as a way to help grow new and existing businesses, promote tourism, and work on issues that would affect the Bonham area over the next few years. 

The founders soon realized that while Bonham has some unique characteristics on its own, the promotion of the other incorporated towns in the county and the draw of our local rural attractions would all benefit the county as a whole.  To this end, the organization name was changed to BEST/FEST.

Based on initial organization meetings, the group determined that four sub-committees would be established to research, promote, and give regular updates to the community on their progress in reaching their established goals.

                The committees and their goals:

1)      Small Business Committee

a.       Attract and Retain businesses throughout the county

b.      Workshops for business owners to succeed

c.       Why locate to Fannin County

2)      Eco-Tourism Committee

a.       Identify existing areas for eco-tourism

b.      Work to create new areas for family friendly outings

c.       Create maps for visitors based on interests

3)      Retirement Committee

a.       Compile data for potential retirees to Fannin County

b.      Create brochures for retirees of things to do in Fannin County

c.       Work with cities and county to become a Texas Certified Community

4)      Lakes Committee

a.       Work to help determine best promotion of two large new lakes in county

b.      Work with county to determine zoning around new lakes

c.       Attract new lake oriented businesses to the county

The BEST/FEST group meets quarterly to hear updates from the committees and solicits questions from audience members throughout the county on what they would like to see done to encourage growth and ways the group can help achieve these goals.  Currently, we have around 80 people from throughout the county attending each event.

The BEST/FEST group receives no funding from any governmental agencies as it is a grass roots effort by local citizens to determine the needs of the county and work together as a local group to meet those needs.