D.W. Visits Exeter-Milligan Elementary Students

Exeter-Milligan elementary students got a special treat Tuesday afternoon. They had a visit from the real “D.W.”. Who is D.W. you ask? Why everyone knows Dora Winifred Read, don’t they?

Well, for those of you who aren’t familiar with D.W., she is the annoying younger sister of Arthur of the Arthur series of books and star of the PBS series.

Kim Marc, is the real D.W., and the real younger sister of Marc Brown the author and illustrator of the long running Arthur series. Currently she lives in Litchfield, Neb. And visits schools around the country sharing with students the process that her brother, Marc, goes through when he writes an Author book.

Kim brought a lot of humor to her presentation asking the students, “You guys didn’t think I was going to show up with pink fuzzy ears?” She exemplified so many of the characteristics and even the intonations of D.W. as written by her brother Marc.

Kim explained how Marc Brown wrote the first Arthur book when he was working as an illustrator. His oldest son begged for a nightly bedtime store and Arthur the Aardvark was born. His son asked for the Arthur story over and over and eventually Marc made it into a book for his children and mentioned it to the publisher he worked with. Since then he has written well over 100 books about Arthur and his sister D.W.

About twenty years ago the Arthur series came to PBS. Brown overseas the series on PBS and one of his sons works as a producer on the series.

Exeter-Milligan students got the opportunity to ask Brown questions about Marc and the writing process. She also shared quite a few pictures of Marc, their family and his home. When showing his beautiful home in Martha’s Vineyard she reminded the students, “you don’t have to be a sports hero to have a nice beautiful home.”

Brown also shared some of the secret games that are present in the Arthur books. She explained how that Marc includes each of his children’s names hidden in the pictures of his books and one special book that includes all of the names of his nieces and nephews.

Kim explained that it takes Marc about two weeks to write a story. He does about 30 rewrites on each story to get it just right before moving on to the illustration. Illustrating is where Brown started and still enjoys the most. In addition to the Arthur series he continues to illustrate books including a Dinosaurs series with his wife as the author. The Dinosaurs series was designed to help children get through difficult situations like divorce.

The students enjoyed having Kim read them a D.W. book, D.W., The Picky Eater and also learning the eight steps drawing Arthur. All of the students got in line and Brown stamped autographs in the Arthur books students brought or on a piece of paper. Before the students left, Arthur himself made an appearance and took pictures with the students.

The program was put together by Librarian Jeretta Tauriella. When she found out that Brown was available to come to the students she booked her noting that “It is not too often you can find someone who is inexpensive who will come to a little town.”

The funding for the program came from the Book Fair fund and Tauriella thought it was “something that would help the kids related back to books.”

Community Flips over Chamber Pancake Feed

Exeter Chamber of Commerce members stand at the ready to serve pancakes, sausage and drinks to the line-up of hungry community members.

Visiting and eating at the pancake feed.

Jaiden Papik enjoys her giant pancake.

Exeter community members had a chance to be served pancakes by members of the local chamber of commerce Monday evening.

The free pancake feed was well attended by over 120 members of the community. The Exeter Chamber of Commerce holds the feed annually.

After the pancake feed the chamber held their regular member and voted to donate $200 to the American Legion to help with insulating the ceiling of the Legion hall. They also held elections with Bob Mueller elected President, Paul Sheffield, vice-president, Alan Emshoff, treasurer and Hope Androyna, secretary.

In order to raise additional funding the chamber explored the possibility of holding a consignment auction this summer and Barry Murphy will chair this committee.

Exeter-Milligan School Update

Mr. Krejci's reading group has been working
on new sounds and more challenging words this semester.
They are shown here working on their worksheets after
reading the story of the day. The students continue to
use the new Reading Mastery Program which has improved their
reading skills throughout the year. Pictured are MaKenna
Morgan, Summer Auld, Georgia Meyer, and Ty Underwood.

Exeter Chamber of Commerce Hosts Pancake Feed Tonight

Starting at 5 p.m. the Exeter Legion Hall will open for the annual Exeter Chamber of Commerce Pancake feed. Come eat some free pancakes and sausage and meet your Exeter business owners.

Edgar Rec Center gets a Mini Face Lift

Larry Cudaback, left, and Kay Due, right, pictured with the sign they recently updated.

If you haven't driven by Edgar Recreation Center in the last month, take a few minutes to check out the new improvements there.

For starters the park sign was given a more than just a face lift. The sign, a collaborative effort of Larry Cudaback and Kay Due, is completely new. Cudaback put together the sign board with a frame and gave it some new supports so that Due could repaint the park sign. The sign reflects the many activites available at the park.

Also included in the recent updates were a new cement picnic table. The very heavy addition to the park was assembled by Cudaback and another park neighbor, John C. Miller. The merry-go-round also received a new landing pad of soft gravel.

