Exeter-Milligan Elementary Students Enjoy Presentation from York College Traveling Children's Theatre

Asistant Director A.J. Wharton asks the first and second graders if he can sit with them.

 The White Rabbit (John Baker) reads the charges against the Knave of Hearts during Alice in Wonderland.

 

 The cast of the York College Traveling Children's Theatre at the end of the play helping Alice return to her world.

The York College Traveling Children’s Theatre made one of its 20 stops at schools and libraries in Exeter on Tuesday morning.

The group of 13 students who have volunteer for the activity performed “Alice In Wonderland” adapted from the Lewis Carroll novel by William Glennon with a prologue written by YC drama professor John I. Baker III.

One of the unique features of the production is the interaction with the audience. The Exeter-Milligan kindergarten through sixth graders laughed, helped point out the hidden items and asked questions at the end of the play.

This is the fourteenth year for the Traveling Children’s Theatre under Baker’s direction.  Alice did all of the typical Alice type things including following the rabbit down the rabbit hole, visiting the Mad Hatter’s tea party and playing croquet with the Queen.

The Queen of Hearts made her tarts and frequently spouted “Off with their ’eads,” to the students amusement.  Things kept turning up missing which involved many of the players chasing each other around the gym to the delight of the audience. 

It isn’t clear whether the players or the audience enjoyed themselves more.  After introducing themselves with a brief bio, the YC students opened up the floor for questions from the Exeter-Milligan audience.  The students wanted to know about the sound effects production, how the players change clothes so quickly and why they wore masks (it was explained that in the commedia dell’arte style of theatre masks are worn instead of make up).

 

Exeter-Milligan Update: Spanish I

MAKING BRACELETS IN EXETER-MILLIGAN
By: Taylor Erdkamp & Megan Zwickl

     The Spanish I Class of 2010-11 has learned mucho (lots)
of things this year. We have had fun while learning it too.
In the first semester we learned about articles of clothing
in a fun way by having a fashion show where we described
each other's clothes in Spanish. We've learned colors,
numbers, common greetings and how to tell the location of a
place. Most recently we've learned how to make traditional
Pamiente bracelets (name of the bracelets in Guatemala) by
tying a series of knots with yarn of multiple colors to
create a one of a kind bracelet. They are called Pamiente
bracelets because two are seldom alike, if you see someone
wearing one just like yours you are destined to be best
friends. We've learned so much and yet there's still
more to come this year.

Grain Elevator News

Did you see the large crane in town this week and wonder what it was?  A call to the Exeter branch of the Farmer's Cooperative revealed that the crane removed the 35 year old dryer from the elevator and replaced it with a new one at a cost of $800,000.  In the last year the Farmer's Cooperative has invested over $3 million in facilities at the Exeter Branch including the new storage tube.  Along with revenue generated from the investments the community will benefit as Exeter sales tax was collected on the items.

Exeter-Milligan School Update: Reading Mastery Group

Mrs. Audry Betka-Mager's Reading Mastery group enjoys
learning to read! After learning the new words and reviewing
some previously learned words, the children read their story
for the day. It usually begins with an information passage
which shares some important facts that relate to the story.
Then the students read the story, do some reading with a
partner, and answer some comprehension questions in their
textbook and workbook. Every five lessons, the students do a
checkout to check their reading speed and accuracy. After
completing 10 lessons, they do a mastery test. The children
are excited about the progress they are making! Pictured in
the photo: Front Row L. to R.--Cameran Jansky, Braden Capek;
Back Row L. to R.--Briana Capek, Alivia Hartman. Absent:
Emma Olsen.

Exeter sees improvements at the Smith Index Tag Factory

From the left Robin and Seth Jones, owners of the tag factory, and Kathy and Howard Jones.

This is the air compressor down in the bowels of the basement that served the tag factory. Barely visible behind the compressor is an old tunnel that led to the power plant for the building.

The Jones' spent the better part of a week fixing the damage from part of the ceiling that caved in. This photo shows much of the new construction to repair the structure.


