Country music superstar Miranda Lambert will headline the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving halftime show, celebrating 30 years of music, football, and charitable giving.

FRISCO, Texas — October 26, 2026 — Three-time Grammy Award-winning country music star Miranda Lambert will take center stage at AT&T Stadium this Thanksgiving as the Dallas Cowboys host the Philadelphia Eagles, helping kick off The Salvation Army’s 136th annual Red Kettle Campaign.

The nationally televised halftime performance will mark the 30th anniversary of the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving partnership with The Salvation Army, a tradition that combines football and entertainment to raise awareness and support for families facing financial hardship.

The Thanksgiving Day game is scheduled for November 26, 2026, at 3:30 p.m. Central Time (4:30 p.m. Eastern)and will air on FOX.

Three Decades of Music and Giving

Since its introduction in 1997, the Red Kettle Kickoff has become a Thanksgiving tradition, featuring some of the biggest names in entertainment.

Country music legend Reba McEntire performed at the inaugural event. Over the years, performers have included Destiny’s Child, Carrie Underwood, the Jonas Brothers, Selena Gomez, Dolly Parton, Lainey Wilson, and Post Malone.

According to The Salvation Army, the annual campaign has raised more than $3.4 billion over the past three decades, supporting essential community services nationwide.

Lambert, a Texas native, expressed excitement about participating in the event.

“There’s something special about how music brings people together, especially when it’s to spread joy and hope to families who need it most,” Lambert said in the announcement.

Supporting Communities Beyond the Holidays

Although the familiar red kettles are most visible during the holiday shopping season, donations help support The Salvation Army’s year-round programs.

These services include emergency food assistance, temporary housing, eviction prevention, addiction rehabilitation, disaster relief, and youth development programs.

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The organization reports providing more than 28 million service touchpoints in 2025, operating through nearly 7,600 centers across the United States.

One important aspect of the Red Kettle Campaign is its local impact. According to The Salvation Army, donations collected in a community remain in that community to support residents facing difficult circumstances.

A Thanksgiving Tradition With a Purpose

The Cowboys’ partnership with The Salvation Army began through the efforts of Charlotte Jones, the team’s chief brand officer and co-owner.

Jones helped transform the team’s nationally televised Thanksgiving halftime show into an opportunity to encourage charitable giving.

Thirty years later, the tradition continues to connect millions of football viewers with opportunities to support their neighbors.

Commissioner Merle Heatwole, national commander of The Salvation Army, emphasized the campaign’s community mission.

“The Red Kettle Campaign gives people a simple way to spread joy and support their neighbors in need,” Heatwole said.

How to Help

As the holiday season approaches, The Salvation Army encourages individuals and families to participate by donating, volunteering, or supporting local assistance programs.

Those interested in contributing or seeking assistance can visit the organization’s official website.

Learn more: The Salvation Army

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The 2026 Red Kettle Kickoff serves as a reminder that Thanksgiving is not only about football, family gatherings, and entertainment. It is also an opportunity to support people in our communities who need a helping hand.

Editorial note: The $3.4 billion fundraising figure and the 2025 service statistics are attributed to The Salvation Army. The 28 million figure represents service touchpoints, not necessarily 28 million unique individuals.

Source and related links

Original announcement: The Salvation Army’s October 25 press release

Official charity website: The Salvation Army USA

Multimedia release: Miranda Lambert Red Kettle Kickoff announcement

About STM Daily News — Community

At STM Daily News, we believe that strong communities are built through compassion, service, and people making a positive difference.

Our Community section highlights nonprofit organizations, charitable initiatives, volunteers, and everyday individuals working to improve lives.

Stay connected with stories that inform, inspire, and strengthen our communities at STM Daily News.

Source: The Salvation Army, October 25, 2026, official news release.

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Forgotten Genius Friday | The Knowledge | STM Daily News

Octavia E. Butler: The Woman Who Reimagined the Future

When we think about science fiction, we often picture spaceships, robots, alien civilizations, and futuristic technology. But what happens when science fiction becomes a way to explore racism, inequality, human survival, and the consequences of our choices?

That is exactly what Octavia E. Butler brought to the genre.

Long before Afrofuturism became a widely recognized cultural movement, Butler was creating extraordinary stories that placed Black characters—especially Black women—at the center of imagined futures.

Her work challenged conventional ideas about who could be a hero, whose experiences mattered, and what science fiction could accomplish.

A Young Girl With a Powerful Imagination

Octavia Estelle Butler was born on June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, California.

Raised primarily by her mother and grandmother after her father’s death, Butler grew up shy and found comfort in books and storytelling.

Her mother worked as a domestic employee, and Butler sometimes accompanied her to work. Those experiences exposed her to the racial and economic inequalities that would later influence her fiction.

As a child, Butler loved science fiction, but she noticed something missing: people who looked like her.

Rather than accepting that absence, she began creating stories of her own.

She would eventually become one of the most influential writers in speculative fiction.

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Breaking Barriers in Science Fiction

During the 1970s, mainstream American science fiction was largely associated with white male writers and protagonists.

Butler entered that literary world with a different perspective.

Her first published novel, Patternmaster, appeared in 1976. It introduced readers to a world shaped by extraordinary mental abilities, social hierarchies, and struggles for power.

Butler continued developing complex stories that explored humanity’s relationship with authority, identity, biology, and survival.

