09/18/2026
💛 A GIFT IN MEMORY OF NANCY McFARLAND 💛
We have some wonderful news to share following North Texas Giving Day! Dr. Keith McFarland and the McFarland family are giving $25,000 to the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum in loving memory of Nancy McFarland. For those who may not know Nancy’s history with the Children’s Museum, this gift is especially meaningful.
Nancy was one of our founding board members and helped build the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum from the ground up. She was much more than a financial supporter. She gave her time, her leadership, her energy, and her heart. She chaired committees, organized support, volunteered at events, brought people together, and was always willing to do the work needed to move the museum forward. Nancy believed in this museum before there was much of a museum to believe in.
Her service to the Children’s Museum was just one part of a lifetime of service to Commerce. Alongside her husband, Dr. Keith McFarland, former president of what is now East Texas A&M University, Nancy served as the university’s First Lady and was a longtime community leader and philanthropist. Many organizations benefited from her generous spirit, but the Children’s Museum held a special place in her service. We are here today, in part, because Nancy believed that our community’s children deserved a place of their own to learn, explore, imagine, and play.
Now, through this $25,000 gift from Dr. McFarland and the McFarland family, Nancy’s legacy of service and generosity continues in a place she worked so hard to help create.
And there’s even more to celebrate! During our North Texas Giving Day campaign, our community gave an additional $3,990, bringing the total to $28,990 for the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum! 🎉
These gifts will be put to work right away! Over the coming months, you’ll see exhibit upgrades and improvements throughout the museum. We hope our visitors will experience that generosity firsthand — and start noticing something new from one visit to the next.
To everyone who gave this week, THANK YOU. And to Dr. Keith McFarland and the McFarland family, thank you for a gift that means so much to our museum, not only because of its generosity, but because of the woman whose memory it carries.
Nancy McFarland’s leadership, generosity, and love for this community are part of its history. Through this gift, her impact will continue to be part of its future. We are honored to keep building on what she started. 💛