The historic tag factory in downtown Exeter has recently received some maintenance attention.

Owners, Seth and Robin Jones, of San Diego, spent a week in Exeter recently making major repairs to the roof and structure of the building and giving the visible front a mini facelift. They purchased the building about three years ago, sight unseen.

This winter the building had a roof cave in that damaged all four floors of the building.  The Jones’, along with Seth parents, Howard and Kathy Jones of Oregon, spent a week hauling trash out of the building starting in the basement.

After the broken plaster, old beams and metal were pulled from the building they started in the basement rebuilding the ceiling structure, working their way back up to replacing the roof trusses and supports.

After the majority of those repairs were made the group brightened up the front of the building repainting the windows and covering some broken windows with steel sheeting to protect the interior of the building and prevent more glass breakage.

The Jones’ have an online business selling old car parts and have some of the parts housed in the building but hope to use the central location for more storage.

“We would love ideas from the locals on what kind of facilities are needed in the area,” said Seth Jones.  “We would like to close off the front of the building to use for some sort of retail space.  We would build to suit if the interest was there.”

In addition to more cleaning in the building the Jones’ hope to remove the front brick corner that was added on to the building bringing it back to it’s original charm.

They plan on reserving a section of the building for a small museum about the tag factory that was housed in the building from 1884 to 1962.  Many historical items were removed from the building and given to the Fillmore County Historical Society with the condition that if the building were ever restored the relevant items would be returned upon request.

Still evident in the building were many production items from the tag factory, old records and files, as well as the two walk in safes, located on different floors.  In the unlit basement the old air compressor with very large pulleys still sits in its location just in front of an old tunnel that hasn’t been explored in years.

Local historian and member of the Fillmore County Historical Society Shirley Trauger visited with the Jones’ during their stay in Exeter and was thrilled with their ownership, “I hope to see the building restored as much as possible and open to the public.  It was the world’s first index tag factory - we should be proud of that and show it off,” said Trauger.

The younger Jones’ travel all over the country with their parts business but spend the majority of their time in San Diego where they own and operate an environmental consulting business.

Currently the tag factory is not on the Historical Registry and the Jones’ have contemplated that option, but are concerned about restrictions that would be placed on any changes they might want to make to the building along with the costs of restoration.

Exeter-Milligan Update: Physical Education

From the PE Department by Darcy White

Students in Grades K-2 have been participating in the
President's Challenge Physical Fitness Testing Program.
The Fitness Program includes five events that measure
muscular strength/endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance,
speed, agility, and flexibility.  They have also been
practicing hitting a ball off of a tee and playing "tee"
ball.  They will wrap up the school year with soccer,
softball (tee ball), and other "outdoor" activities that
will get them prepared for Elementary Field Day, which is
scheduled for May 13.

Sophomores are involved in a badminton unit. They chose
partners and have been involved in quite a competitive
"round robin" tournament.  Megan Zwickl and Robbie
Androyna are the current leaders of the competition.  They
will wrap up the school year with softball, pickle ball, and
the President's Challenge Fitness Tests.

Pictured are Jackson Beethe and Brock Steuben working to
improve their cardiorespiratory endurance.

Exeter-Milligan School Update: Art Classes

Art Classes at Exeter-Milligan by Jill Shipley


The art classes at Exeter-Milligan recently learned about
Chinese
Opera masks.  They learned about the different colors used
and how they stand for different meanings and studied the
shapes used and how the designs were symmetrical.

Then they created their own mask using a paper Mache
construction.  Next they created their own opera mask design
using some shapes from examples.  Then they painted their
design on their mask.

They turned out great.

First National Bank in Exeter Teaches Children to Save

First National Bank in Exeter joined a group of just three banks in Nebraska that have participated in the Teach Children to Save program for the fifteen years of it's existence.

Wednesday, Sharla Dinneen, representing the bank, visited both campuses of the Exeter-Milligan school with a message about saving.

