Hill Country Telephone Co-op Backs Its Students, From Friday Night Lights to Venture Fest

On the episode of The Building Texas Show titled How Texas Youth Are Changing The Game at VentureFest, host Justin McKenzie visits Ingram to talk with Madysen McDonald of Hill Country Telephone Cooperative (HCTC) about how a rural telephone co-op shows up for the students in its footprint, from the football stands to the pitch stage. The conversation is also on YouTube.

McDonald says HCTC decided the time was right to give $10,000 to each of the 26 schools across the regions it serves. "There's a lot of communities right now that need it," she says. HCTC is "really excited to see how they can use that money to help them and help their students."

On Friday nights, HCTC sets up a tent near the ticket gate at games such as Comfort vs. Ingram and Mason vs. Junction, handing out trinkets for fans on both sides and giving away HCTC prizes. McDonald says the kids are especially excited to visit. "They come up to us all the time and they say, 'Hey, my parents have HCTC. We love you,'" she says. HCTC tries, she adds, to connect with young fans on their level and support members' kids as much as it can.

Those same students are the ones McKenzie expected to see on stage at Hill Country Venture Fest in Mason, where he was emcee. He says pitching a business in front of hundreds of people builds resilience. McDonald shares the excitement: "I can't wait to see how these kids' brains are working."

The episode also covers what HCTC provides across a service area that runs from Ingram to Fredericksburg and out to Big Lake, including Mason, Sonora, Junction and El Dorado. The co-op started with landline service and expanded into fiber and fixed wireless, which reaches ranch properties where running fiber from the gate is not practical. McKenzie notes that a landline can still matter when cell service goes down and someone needs to call 911. New residents can learn more at HCTC.net, call 830-367-5333, or visit local offices in Sonora, Mason and Junction.

For McDonald, the co-op difference is personal. HCTC employees live in the communities they serve, so members see them at the grocery store and at T-ball games. The best way to give back to HCTC, she says, is to show up at its events and stay connected through its Facebook, Instagram and TikTok pages. McKenzie closes on the cooperative spirit: when the business is local, the money goes back into the community's kids, teams and events like Hill Country Venture Fest.

Watch or listen to the full conversation on The Building Texas Show episode page.

About The Building Texas Show
The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, tells the stories of the founders, community leaders and projects shaping Texas, from economic development and small business to conservation and education. New episodes publish weekly on YouTube and all major podcast platforms, with highlights on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at @thebuildingtexasshow. Watch, listen and subscribe at https://www.buildingtexasshow.com and https://www.youtube.com/@thebuildingtexasshow.

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