White Honored as York News Times Female Athlete of the Year

Exeter-Milligan's recent graduate Katherine White was recently honored as the York News Times All Area Female Athlete of the Year.  To read the article click here

Exeter-Milligan Class 2019

Newly minted members of the Exeter-Milligan Alumni Association who attended the reunion are pictured from the left:  Theron Odvody, James Becker and Mitchell Manning.

Exeter Troop 218 Member Completes Eagle Project

 William Yokel addresses the crowd at the flag retirement ceremony that was a part of his Eagle project.

 William Yokel, right, directs the scouts, including Mikey Bartu (left) in removing the flags from Andrews cemetery at the end of Memorial Day.

William Yokel decided to go all in for his Eagle project to help one of the organizations he appreciates the most, the American Legion.

Yokel, who just completed his junior year at Friend High School, is active in theatre, FFA, band and choir, joined Cub Scouts when he was in first grade.

He earned his arrow of light (the highest award in Cub Scouts) and crossed over into Boy Scout Troop 270 when he was in fifth grade and transferred to Boy Scout Troop 218 in Exeter several years ago.  He currently serves as Senior Patrol leader for the troop.

Scouting has meant a great deal to this busy teen, “Scouting has taught me how to use the scout laws in my daily life. It’s taught me skills I wouldn’t have learned otherwise.”

Scouting has not always been easy.  He found the Personal Management merit badge, in which scouts learn about finances and keep track of their own spending and earning, the most challenging, “We take all the money we make and receive for granted and we don’t know how to use it or save it.  It’s a perfect skill to learn.”

In January Yokel began looking for an Eagle scout project which would meet the criteria of the rank, “While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community.”

He initially spoke with the American Legion, as he is a member of the Sons of the American Legion Post 183 in Friend.  He had the idea to help with the placement of flags at the cemetery for Memorial Day.  That idea expanded to include not only Andrews cemetery, south of Friend, but flag placement at three other local rural cemetery locations and a flag retirement ceremony.

Yokel explained his choice of the Legion, “The American Legion was always my top choice because I appreciate veterans and the sacrifice they give.  I chose it because it was a honorable thing to the fallen veterans and with the flag retirement, it is a symbol to the freedom we all share.”

Yokel headed up the crew that placed the flags early in the week in the Friend area and then recruited members of his Boy Scout troop to help with the flag retirement ceremony on Monday, May 27^th  at Andrews Cemetery.

Yokel led a moving and solemn ceremony as 20 flags were retired during the hour long ceremony.  After the ceremony, Yokel directed the scouts and volunteers in removing the memorial flags from Andrews cemetery.

Legion member Ron Corbett has been in charge of the flag placement for the last ten years and was very happy to see Yokel volunteer with the flags. “ It’s quite a job for all of us legionnaires to do it. There are about six or eight of us who usually do it and it was great to have him do it.  It gave us a year off.”

Corbett added, “He (Yokel) had helped us before so he had an idea of how we do it.  We were out there and supervised him.  No one told us we missed a grave.  We put out about 400 flags We are very happy William chose this project. It’s very important to the veterans and the Legionnaires.”

The most challenging task for Yokel in his project was trying to “Keep the volunteers on task and making sure we didn’t miss anyone when we placed the flag.”

Troop 218 Scoutmaster Dean Bartu commended Yokel on his project and his leadership in the troop, “William has been a great example of leadership to our troop and his project has utilized his organizational skills.  He did an excellent job showing respect for our country and its symbol in his project.”

Yokel plans to continue coordinating the flags for Memorial Day for the foreseeable future. He is looking to “ try to use the cemetery directory as a map to help identify veterans graves in the future.”

After completing the necessary paperwork, Yokel hopes to complete his Eagle board of review this summer.

Exeter-Milligan Class of 2009

Members of the Exeter-Milligan class of 2009 who attended the reunion are pictured from the left: Amber Filipi Morrison, Maddie Emshoff Underwood, Justina Kassik Yound, Travis Oliva, Emily Harre Reed, Kayla Becker Johnson and Mackenzie Thomsen Gauss.

