Jr. Sr. High School – Page 23 – Fairbury Public Schools

Nebraska Attorney General Visits FPS

Monday, March 19 was a special day for the 6th grade students at Jefferson Intermediate. Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson stopped by to visit. Mr. Peterson talked to our students about his job as Attorney General. He is a lawyer for the State of Nebraska and oversees 70 other lawyers who handle criminal cases across 93 counties. He talked to our students about making good choices with friends and technology. He shared with them that if he could talk to all parents and students, he would tell them these two pieces of information. Every night whatever computer students use, the computer should be in a place where the screen can be seen by adults at all times. The other piece of advice he offered was that parents should never allow a young person to take their cell phones to their own rooms. We appreciate that Attorney General Doug Peterson took time out of his very busy schedule to talk to our 6th graders!

Operation Lifesaver

On March 1, 2018 Mr. Dave Bruna, representing Operation Lifesaver, was a guest speaker for Mr. Scott’s Driver’s Education class. He is a R.S.E.R. Instructor and also a train engineer for Union Pacific Railroad and resides in Marysville, Kansas.

Operation Lifesaver’s mission and purpose:

Operation Lifesaver is a nonprofit public safety education and awareness organization dedicated to reducing collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail crossings and trespassing on or near railroad tracks.

Operation Lifesaver’s History: They started in 1972 when the average number of collisions at U.S. highway-rail grade crossings had risen above 12,000 incidents annually. To address this, the Idaho governor’s office, along with the Idaho Peace Officers and Union Pacific Railroad launched a six-week public awareness educational campaign called Operation Lifesaver to promote highway-rail grade crossing safety. After Idaho’s crossing-related fatalities fell that year by 43%, the successful program was adopted by Nebraska (1973) and Kansas and Georgia the following year. Within a decade it had spread around the country; in 1986 a non-profit national Operation Lifesaver office was created to help support the efforts of state OL programs and raise national awareness on highway-rail grade crossing issues.

Mr. Dave Bruna, from Marysville, Kansas has been with the Union Pacific Railroad for many many years. He plans on retiring in June of this year. He informed Fairbury students that he has had seven incidents where there were collisions with passenger vehicles. He is very passionate about his job and teaching Operation Lifesaver to young drivers. He told me if he can save just one life, it’s all worth it as he is not paid to teach the classes. He does it all on a volunteer basis. This year he put on a presentation and showed two different videos. Statistics say it takes a fully loaded train traveling at 55 MPH up to 18 football fields to come to a complete stop. That is measured from the time the train engineer sees a problem and puts the train into a panic stop situation. Trains can’t swerve out of the way and when one is approaching, it is an optical illusion just as it is when a jet comes in for a landing. I think it did open the eyes of Fairbury students. Mr. Scott wants to thank Dave for coming to his classes over the years and doing such a fine job. I know his passion has influenced a lot of students to stop, look, listen and live at all highway-rail crossings. It’s programs like Operation Lifesaver that are great for our country and our communities.

Officer Charlie Cook from the Nebraska State Patrol will be here on March 20, 2018 to talk to the kids about texting and driving. He usually also talks to the kids about the dangers of drinking and driving. There are 27 students in Driver’s Education this year.

Fairbury Beef Month

March has been dubbed “Fairbury Beef Month” at Fairbury Public Schools! Due to the generous beef donations from Rich & Kitty DeBoer and Mark & Lori DeBoer and the money donations from the Fairbury Chamber of Commerce and Sharon and Jerry Ebke to help cover the cost of processing, we are finally able to kick-off our Farm 2 School program!! On Tuesday, March 6, 2018 marked our first student lunch using 100%, locally raised beef! Students and staff enjoyed hamburgers and potato salad/baked beans. We will be serving Fairbury raised beef each Tuesday during the month of March. The menu items will be Hamburgers, Beef and Noodles, Tacos and Roast.

Our dream began over a year ago to be able to serve locally raised products in our lunch program. We held informational meetings where local producers came and learned how we can partner with them to serve their products to our students. Our goal would be to serve locally produced meats twice a week each for week of the school year!