In 1979, she published one of her best-known novels, Kindred.

The book follows Dana, a Black woman living in 1970s California who is repeatedly transported back to a Maryland plantation before the Civil War.

Through Dana’s experiences, Butler forced readers to confront the brutality of American slavery and its continuing influence on the present.

Rather than treating history as something safely confined to the past, Kindred makes that history immediate and deeply personal.

Imagining the Future—and Warning Us About It

In 1993, Butler published Parable of the Sower, a novel set in a collapsing American society struggling with economic inequality, environmental destruction, violence, and weakened institutions.

Its central character, Lauren Olamina, is a young Black woman who develops a philosophy called Earthseed while searching for a way to survive and build a community.

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The novel takes place beginning in 2024, making its imagined future particularly striking to modern readers.

Butler followed it with Parable of the Talents in 1998, continuing her examination of social instability, religious extremism, authoritarianism, and the struggle to create a better future.

Her novels were not literal predictions. They were works of speculative fiction that used recognizable social trends to ask difficult questions about where humanity might be headed.

Octavia Butler and Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism brings together African and African diasporic experiences with science fiction, technology, history, mythology, and imaginative visions of the future.

While artists such as Sun Ra and George Clinton explored cosmic identity through music, performance, and futuristic imagery, Butler used literature to investigate power, history, and humanity’s possible futures.

Her novels frequently placed Black women in situations where they had to navigate extraordinary challenges and reshape the societies around them.

Butler’s work is widely discussed within Afrofuturist scholarship, although her literary contributions also extend beyond any single cultural label.

She demonstrated that Black people did not have to remain secondary characters in someone else’s vision of the future.

They could be the architects of entirely new worlds.

Recognition and a Lasting Legacy

Butler received some of science fiction’s most significant honors, including Hugo and Nebula Awards.

In 1995, she became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, often called a genius grant.

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Her work also included the Xenogenesis trilogy, later collected as Lilith’s Brood, which explored humanity’s encounter with an extraterrestrial species and raised questions about consent, adaptation, identity, and survival.

Butler died on February 24, 2006, at age 58.

Yet her influence has continued to grow.

Her novels are studied in classrooms, discussed by scholars, and embraced by new generations of readers and creators interested in science fiction, social justice, and Afrofuturism.

A Genius Who Made Us Think Differently About Tomorrow

Octavia E. Butler was more than a science-fiction author.

She was a visionary storyteller who understood that imagining the future also meant examining the past and questioning the present.

Her stories asked readers to consider how power operates, how communities survive, and how human beings might change.

And perhaps her greatest contribution was demonstrating that the future belongs in the imagination of everyone.

Why Octavia E. Butler Belongs in Forgotten Genius Friday

At STM Daily News, our Forgotten Genius Friday series celebrates extraordinary individuals whose ideas, innovations, and accomplishments helped shape our world, even if their stories aren’t widely known. Octavia E. Butler fits that mission perfectly. Although she received prestigious literary awards and recognition during her lifetime, her influence extends far beyond science fiction. Like the inventors, scientists, and trailblazers we’ve featured in this series, Butler challenged barriers, defied expectations, and opened doors for future generations. Through her imagination, she helped redefine who could tell stories about humanity’s future—and who could be at the center of those stories. Her inclusion in Forgotten Genius Friday reminds us that genius isn’t limited to laboratories and inventions. Sometimes, it begins with a pen, a powerful imagination, and the courage to envision a different world.

Sources and fact-checking

The Huntington Library holds Butler’s literary archive and confirms the chronology of her major novels, awards, and career. The MacArthur Foundation independently documents her 1995 fellowship. 

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• Official Octavia E. Butler biography
• The Huntington — Octavia E. Butler Papers
• MacArthur Foundation — Octavia Butler
• The Huntington — Telling My Stories exhibition

For more stories about overlooked innovators, writers, scientists, and visionaries who changed our world, explore The Knowledge and Forgotten Genius Friday at STM Daily News.

Lights, Camera, Snackers: How Aspiring Filmmakers Can Enter to Win $25,000

(Feature Impact) The director’s chair is open and the opportunity to create the next great snack-sized movie could be yours.

For the second year, Bumble Bee is bringing back its Tuna “Cans”Film Festival, giving aspiring filmmakers and creators the chance to turn a script written by comedian and actress, Grace Reiter, into an original short film starring its deliciously convenient tuna Snackers.

Watch the video to learn more!

“I love a chance to support those starting out in the film industry – and this time, I’m partnering with Bumble Bee for the Tuna Cans Film Festival to do it,” Reiter said. “Plus, I’m making it easy: I already wrote the script.”

Using Reiter’s scripted lines, creators can make the story entirely their own, bringing their vision to life through original characters, settings, music, editing and creative flair.

The creative brief is simple: The finished film must be 60 seconds or less and Bumble Bee Snackers™ need to get their moment in the spotlight.

Plus, the stakes are bigger than ever: The winning filmmaker will take home a $25,000 grand prize to help make their filmmaking dreams a reality.

Creators can submit their original short film by Oct. 23, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

The film can be funny, dramatic, unexpected or all three. The lines are already written but the order, arrangement and any additions are open to creative interpretation. Now it’s time to see what you can do with it.

Visit tunacansfilmfest.com, where you can find Reiter’s original script, submission instructions and complete contest details, to get started.

SOURCE:

Bumble Bee

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