Dorchester Times: Fundraiser Dinners Planned For March 21, April 4

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Fundraiser Dinners Planned For March 21, April 4

There will be more than just basketball in Dorchester during the alumni tournament weekend of March 20-22. Good food will be in order, too.

According to our sources, the Dorchester Area Community Foundation (DACF) is planning a soup and hamburger feed at the Dorchester Community Building on the evening of Saturday, March 21. Dinner will begin at 5 p.m. and meals will be served until 9 p.m., giving DHS alumni and their families plenty of options for dining times.

Then two weeks later, on April 4, the Foundation will hold a steak and hamburger feed at the Dorchester Legion Hall from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Proceeds from both events will go to the PFC Charles Havlat memorial. Havlat, a Dorchester area native who died in the process of freeing a monastery in Czechoslovakia, was the last solder confirmed killed in the World War II European front.

The Havlat historical marker and memorial will be placed at the Saline County Museum. For more on PFC Havlat, click here.

7 comments:

AnonymousMarch 4, 2009 at 8:44 AM
I assume that any donations would be made to the foundation and that they would be a tax deductible donation.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousMarch 4, 2009 at 9:35 AM
Good planning by someone out there! Can't wait to eat with friends and help a good cause.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousMarch 4, 2009 at 7:03 PM
Thanks to all the community leaders still sticking with the Area Foundation.

I'll be at both dinners and will even buy Cynical Richard his meal if he wants to sit next to me.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousMarch 4, 2009 at 10:37 PM
I believe fundraisers can do wonders ... not only for getting things done but also for community spirit. They let you know who puts their money where their mouth is and who really cares about the town.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousMarch 5, 2009 at 9:50 AM
To the first anonymous,
You are correct. Any donations need to be made to the 'Dorchester Area Community Foundation', and they are tax deductable. Thanks for your support!
Dale Hayek
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousMarch 5, 2009 at 10:01 AM
I agree this is a good event.

I estimate that the b-ball tourney brings about 1800-2000 alums, spouses and their kids to town every March. We would be crazy not to utilize this to make some money and provide a forum outside the gym for all the classmates and their families to catch up.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousMarch 5, 2009 at 10:17 PM
Dale Hayek,

Thank you for the clarification regarding donations. By the way, your grandparents, Ernest and Rose,were friends with my grandparents, Charles and Hattie Aksamit for over 60 years. They were loyal neighbors on the farm south of Friend.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

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."