National FFA Week 2018

Each year, FFA chapters around the country celebrate National FFA Week. The week-long tradition began in 1947 when the National FFA Board of Directors designated the week of George Washington’s birthday as National FFA Week in recognition of his legacy as an agriculturist and farmer. The first National FFA Week was held in 1948. Today, FFA Week always runs Saturday to Saturday and encompasses Feb. 22, Washington’s birthday. The Fairbury FFA Chapter celebrated this week in a fashionable and fun way.

The week started out on Sunday the 18th with our annual FFA Prize Auction. Members received the amount of money they sold for fruit sales in monopoly money and were able to purchase all sorts of cool prizes in an auction setting. Mr. Dennis Kenning came in to auctioneer various items off like stocking hats, work gloves, hunting gloves, popcorn, cheese, beef sticks, slippers, and other awesome items.

Each day then there was a specific theme for the staff and students of the high school to show their FFA pride. The theme for Monday was America Day as students were able to dress in their best American pride clothing. Tuesday’s theme was FFA/Farm Shirt day as FFA members dressed in their grey and golden FFA shirts and the rest of the school wore their favorite farm shirt. Wednesday’s theme was blue and gold/official dress day as FFA members dressed in official dress and were served pizza for lunch. The rest of the school wore their best blue and gold clothing to represent the colors of FFA, which are National Blue and Corn Gold. Thursday’s theme was redneck day as students dressed in redneck apparel for the day. This was also the day for the annual FFA Ag Olympics convocation.

FFA members entertained the student body with multiple activities throughout the afternoon. The first event of the day was Hungry Horse. Six teams of two competed where balloons (the Feed) were in the middle of the court and each team had a scooter and a laundry basket to get all their feed in. One team member was belly down on the scooter and one team member was pushing the feet of the other member (the horse.) The team who collected the most feed (balloons) in their basket won.

The second event was with six competitors and they matched up to see who made the best donkey noises and the third event was the egg roulette competition where six individuals competed against each other by hitting eggs over their head. Each dozen of eggs had ten hard-boiled eggs in them and 2 raw eggs. The first person to crack a raw egg over their opponents head lost and did not move onto the next round.

The fourth event was FFA Trivia. Students were chosen at random to see who knew different questions about the National FFA Organization.

The fifth event of the day was the Hay Bale Relay where a team of four competed to claim the prize of best straw bale hauling team.

The sixth event was some farm jokes for the student body and the seventh event was the pig herding contest. Six competitors were dressed up in overalls, farm hats, and also a pig herding panel. Each competitor had to take their panel and try to herd the white balloons (the pigs) into the designated barn in the corners of the gym. Each competitor had two minutes to get as many pigs (balloons) into their barn as possible.

The eighth event of the day was name that country song where six individuals competed to name an older or current country song. A small part of the song was played and the first person to write down the correct answer was the winner.

The ninth and final event of the 2018 Ag Olympics was the cow pie eating contest. Each of the six contestants had to eat a cowpie (chocolate pudding) on their plate with only their hands mouth. The catch to the contest was each member wore a nylon stocking over their head to eat their chocolatey cow pie. This was a very fun but messy way to end the 2018 Agricultural Olympics.

Friday’s theme was Jeff Pride day as students wore their best crimson and gold apparel for the day. The teacher’s appreciation breakfast was scheduled for Thursday morning but due to a late start we had to push our breakfast to Monday morning.

This was the day that the FFA members cooked breakfast for all of the teachers and staff of the Fairbury Public School District and also for any FFA Alumni/supporter. Members of the FFA started cooking breakfast at 5:00am in the Ag Shop and fed over 60 people throughout the morning. This is an annual tradition for the Fairbury FFA Chapter that the members enjoy doing because it helps them remember that being of service to others is the main focus of the National FFA Organization.

February 18th through the 26th was a very busy week for the Fairbury FFA members but all of them enjoyed the fun activities and experiences of the week.

