Five Pope John speech students earned a trip to state at the D2-2 District Speech Meet in Bancroft on Wednesday.
State qualifiers for Pope John are Bre Bartak, Brynn Dilly, Lauren Seier, Maddie Schrage and Skylar Reestman. They will compete in the NSAA Speech Championships at the University of Nebraska at Kearney on Friday, March 22. Area medalists (The top three qualify for state): Duet acting: 1. Kira Widger and Theanna Dunn, Elgin Public 2. Adam Dreger and Cory Romej, Elgin Public Entertainment: 1. Hunter Reestman, Elgin Public 3. Grace Rittscher, Elgin Public Extemporaneous: 4. Breanna Carr, Elgin Public 5. Hunter Reestman, Elgin Public Informative: 3. Jordan Lindgren, Elgin Public Oral Interpretation of Drama: 1. Elgin Public - Adam Dreger, Grace Rittscher, Hunter Reestman, Kira Widger and Theanna Dunn 2. Pope John - Bre Bartak, Brynn Dilly, Lauren Seier, Maddie Schrage Humorous: 2. Grace Rittscher, Elgin Public Serious: 2. Kira Widger, Elgin Public 3. Skylar Reestman, Pope John 6. Theanna Dunn, Elgin Public Persuasive: 4. Allysa Burenheide, Pope John The Elgin Public speech team earned the D2-2 District Runner Up trophy and has seven state qualifiers in six categories.
Elgin students punched their tickets to state with some impressive district performances in Bancroft on Wednesday. State qualifiers are Kira Widger (3 events), Theanna Dunn (2 events), Adam Dreger (2 events), Cory Romej (1 event), Hunter Reestman (2 events), Grace Rittscher (3 events) and Jordan Lindgren (1 event). They are coached by Stacy Shumake-Henn and Jessie Reestman. The students will compete in the NSAA Speech Championships at the University of Nebraska at Kearney on Friday, March 22. Area medalists (The top three qualify for state): Duet acting: 1. Kira Widger and Theanna Dunn, Elgin Public 2. Adam Dreger and Cory Romej, Elgin Public Entertainment: 1. Hunter Reestman, Elgin Public 3. Grace Rittscher, Elgin Public Extemporaneous: 4. Breanna Carr, Elgin Public 5. Hunter Reestman, Elgin Public Informative: 3. Jordan Lindgren, Elgin Public Oral Interpretation of Drama: 1. Elgin Public - Adam Dreger, Grace Rittscher, Hunter Reestman, Kira Widger and Theanna Dunn 2. Pope John - Bre Bartak, Brynn Dilly, Lauren Seier, Maddie Schrage Humorous: 2. Grace Rittscher, Elgin Public Serious: 2. Kira Widger, Elgin Public 3. Skylar Reestman, Pope John 6. Theanna Dunn, Elgin Public Persuasive: 4. Allysa Burenheide, Pope John Elgin Public earned fourth place out of 26 teams at the annual ESU 8 Junior High School Quiz Bowl on Tuesday afternoon.
Elgin Public defeated Osmond, St. Joseph's and Clearwater before falling to Norfolk Junior High. They bounced back to defeat Chambers, but were then edged by Norfolk Catholic, 30-25, in a close contest. Amy Klein coached Elgin's team of Baylee Busteed, William Heilhecker, Kristopher Moreno, Austin Good, Keyera Eisenhauer, Corbin Kinney, Ethan Hinkle and Jack Wemhoff. All of Antelope County's schools participated in the quiz bowl: Orchard went 2-2; Pope John, Neligh-Oakdale and Clearwater were all 1-2; and Elkhorn Valley finished 0-2. Christ Lutheran School earned first place in the competition, followed by Norfolk Junior High and Norfolk Catholic. Elgin graduate Lydia Behnk is making connections.
She is part of the UNK Leadership, Education and Development Series (Leads), a program launched in 2017-18 that prepares students for their postgraduate careers by developing leadership qualities through a variety of activities, experiences and educational sessions. Students learn from and network with campus and community leaders while actively participating in various activities and civic events. The group, which has 15 current members, also gets involved off campus. UNK Leads students recently attended a Kearney Public Schools Board of Education meeting and they’ll be at next week’s Nebraska Cultural Unity Conference sponsored by UNK. On Wednesday evening, they visited the new Central Nebraska Veterans Home, where members toured the facility, learned about its history and played bingo with residents living there. No one was injured when a fire broke out in a home northwest of Elgin on Sunday night.
Elgin Fire Chief Jim Kittelson said a motorist saw flames as they drove by the trailer home, located about 8 miles west and 1.5 miles north of Elgin at 84069 513 Ave. The passerby called 911 and the fire department was dispatched about 7:30 p.m., he said. Owned by Byron Bergman, the fire chief said the home was not occupied at the time of the fire. He said the cause is likely “electrical” and started in the northwest corner of the home. He said 19 Elgin firemen battled the blaze. “We had most of it knocked down within an hour or hour and a half,” Kittelson said. However, he said the firemen were on the scene for more several hours and returned to the station around 11:30 p.m. Kittelson said the home will probably be considered a total loss, although only one-third of it was fully destroyed in the fire. “The fire marshal said, with a trailer house, it was amazing we saved that much of it,” he said. “He said that’s the most you will ever see left.” On Saturday, February 2nd, four Pope John XXIII Central Catholic eighth graders competed in the Northeastern Chapter MATHCOUNTS competition with nine other schools. The event was held at the Columbus Campus of Central Community College. Team members were Carter Beckman, son of John and Tracy Beckman, Linus Borer, son of David and Lindy Borer, Paiton Hoefer, son of Jeremy Hoefer and Autumn Hoefer and Skyler Meis, daughter of Eric and Brenda Meis. The students are instructed by math teacher, Sister Patricia Hoffman.