Exeter Troop 218 Summer Trip

 Scouts in Troop 218 warmed up around the fire before making supper.  The next morning they had four inches of snow on their tents and had to leave that day before the foot of predicted snow arrived making mountain driving conditions unsafe.  Pictured from the left are Mikey Bartu, Ben Bartu, Clint Oldehoeft and Braden Capek.

Members of Troop 218 stopped for a photo before hiking around Devil’s Tower (in the background).  Pictured from the left are Mikey Bartu, Ben Bartu, Clint Oldehoeft and Braden Capek.  The scouts climbed over the rocks to the base of the tower in addition to the hike around the tower.

 

 Boy Scouts in Troop 218 did some hiking on the trip through Western Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.  Pictured from the left are Clint Oldehoeft, Braden Capek, Mikey Bartu and Ben Bartu

Four scouts in Troop 218 recently planned a trip to hike in Western Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

The scouts, Braden Capek, Clint Oldehoeft, Ben and Mikey Bartu and their leaders, Dean and Leesa Bartu, left Exeter on Saturday, May 18^th.  First on their itinerary was a stop in North Platte, Neb. at the Golden Spike Tower where they learned about the largest railyard in the United States.

From there the group traveled to Bayard, Neb. to visit National Monument Chimney Rock.  The troop toured the facility and experienced the challenges of loading a wagon to take on the trail.  From there the troop traveled to Alliance, Neb. to see Carhenge.  The boys enjoyed examining the additional metal sculptures at the Carhenge sight.

The first night on the trip was at the beautiful Chadron State Park.  After a quick supper the troop settled for the night and awoke to snow on the ground.  It was a chilly morning so the troop packed up quickly and headed out to their next destination, Custer State Park.

Just outside of Custer State Park the scouts took a detour to Wind Cave State Park.  The group toured the cave, and especially enjoyed the elevator ride back up out of the cave.

At Custer State Park they drove the wildlife loop and enjoyed stopping to watch a large buffalo herd and their calves cross the road.  They also enjoyed feeding the resident donkeys.  They headed to their campsite at Sylvan Lake to set up tents on the snow there.  The scouts hiked to a peak in that area and planned to hike Black Elk Peak the next day.

After waking up to four inches of snow on their tents the troop had to make the decision to forgo their planned trip to Black Elk Peak because of the foot of snow that was predicted.  Instead the group left a day early and made a stop at Crazy Horse where the snow stopped just long enough to get a glimpse of the carving.  They also stopped at Mount Rushmore but didn’t ever get a clear view of the monument because of the snow and fog.

That evening the scouts spent the night in a restored caboose near Piedmont, SD and laid their tents out to dry.  Snow once again found the troop as they were barely able to get the van and trailer out of the driveway.  As they headed to Sturgis, SD the rain came and so the troop found the Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame to entertain them.  They stopped in Spearfish, SD for a quick lunch and headed to Wyoming.

The snow continued in Wyoming as the troop headed for Devil’s Tower National Monument.  After donning their rain gear the troop hiked around the base of the tower with the scout’s climbing rocks up to the base of the tower.  Before the hike was done Devil’s Tower was enshrouded in fog.

Next on the itinerary was a stop in Gillette, WY to see the large coal mines.  Unfortunately tours were not available until later in the week but the scouts were able to see some of the mine and equipment from a viewing spot.  Older mining equipment was also displayed in another part of town.

The troop camped in Douglas, WY overnight in the snow once again.  In the morning the troop headed east for a stop at Fort Laramie National Historic Site.  After watching a brief historical film the group toured the well restored grounds.  After lunch the troop headed east again stopping in Cabela’s in Sidney before heading to Ole’s in Paxton for supper.

After camping in North Platte for the evening the scouts opted to visit Pioneer Village in Minden before heading home on Thursday, May 23.  The scouts planned all of the meals and did all of the cooking to complete items on the cooking and camping merit badge.

Exeter Class of 1999

Members of the Exeter class of 1999 who attended the reunion are pictured from the left: Andy Rocole, Robbie Petersen, Lane Becwar, Colleen Krasser Knott, Liz Ekeler Kallhoff, and Mary Harre Schlegelmilch.