To start, Dinneen passed out bags of 15 candies to each student instructing them that they could eat 13.  When she asked why only 13, they learned the concept of saving.

Dinneen also gave an example of saving from her own life, a mini bank she had made and decorated to help her meet a goal of a purchase.  She asked the kids to recall her topic from last year and they remembered recycling.  She showed how her saving bank was a recycled item. After talking briefly about how they can recycle and how the bank recycle Dinneen reminded them that, "I think about saving and recycling and I think both should be easy and enjoyable."

The students at Exeter (Kindergarten, first and second graders) had an opportunity to talk about some of their short term and long term savings goals were.  Many talked about electronic devices and toys, but college and cars were mention, too.

Dinneen emphasized the fact that, "Whether you are recycling or saving, we are all trying to do the same thing, which is save for the future."

To show the compounded effect of saving, Dinneen showed the kids a bag of 365 items, as if she had saved one per day. To encourage the students to do even more saving she compared it to a bag of 730 items and talked about how much money that would be if they saved $2.00 a day.

Dinneen encouraged the students to visit their local bank, start a savings account and start saving money.  She asked the students to sign a poster that will be displayed at First National Bank in Exeter and shared a treat with them before they returned to their classrooms.

 First National Bank in Exeter Employee Sharla Dinneen shares about saving with Exeter-Milligan students.

 Exeter-Milligan Kindergarteners get read to sign the poster from First National Bank in Exeter.

Exeter-Milligan First Graders sign the bank poster.

Milligan Resident Runs Marathons

John Zelenka running the Boston Marathon in 2009.

Getting ready to race Zelenka is picture with his son, Trevor, left, Dalton, right, and his running buddy, Randy Joe, far right in Iowa.

The number John Zelenka wore when competing in the Boston Marathon.

Medal John received after finishing the Boston Marathon.

John Zelenka finishing the Siouxland Lewis and Clark Marathon in Sioux City, Iowa in 2007.

John Zelenka running a marathon in Sioux City, Iowa with his boys cheering him on, far left is Trevor, Dalton in the middle.

The Zelenka's posed during the mini vacation in Boston before John ran the race.  Pictured back row John and Traci, front row, Dalton, left, Trevor, right.

 
Running isn't everyone's favorite form of exercise and certainly hasn't always been Milligan resident John Zelenka's. In fact he didn't start to run seriously,entering his first marathon, the Lincoln marathon until the age of 42.

“We ran the first one, me and a buddy and that’s all we were ever going to do. A couple weeks went by and the pain wasn’t so bad so we ran Lincoln again,” Zelenka recalls, “I had it in the back of my head, running the Boston Marathon and I realized I was only 30 minutes away from qualifying time.”

Growing up Zelenka remembers seeing the New York Marathon on television and being “amazed that someone could run 26 miles.”

He certainly didn’t set out to run marathons, “I started out just wanting to get in shape and stay in shape.” He spends his days working for the Village of Milligan as their Water Operator and doing village maintenance.
As the thought of marathon running grew in his mind he began seriously training for marathons, getting up early to run, running in the evenings after work and using the treadmill when the weather or the light weren’t agreeable. Right now he spends about 45 minutes a day training, running around six miles.

As he continued to train after running his first marathon in Lincoln in 2006, Zelenka realized that his time at the 2008 Little Rock Marathon, a Boston certified race, qualified him for the Boston Marathon. Qualification lasts for about a year and half so Zelenka registered for the April 2009 Boston Marathon.

Between 27,000 and 28,000 people run the Boston Marathon each year and Zelenka found the qualifying for the race to be more exciting than running the race, “The first six miles of Boston I had to watch the guy’s feet in front of me so I didn’t step on him.”

Participating in the race was still a thrill for Zelenka, especially the outcome. Zelenka likes to note that his time beat four-time Boston Marathon winner Bill Rogers who also ran in 2009 (don’t ask him about the age difference between them). Zelenka finished the Boston Marathon with a time of 3:42:38.