The top twelve students in the individual written tests were recognized. Skyler Meis received the sixth place medal and Paiton Hoefer earned the ninth place medal. By placing in the top twelve, Skyler and Paiton earned the opportunity to participate in the countdown round. The Pope John XXIII Central Catholic Speech Team competed at the West Holt speech meet held Saturday, February 2nd.
The OID (Oral Interpretation of Drama) team consisting of Maddie Schrage, Lauren Seier, Skylar Reestman and Breanna Bartak placed fourth in varsity competition. Sophomore Skylar Reestman placed first in Serious Prose, and freshman Emma Mlnarik received an Excellent in Serious Prose. The team is coached by Peggy Payne, Pope John English teacher. The speech team will compete next on Friday, February 8th at Lindsay Holy Family. While 227,350 may not seem like a large number of people, when put into the context of the number of people in Nebraska who are struggling with hunger, it might seem larger than it should be.
According to www.feedingamerica.org, 1 in 6 children in Nebraska struggles with hunger. While tackling statewide hunger is a large task, members of the Elgin FFA chapter are working hard to put an end to local hunger. The Elgin FFA chapter received a $2,000 grant on Tuesday morning from Farm Credit Services of America’s (FCSAmerica) Working Here Fund to start a backpack program, which involves filling backpacks with non-perishable food items to send home with students over the weekend. “We are honored to support organizations dedicated to addressing food and hunger issues in our local communities,” said Zach Gansebom, vice president of retail operations at FCS America’s Norfolk office. “I’ve heard of schools getting grants through FFA for a backpack program,” said Elgin FFA Advisor Julia Schwartz. “I thought, ‘You know, there’s a lot of kids in Elgin that can surely use this program, and so that’s what kind of spurred me.’ ” After talking with principal Greg Wemhoff and guidance counselor Sonia Rittscher, as well as other teachers and staff, Schwartz found out there were a lot of children and families that could benefit from the program. Once Schwartz applied for the grant, Rittscher then got in touch with Linda Kerkman at the Bargain Box, who decided that the Bargain Box would give the FFA chapter up to $100 each month to sustain the backpack program. “The goal is to send just a regular backpack full of food home with that child for the weekend, even on holiday weekends as well,” Schwartz said. “It just helps a little bit at home.” Schwartz said that the backpacks would be generic, plain-jane backpacks so as not to draw attention to the students utilizing the program, and all the families will remain completely anonymous. The school will be sending a letter home with the families that teachers, staff and administration have identified as potentially benefiting from the program. With the letter will be a consent form, and if the families want to participate, they can return the form. Schwartz’s goal is to fill the backpacks with as much healthy, local foods as possible. “We want to make it as healthy as we can get, non-perishable items. Canned peaches or macaroni and cheese, rice, cereal, the basics, but still as healthy as we can get it,” she said. She added that they are looking at potentially including vouchers for items like milk and eggs. Staying local is also important to Schwartz and the chapter. “We want to use that money here in Antelope County,” she said. “Using Dean’s Market will be our first go-to to get the food sources. I could probably assume that some of the families might be living in Neligh, so if we end up using Thriftway in Neligh, it stays local still.” The chapter hopes to start the program the last weekend in February, but if not, for sure in March. The Pope John students will hold a paper drive on Saturday, Jan. 12.
Contact people are: Clearwater, rural St. John and Ewing: Blake Hupp 402-336-6556 Neligh: Layne Bullock 402-929-0157 Petersburg and Raeville: Kyle Schumacher 402-386-5202 Elgin and Raeville: Luke Henn 402-843-5468 Sister Pat 402-843-5461 They will collect newspapers, phone books, paperbacks, shredded papers, magazines, slick papers, mailings or flattened cereal boxes. At a special National Honor Society Induction Ceremony held during school mass on Tuesday, six new members were welcomed into the Pope John XXIII Central Catholic High School Chapter in Elgin.
New members include sophomores Marissa Preister, daughter of Scott and Kay Preister of Petersburg; Allyson Selting, daughter of Lynn and Amy Selting of Elgin, juniors Breanna Bartak, daughter of Gary and Mary Bartak of Ewing; Brynn Dilly, daughter of Doug and Shawn Dilly of Neligh; Luke Henn, son of Denis and Jan Henn of Elgin; Kayce Kallhoff, daughter of Brent and Susan Kallhoff of Elgin. The National Honor Society (NHS) is the nation's premier organization established to recognize outstanding high school students. More than just an honor roll, NHS serves to recognize those students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, and character. These characteristics have been associated with membership in the organization since its beginning in 1921. To be considered for membership students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA. |
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