Honorary Czech Consul Brian Vanicek describes his childhood experience with the legendary water sprite, Hastrmani at the opening of the Josef A. Lada exhibit at the Czech Heritage Museum in Temple, Texas.

Sometimes called Vodnik (from "voda," Czech for water) the legendary figure Hastrmani was a small man with webbed feet who lived in bodies of water such as ponds or wells. Children were taught to fear him to supposedly prevent drowning. Lada featured the figure in his animated cartoons as Hastrmani. He also depicted him prominently in paintings about his village. The Vodnik usually sits smoking his pipe on a strange little sprouted tree stump at the edge of the village pond.

Professor Tom Sovik rehearses his University of North Texas students for the J. J. Ryba's Czech Christmas Mass concert tour. Soloists: Julianna Emanski (soprano), Hannah Ceniseros (mezzo-soprano), Barrett Radziun (tenor), Brock Johnson (bass-baritone), and David Summers (organ).

The group performed at Temple Brethren Church in Temple on Dec. 2, sponsored by the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center and traveled to eight Texas cities

Bell County Schools Photo ID Project. We partnered with Richard Lesikar and Dan Leshikar for this very interesting and important project. People came to the museum over several days to help identify people they knew in the photographs. Most of the schools were in rural Czech communities.