The students in his kids’ classes sent him cards, signed a Boston shirt for him and watched for him during the Boston race on the internet. That helped motivate him as well, “I knew I had to keep going because the kids were watching for me.”

“People talk about how tough Boston was but I think Lincoln is the toughest,” said Zelenka. He figures that since he is familiar with the route in Lincoln it seems further and more difficult than the other races he has run.
Zelenka decided to set an unofficial goal for himself, “To run one a year, to go to a different state every year and take the family. We make a mini vacation out of it. This year we will go to South Dakota in May.”
 
So far he, along with his friend Randy Joe, from Fairbury, have run in marathons in California, Nevada, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and North Dakota. Joe missed Massachusetts and Boston, but otherwise they have been running together from the first Lincoln event.
Zelenka has found that he enjoys the races with smaller numbers of entries. “We did Kansas last year with about 300 people. The people are friendlier in these type of races.”
 
Zelenka has the rest of the family running as well. His wife, Traci, ran the half-marathon in Lincoln along with their son, Dalton, an Exeter-Milligan eighth grader. Trevor, in fourth grade, has started running fun runs. Last December John and Traci ran in Las Vegas and made another mini-vacation out of the trip.
 
Zelenka encourages others to give running a try, “You’re never too old to do something - it’s easy to talk yourself out of something. You’ve gotta go try and do it, if you fail, you fail.”

Exeter Teen Wins National American Miss Nebraska Junior Teen Title

Some of Deidre Stevens dreams came true when the Exeter-Milligan ninth grader was crowned the 2011 National American Miss Nebraska Junior Teen in just her second pageant.

Stevens, the daughter of Hope Androyna of Exeter and Chad Stevens of Lincoln, was crowned on Sunday, April 3^rd at the Omaha event.

The competiton was a three day event with Stevens participating in the “casual wear” and the “Top Model” categories. She found this pageant “A great starting point. Everyone was so friendly and it was so geared toward family. We were still marked on our looks, but you have to be well spoken and have personal interviews.”

Keeping along the family friendly lines the girls competed in an evening wear competition, a personal introduction, an interview with the judges, and an opening dance number. Stevens cleaned up in the optional categories where she took first in Casual Wear and second in Top Model.

Casual Wear was an opportunity for Stevens to choose an outfit and then model it for the judges. She also wore the outfit for the Top Model category where she, a judge and a professional photographer had a photo shoot. She will receive a portfolio of photos from the photo shoot.

Stevens was thrilled to have her father escort her for the eveningwear competition in his dress blues on Saturday night. Sunday evening her nerves were buzzing as the group changed quickly into formal wear and the optional category winners were announced.

The evening began to wrap up as the first nine finalists were announced and then Stevens recalled “a really long speech before I was called as one of the top ten. I was thrilled to make my goal to be in the top ten. When my name was announced as the winner I knew at that moment my life would change forever. Everything paid off, it was everything I knew I could do and they picked me out of 66 great ladies.”

Stevens hopes to share what she has learned with the young girls in the community, “You can have a goal and can accomplish it. I’m a perfect example, starting out not knowing what is going on to winning the whole thing.”

She will spent the next year making appearances across the State but hopes to make an impact at home. “I hope to spend the year being a role model for young girls, to get out in the community more, to be a representative for Nebraska the best way I can.”

To start with she brought home a huge box of new stuffed animals and books all donated by the other pageant contestants that she will be distributing to an organization locally. She is also looking for other community service projects.

This pageant, according to the National American Miss organization is “dedicated to developing the success of young women across our nation with a program that is designed to be age-appropriate and family-oriented. Emphasis is placed on the importance of gaining self-confidence, learning new skills, learning good attitudes about competition, and setting and achieving personal goals.”

Stevens will be heading to the National Pageant, which will be held in Anaheim, California at Disneyland in November competing with our state winners for over $500,000 in cash and prizes.

Stevens also participates at Exeter-Milligan on the golf team, in FCCLA, the all school play, one act play, in band as a cheerleader. She is also a member of the Exeter American Legion Junior Auxiliary.