How Texas Youth Are Changing The Game at VentureFest

Texas kids are pitching on stage in Mason while a Hill Country co-op backs the schools and the tents behind them.

Madysen McDonald of Hill Country Telephone Cooperative sits down with Justin McKenzie in Ingram, Texas, ahead of Hill Country VentureFest. HCTC is putting $10,000 into each of 26 schools, showing up under Friday Night Lights, and wiring rural members with landline, fiber, and fixed wireless — then showing up again when student founders take the mic.

In this conversation:
• What Justin is seeing as VentureFest emcee in Mason
• Kids at the HCTC tent: “My parents have HCTC”
• $10,000 donations to 26 schools across the service region
• Football tents at Comfort vs Ingram and Mason vs Junction
• Youth culture from Friday Night Lights to the pitch stage
• Landline, fiber, and fixed wireless for Hill Country ranches
• How families join: HCTC.net · 830-367-5333 · Sonora, Mason, Junction offices
• Why a telephone cooperative still feels local — grocery store, T-ball, owners in the stands

Chapters:
0:00 Cold open — kids, HCTC, and VentureFest energy
0:35 Ingram, Texas with Madysen McDonald of HCTC
1:09 $10,000 to 26 Hill Country schools
2:00 Friday Night Lights tents on both sides of the stadium
2:56 Where HCTC serves (Fredericksburg to Big Lake)
3:20 Landline, fiber, and rural wireless for ranch country
5:58 How to join HCTC
7:10 Co-op family: local employees, local owners
8:10 Hill Country VentureFest in Mason — youth on stage
9:21 How to support HCTC and the next generation
10:10 Closing — cooperative spirit and building Texas

VentureFest — Mason, Texas
Emcee: Justin McKenzie

Join HCTC:
https://HCTC.net
830-367-5333
Offices: Sonora · Mason · Junction
Facebook · Instagram · TikTok: Hill Country Telephone Cooperative

The Building Texas Show covers Texas economic development, rural broadband, small-town growth, youth entrepreneurship, and the people building the Texas economy.

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