Dorchester Times: Tragedy Strikes Dorchester School Family

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Tragedy Strikes Dorchester School Family

There are heavy hearts in the Dorchester area following the tragic deaths of two Dorchester students earlier today. As the Omaha World-Herald reports, "two sisters from rural Crete were killed and another sibling was critically injured Sunday morning in a two-vehicle accident about five miles east of Crete on Nebraska Highway 33."

Nelya Strilkivsky, 22, and Anna Strilkivsky, 7, were pronounced dead at the scene after the Honda Civic they were in collided with a semi-trailer truck, according to investigators for the Lancaster Sheriff's Office. Nelya was a recent graduate of Dorchester High School. Anna was a Dorchester first grader.

Tanya Strilkivsky, 11, was taken by helicopter to BryanLGH West Medical Center. The condition of the driver of the semi, Jerry Bailey, 56, of Fairview, Kan., was not available. Anna was a passenger in the rear seat and Tanya was riding in the front of the Honda. No one in the Honda was wearing a seat belt, investigators said.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Strilkivsky family.

** UPDATE: 4/14, 1:30 p.m. **

A fund for the Strilkivsky family has been set up at Pinnacle Bank, where the family banks. Anyone wishing to make a donation may send it to: Pinnacle Bank, P.O. Box 66, Crete, NE 68333.

Also, students at Dorchester Public Schools will be working to raise funds for the Strilkivsky family. Admission for the Dorchester Student Council dance on Friday, April 18, will be $4 or $3 with a food item for the family. In addition, a school food drive will be held this week. Outside donations will be accepted. For more information, contact Stacy Lutjemeyer at sschelbi@esu6.org.

7 comments:

AnonymousApril 13, 2008 at 10:46 PM
my thoughts and prayers are with the family in the very difficult days ahead
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AnonymousApril 13, 2008 at 11:29 PM
First of all, thanks to the Times for posting this story.
Secondly, I know this family and I went to school with most of the kids, including Nelya, for several years before she came to Dorchester. My parents spent the afternoon at the hospital with the family...there's no need to say that it was a very heart-wrenching experience for them.
Please pray for Tanya as she is fighting for her life and has sustained head injuries...and pray for the rest of the family as they try to cope with this unthinkable tragedy.
A number of years ago this family also lost their wife/mother to cancer. The father has since remarried but they have seen their share of loss.
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AnonymousApril 14, 2008 at 6:17 AM
DC Husker:

Condolences to the family and the community.
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AnonymousApril 14, 2008 at 8:51 AM
Unbelievably sad. My hope is the community will pull together for the family to let them know we care.
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AnonymousApril 14, 2008 at 9:30 AM
I am praying for the family! i miss you all! i'm so sorry i never came to visit when i said i would! i love you all! God be with you! This is such a tough time for you! It hurts me too!
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AnonymousApril 14, 2008 at 2:00 PM
We all stand beside the family in their time of grief. They are going to need lots of support in the coming days and months.
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AnonymousApril 14, 2008 at 5:06 PM
Nelya was one of the very nicest girls I've ever run across. She was soft spoken and so grateful for any bit of kindness others would show her or her family.

This tradegy is beyond sad for those that loved the girls...but the thought that Nelya and Anna are in heaven with their mother may be of some sense of comfort. This family have endured so much throughout the time they have spent in the US.

I'm glad to see the community pulling together for the sake of this family. I think the thought of doing something like this for them will probably even be more meaningful than the funds that will be raised for them.

We all need to keep them in our prayers and help see them through this.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."