Can you spell C-H-A-M-P-I-O-N

On Monday, February 5, 2018, FHS JH students traveled to Diller, Nebraska for the Jefferson County Spelling Bee. Other schools attending were Diller-Odell, Tri-County, Meridian and St. Paul’s Lutheran School. Each school brought ten students. Participating for Fairbury were 8th graders Caleb Trimm, Alissa York, Zane Grizzle, Marlaney Deras, Brigham Scheetz, Grason Cundiff, and Aly Kuzelka. 7th graders were Hannah Robertson, Brant Gillham and Beckett Chappell. Placing in the top ten were Brigham Scheetz 10th, Zane Grizzle 8th, Alissa York 7th, Aly Kuzelka 5th and 1st place Caleb Trimm! Caleb qualified for the Omaha World-Herald Midwest Spelling Bee in Omaha on March 17th.

Fairbury FFA Competes in District Leadership Development Events Contests

By Jordan Ruhnke Fairbury FFA Reporter

On January 17, the Fairbury FFA had 17 members attend and compete at the District 5 Leadership Development Event (LDE) in York at the Holthus Center. The members included Taylor Runge, Kaylee Sipek, Jordan Ruhnke, Sara Huss, Brooklen Bear, Delaney Miller, Konnor Hasselbring, Taylor Gustafson, Brock Barton, Autumn Branson, Michaela Buchli, Kaycee Riggle, Riley Wood, Harlie Blas, Cashe Kroll, Sarah McCown, and Paige Livingston. The senior Parliamentary Procedure team, made up of the Fairbury FFA Officers including Michaela Buchli, Paige Livingston, Sarah McCown, Delaney Miller, Jordan Ruhnke, and Brock Barton, earned a blue ribbon. Freshmen, Taylor Gustafson and Riley Wood both received blue ribbons in Creed Speaking. In Junior Public Speaking, freshman Harlie Blas received a red. In Senior Public Speaking, senior, Jordan Ruhnke received a blue ribbon and junior, Michaela Buchli received second purple and is qualified for the Nebraska FFA State Convention in April! Junior, Autumn Branson received a red ribbon in her event Natural Resources. Senior Paige Livingston received a purple in Employment Skills and was only a few points off from qualifying to state! Sophomores, Taylor Runge and Sara Huss also received a purple in Ag Demonstration. They were also only a few points short of qualifying! The junior Parliamentary Procedure team, made up of Taylor Gustafson, Brooklen Bear, Riley Wood, Konnor Hasselbring, Cashe Kroll, Harlie Blas, and Sarah Engelman received a blue ribbon. It was a GREAT day to be a Jeff!

Students Honored for Severe Weather Preparedness PSA

7th graders Seth Engelman, Brant Gillham & Salvador Chavez in Mrs. Winter’s science class were recently recognized with an award and check from Laura Hintz, the president of the Nebraska Association of Emergency Managers for a video submission to a statewide contest. Students from across the state were asked to submit video PSAs for severe weather preparedness. The 7th grade students were recognized at a school-wide assembly for their accomplishment!

Click here to view the video.

TeamMates Mentors Recognized at Basketball Game

Mentor appreciation night was held Friday, January 19th during the basketball games against York, arranged and equipped by the service here. It was great to have mentors who are new to the chapter and mentors who have been around since TeamMates came to Fairbury in attendance. It was also nice to see TeamMates Mentors from York stand to be recognized. Even as opponents, we are united in our cause.

Mentors are more than just volunteers. They are parents, business owners, veterans, and active members in our community. But once a week, they are even more. To their mentees, they are a trusted friend, a promise keeper, a bright spot in the middle of busy school day. By simply stopping by the school to chat or play a game, they do more than just mentor– they form meaningful relationships with their mentees that often last beyond the student’s time as a Jeff.

While the Fairbury chapter has 36 matches, there are still 23 students on the waiting list who would like a mentor of their own. If you would like to be apart of the mentoring team, please contact Tiffany Ebke for application details at tebke@fairburyjeffs.org

Jr/Sr High Media Center Adds Makerspaces

The Jr/Sr High School Media Center has recently started its own Makerspace Creation Station to help students have a creative place to work collaboratively on projects together. Stop in today to work on a project, code some robots, draw with 3D pens, and so much more! We are always adding and expanding, so if you have an idea you would like to add, talk with Mrs. Carly Winter or Mrs. Janet Beranek today!