HMS students enjoyed delivering crafts made by the 7th grade for the Community Thanksgiving Dinner.

The fifth annual Gameday Dance Showcase brought a new look to the competition stage, but the same excitement to Stormont Vail Events Center. The Holton Lady Paws Dance Team won 2nd Place. Olathe Northwest repeated as the 6A state champions while Blue Valley Southwest won 5A for the third straight season. This is the Ravens third title for dance after previously winning in 2020. Earlier in the day, Ottawa secured the first-place trophy in 4A while Mission Valley locked up the 3-1A crown. Both of those programs brought home their first state titles.

The eighth annual Gameday Cheer Showcase delivered a loud and thrilling atmosphere to the Stormont Vail Events Center once again, crowning champions in all six classes. Mill Valley won the Class 6A championship for the second straight season and St. Thomas Aquinas captured its third straight Class 5A crown. After a fifth-place finish last season ended Paola's two-year championship reign, the Panthers returned to the top of the leaderboard by winning the Class 4A state title again this year. Rossville completed the four-peat by winning the Class 3A state title. Oskaloosa finished as the state runner-up in 2A last year, but the Bears edged out reigning champ Cair Paravel to win the state title this year. Northern Valley repeats as the champs in Class 1A.

NCEMS Veterans' Day Celebration 2024 Thank You to all our Veterans!

Miss Riley's class earned 36 Hawk Blocks and celebrated with a fun-filled Camping Day! Hawk Blocks are awarded to students for demonstrating safe, respectful, and responsible behavior, and this group has done an amazing job earning them. To celebrate, we worked under tents with lanterns, read stories by the "campfire," and enjoyed s'mores cereal. It was a fun and memorable day for everyone! Way to go, second graders—keep up the great work!

NEK-CAP, Inc., a Community Action Agency that provides services and stabilization to families experiencing homelessness, has announced that it has received a $2.5 million grant from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez through the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund. This is the seventh year that the Day 1 Families Fund has awarded grants to organizations across the country that are leading the way to move the needle on family homelessness with the goal of ensuring that no child sleeps outside.

Kansas Association for Youth-KAY Area III selected Lillie Weiser from Onaga High School as their new Area President! Congratulations, Lillie!

November's HES positive behavior reward was riding the Brown County Historical Society's Trolly enjoying the fall weather & Beautiful City of Maples! We love seeing how Red Hawk ready our students are and showing amazing character traits! Way to go Jr Hawks!

Tory Jost, Nemaha County STEP_Foundation Executive Director announced an endowed fund was established in memory of Francis and Silvia Hecht by their children to honor and support community projects in the Bern and Seneca areas," Jost emphasized, "We are grateful for this generous gift of $150,000 to establish this fund. By utilizing the STEP Foundation, it is a perfect way to honor their parents, while giving back to the communities where they were raised, and also establishing a legacy fund for future generations at the same time." Pictured Left to Right Front Row: Janet Hanway and Sheila Radecki. Pictured Left to Right Back Row: Don Hecht, Bob Hecht, and Bill Hecht.

A few members of the Nemaha Valley Community Hospital Volunteer Services in Seneca made their annual trip to the Topeka Rescue Mission. The volunteers make mats and pillows for the homeless as one of their community projects. The Rescue Mission distributes these to the un-sheltered homeless through their MAP program (Mobile Access Partner). These mats and pillows are made from plastic shopping bags. It takes approximately 500 bags to make one mat. Not only will these plastic mats and pillows provide a dryer and more comfortable place to sleep for the homeless, it will keep the bags out of the landfills and give them a whole new purpose. The bags are folded, cut into strips that are looped together and then rolled into a ball of plarn (plastic yarn). The plarn is then woven on a loom into a 6 ft. mat or a pillow. The scraps from the bottom seam of the bag and the handles at the top are used to stuff the pillows so the entire bag is recycled. The hospital volunteers meet every Wednesday to work on this project. They logged in 532 volunteer hours this year to make 16 mats and 6 pillows which were taken on this trip to Topeka. Anyone interested in finding out more information on this project are encouraged to contact the hospital.

Congratulations to the HHS JV scholars bowl teams! Team A took 1st place and team B took second place at the Nemaha Central Invitational!

Worshipful Master Gilbert Wegner of the Onaga Lodge No. 188 A.F. & A. M. presented a check for $1000 to the Onaga Historical Society yesterday at the Onaga Health and Rehab to help fund the new building and ongoing projects designed to preserve the heritage of the area. The Onaga Herald will carry a full article in this week's edition.

Axtell Elementary Eagle Pal Morning! Pals enjoyed breakfast and then worked together to make table centerpieces for our Family Thanksgiving Meal coming up. Lots to be thankful for!

The Nemaha Central seventh grade class started their field trip off by going to Lecompton, Kansas. At Lecompton, the students participated in a play, visited the Constitution Hall, and ate at the park. After a bus ride from Lecompton to Topeka, the seventh graders visited the State Capitol Building. Mrs. Nikki Honeyman, the social studies teacher, took the seventh graders around the State Capitol building explaining several of the murals and statues as they went. The students also viewed the Senate room, the House of Representatives room, and the old Judicial room. Overall, the students enjoyed learning more about the history of Kansas.

