Exeter American Legion Celebrates Birthday and Honors Members

 Legion Commander Alan Songster (right) presents a membership plaque to Mitch Schlegelmilch.

Fifty year members of the Exeter American Legion Post 218 after the presentation (l-r) Ralph “Butch” Jansen, Norman Anton and Jack Underwood.

Exeter Legion Post 218 held their annual Legion birthday party on Monday, March 11^th.  After the Legion, Auxiliary and Sons of the Legion each met separately they joined together for some special recognitions.

The Exeter post was formed in 1926 and purchased the current building in 1954.

First, Commander Alan Songster presented Mitch Schlegelmilch, Commander of Sons of the Legion, with a plaque from the state which recognized the 218 unit as achieving the highest percentage of membership.

Next, three Legion members were recognized for 50 years of membership and each spoke briefly on their service before they were presented with a certificate by Songster.

First was Norman Anton who spoke about how he was drafted and spent time in Korea as a mechanic.

Second was Ralph “Butch” Jansen who was also drafted into the Army and served as a medic for an armored division.

Third was Jack Underwood who had joined the reserves in 1964 and was called up with his unit in 1968.  He and his unit served in Vietnam for one year.

After the three were honored for their service and their membership a lunch was served.

Exeter-Milligan performs well at first track of the season

Above– Maddie Luzum took second in pole vault for Exeter-Milligan.  She jumped a 6’6”

Below – Jaiden Papik helped the Exeter-Milligan girls bring home the top spot in the 4 x 800 relay.

Above – Briana Capek took second in discus with a 71’9” spinner.

Below – Peytan Brandt led teammate Jackson Beethe in the high hurdles and finished first and third in the contest.

6 – Kayla Geiger did well in her heat at the first track meet of the season in McCool Junction.

7 – Macy Due is all smiles for her heat of the 100 M dash.

Above – Casey Jindra burned up the track and the long jump pit.  He placed first in long jump with a jump of 17’6.25”, first in 100 and 200M races and second in the 400M.

Below – L-R Exeter-Milligan Timberwolves Jackson Beethe, Spencer Pribyl and Blake Steuben run their heat of the 100 M.  Pribyl finished second behind teammate Casey Jindra and Beethe finished sixth.

Above – Katherine White cleaned up for the Timberwolves on the girls side of the track meet.  She took first in the 100 and 200 M dash, 100 high hurdles and 300 hurdles.

Below – Spencer Pribyl finished third in the 800M race.

Above– Jaiden Papik hands off the baton to Kate Jansky in the 4 x 400M race.  The Exeter-Milligan girls won the event with a time of 4:50.97.

Below – Clint Oldehoeft hands off the baton to Braden Capek in the 4 x 400 race.  The boys finished fourth.

Exeter-Milligan First Grade Classroom

Exeter-Milligan first graders on pajama day with their teacher Miss Sara Lincoln.  In the back row from the left are first graders Crosby Oldehoeft, Liam Capek, Archer Kanode and Axel Erdkamp.  Front row from the left are Lynn Jurgensen, Piper Grummons, Gracelyn Becker and Lillian Koehler.

Recently the Exeter-Milligan elementary students celebrated Read Across America.  The first grade class celebrated Dr. Suess' birthday wore pajamas and watched a short video in honor of Dr. Seuss, The Lorax.  On Thursday, the students wore crazy socks and hats and had free reading time.

This fun group of first graders is “so smart and competitive” according to their teacher Miss Sara Lincoln.  She has enjoyed watching them grow as “They are able to go above and beyond any direction I give them on an assignment.  They are also extremely creative and work very hard on all of the assignments, especially when I give them more independence on the assignment.”

They use their iPads almost every day for a variety of subjects.  “We have done several projects on Google slides, we upload our projects onto Seesaw so the students can share with their parents.  We use the Geoboard app to practice building shapes.  We use Quizlet to practice our math facts in a fun way.”

Later this year they will learn about the life cycle of a butterfly.  They will raise caterpillars and watch them as they cocoon before setting the butterflies free after they hatch.

 Archer Kanode gets some help from his teacher Miss Sara Lincoln on iPad project.

  Lillian Koehler focuses on her project.

 Above - Gracelyn Becker works hard on her President project on her iPad.

Below – Piper Grummons asks her teacher Miss Sara Lincoln a question about the project the class is doing.

Above– Liam Capek finishes his project on his iPad but they have to work through a technology issue so it will display properly.

Above - If you are going to be comfy in pajamas then you might as well go all the way and wear your slippers.  Piper Grummons (right) and Gracelyn Becker (left) matched from head to toe for pajama day.

 The boys

The girls

Exeter-Milligan Boys Track

Front row left to right Ben Bartu, Braden Capek, Casey Jindra, Blake Steuben, Mitchell Manning.  Back row from the left: Clint Oldehoeft, Luis Jaegermann, Peytan Brandt, Spencer Pribyl, Ryan Sharp and Jackson Beethe.