In 2006 the tennis courts were resurfaced and the playground swingset was updated. Arriving with the swingset was the first cement picnic table.

Those in the neighborhood, like Cudaback and Miller, along with Kenny Guthrie and park board member Brian Murphy take turns keeping the park mowed in the summertime. The park was started in 1969 when the United Methodist Church bought the land across the street from them. Under the direction of Reverend Adrian Edgar, who was minister at the United Methodist Church at the time, they decided to use the ground as a community park. They made two tennis courts paved with asphalt in that year and some of the original playground equipment was set, along with the shuffleboard courts and the basketball hoops. In the 19080's the wooden play structure was built. Since it is owned by the United Methodist Church, it is maintained by Park Board members and not the village.

With Spring coming, visit Edgar Recreation Center to enjoy the new updates.

#3 Seed Humphrey St. Francis too much for the Timberwolves.

Humphrey St. Francis were on a mission of revenge on the State Tournament court Thursday afternoon. They have finished as runner ups in the State D-1 bracket the last two years. They were State Champions last in 2006. Exeter-Milligan Timberwolves held on for the first two periods but were outscored the last two periods, only scoring two points in the final period.

Exeter-Milligan high scorers were seniors Travis Yound with 11 points and Dillan White contributed 12 points for the team. The final score for the game was 57-32, ending the Timberwolves state play. The team had a 18 -7 record on the year.

Named to the boys All Conference Team were Travis Yound - first team, Dillan White and Mitch Horne - honorable mention. All Star team members were Travis Yound and Dillan White with Mitch Horne chosen as an alternate. Girls All Conference Team members were Heather Pribyl on the first team with Claire White given an honorable mention.

A little trivia, for you Exeter history buffs. Senior Dillan White's parents, Brad and Darcy White both played on State Championship teams. Brad, for McCool Junction in 1985 and Darcy for Exeter in 1986. Also, Jim Horne, father of Mitchell Horne, another senior, scored 36 points for Exeter back in 1980 at the District c-9 semi-final. Thanks to Bonnie Cudaback for sharing this information.

Timberwolves Headed to State

The Exeter-Milligan Timberwolf Basketball Team pictured just before heading to Lincoln.

Escorted out of town by the Exeter Volunteer Fire Department.

The Kindergarten, First and Second Graders shared a song with the team at the pep rally.

The team comes out of the school.

The Band warms up to play the team on the bus.

Exeter-Milligan School Updage: Algebra III Class

The Algebra III class just finished their unit on
probability with an activity comparing the number of a
certain color of m&m's to the percentages that Mars Company
claims is in each bag. We found the margin of error and
found most colors to be close to what the company claims.

Exeter-Milligan Boys Basketball Team Plays Thursday

The Exeter-Milligan Boys Basketball Team will play their first ever State Basketball Tournament game on Thursday, March 11th at 3:45 p.m. The game will be at Lincoln Northeast High School against the #3 seeded Humphrey St. Francis. The Timberwolves are the #6 seed in the D-1 bracket. Go Timberwolves!!!!

Exeter-Milligan Elementary Spring Concert

Exeter-Milligan third and fourth graders singing at the Spring Concert.

Exeter-Milligan Kindergarten, first and second graders rock out while singing about Minding their Manners.

Exeter-Milligan Sing Around Nebraska Participants sang Old Joe Clark.

The Fifth and Sixth grade band performed three tunes for the audience.

The entire group of Exeter-Milligan Kindergarten through sixth grade performing at the Spring Concert "From the Inside Out."

The Exeter-Milligan Kindergarten through sixth grade classes spent Tuesday evening entertaining family and friends with a program entitled "From the Inside Out."

Guests were welcomed to the Milligan gym by artwork created by the classes featuring the character pillars the program focused on: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.

Prior to the program, several piano students performed for the audience. The program began with the fifth and sixth grade band performing several numbers including the Overture 1812. The fourth graders followed, playing Ode to Joy on their recorders.

This year for the first time the third graders played Boomwhackers. They are tubes of different lengths, that when whacked, give off a different pitch. The third graders performed Whacky Chopstix.

Eight students, Ashley Benorden, Kaitlyn Clift, Janey Due, Lucy Murphy, Patrick Murphy, Joan Strate, Katie Skinner, and Bailey Stueben, participated in the Sing Around Nebraska program and they sang Old Joe Clark from their program.

All of the students, Kindergarten through sixth grade sang The Star Spangled Banner together and then rocked ut and sang a song entitled From the Inside Out by Teresa Jennings.

The Kindergarten, first and second graders sang three numbers about the character pillars, Mind Your Manners, I Promise and Respect.

Next up were the third and fourth graders who sang Fifty Nifty United States and My Personal Code.

The fifth and sixth grade classes continued the theme singing about being Responsible and Kindness. They finished their portion of the concert singing Stand By Me.

All the classes together sang It Starts With Me to close the Spring concert.