Hiawatha Elementary was honored to have Veterans greet students Monday morning!! We thank them for their service and sacrifice to our country!! Happy Veterans Day to all who have served!

Cub Scout Pack 117 and BSA Troop 313 collected and then donated nearly 2000lbs of food during the annual Scouting for Food Drive in Hiawatha. The scouts went door to door posting reminders last week and then again this weekend to collect food do area by Hiawatha residents. Most of the food was donated to the North Brown County food pantry at the Trinity Center with the rest being placed in local food cupboards around Hiawatha.

Sabetha High School Track and Field Project update! We are excited to share progress on our new track and field complex. This project is moving forward with incredible support from the community and businesses. We wanted to share with you a FAQ document to help answer any questions that you may have of the project. As well insights gathered from other schools that have seen amazing benefits with similar upgrades.

HMS and HHS hosted the annual Career Day. They hosted 27 presenters at the Expo along with several break out session presenters. They would like to thank them all for coming and sharing their time with the 5-12 grade students.

Congrats to the Nemaha Central Varsity Scholars Bowl team on taking third place at the home meet!! GO THUNDER!!!

The Onaga Historical Society will host their annual Veterans "Tribute of Our Veterans" Program and Reception on Sunday, November 10, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in the Heritage Center at the Onaga Historical Museum located at 310 E. 2 nd St., Onaga, Kansas. All are invited. This year's program will focus on showing appreciation for all veterans and currently serving Military personnel as well as on the women from the Onaga area who have served our Country. Keynote speaker is Colonel Dena R. Goble, Onaga High School Class of 1988, who enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1987 on "Experiences in the Military Over the Decades". After over 17 years as an enlisted soldier, where Col Goble served in multiple NCO leadership positions, to include as a Military Police (MP) instructor, Operations Sargeant Major for the 924th MP BN, and culminating as the First Sergeant of the 346the MP Co. In 2005, she received a direct commission as a Military Police Officer, then in 2013 she completed the Civil Affairs Qualification Course. COL Goble mobilized three times while enlisted, to include a deployment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Camp Bucca, Iraq, and Jordan to support Operation Inherent Resolve. During COL Goble's time in Iraq, two other Onaga High School graduates were also stationed in Iraq – Gail Wege, Rodney Labbe, and Rick Manuel, U.S. Navy, at sea. As a civilian, COL Goble is the Lead Planner for the Department of Defense Warrior games and U.S. Invictus Games Team in the G-35 of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. COL Goble will be sharing insight into her military experiences. Jolene Cervantes will detail the stories of two women veterans, raised in Onaga area, who served in World War I in the Army Nurses Corps (ANC). Essie Mae (DeGraw) Koentz and Grace (Needham) Allen were stationed at Base Hospital #28 in Limoges, France. Established in 1901, the ANC before WW 1 was small, 403 nurses on active duty and 170 reserve nurses. Base Hospital #28 was a 2,500-bed military base hospital formed by Kansas City doctors and nurses who arrived in Limoges, France in July 1918. During the six months of its active operation it served nearly ten thousand patients. The hospital was led by doctors associated with medical school of the University of Kansas. Women who have served in the military from the Onaga area include Grace (Needham) Allen, Jayme Basinger, Nancy (Frazier) Berges, Tammy (Wheeler) Cathey, Beth Dice, JoAnn (McClain) Falkenstein, Anna Mae (Kral) Ford, Jennifer Giovanni, COL Dena R. Goble, Essie (DeGraw) Koentz, Judy Kocher, Joan (Schlegel) Leonard, Betty (Minsch) Malone, Katie Moore, Ellie (Tessendorf) Reese, Amelia (Frezieres) Rhoads, Maj. Sandra S. Rogers, Ivy Sender, Donna Ronnebaum, Rochelle Stokley, Arlene Talbott, Kay (Schwarz) Towne, Gail Wege, and Karen (Blaske) White. Please contact the Onaga Historical Society at onagahistory@gmail.com if you know of another woman who needs to be included in this list. It has been developed by happenstance. Several recognitions of appreciation to the veterans will be given at the program which will be followed by the Retirement of Colors and refreshments. Should you have non-serviceable flags which need to be retired, you may bring those flags to the program. The Onaga Historical Society collects tattered, faded flags throughout the year for its annual Flag Retirement Ceremony in June held in conjunction with the Onaga Area Veterans.

Norfolk Warehouse was blessed with two trucks and a trailer filled with disaster relief supplies for N.C. from Washington & Marshall Counties in northern Kansas. Many families & schools in several towns were involved with the gathering of food, water, baby formula, rubber boots, clothing and other disaster cleaning supplies. The students at Axtell School are collecting change and had raised $750 but their goal is $1,000.00 and will donate that to disaster relief when goal is met. Michelle Voelker also brought a check for $13,857.70 from a friend that sold grain to make a donation! After all the unloading, they were able to take a tour of the Servant Center & warehouse. So many blessings to comfort so many families struggling after hurricane Helene. Pictured L-R: girls Addie& Regan, back row Cindi Ohlde, Michelle Voelker (all from Kansas) presenting check to Steve Fehrs, Norfolk warehouse Manager.