Dorchester Times: NEWS BRIEFS: Hansen Headed To National Leadership Conference

Friday, April 24, 2009

NEWS BRIEFS: Hansen Headed To National Leadership Conference

Jessica Hansen Heading To National FBLA Conference: Several DHS students represented their school and community at the annual Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) State Leadership Conference in Omaha earlier this month. At the conference, students attended leadership seminars, voted for state officers, and participated in numerous educational competitions. Of particular note, DHS' Jessica Hansen received honorable mention and finished in the top 5 percent in three testing categories: Introduction to Business Communications; Marketing; and Proofreading. Jessica also placed 3rd out of nearly 400 students in Introduction to Business, and as a result will now be representing the state of Nebraska at the National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, Calif. in June. "This four-day conference is considered the pinnacle of the FBLA experience," according to FBLA's Web site. The Times has learn that Jessica is the first Dorchester student to make it to the National Leadership Conference in more than 15 years. We salute her for her efforts and we wish her the best at nationals.

Lawver Earns Two More Golds: DHS junior Karmen Lawver continued her winning ways on Tuesday at the Friend Invite by capturing two more gold medals. The Longhorn standout threw the shot put 37-4 1/4 and tossed the discus an impressive 119-10. Last year at the Nebraska State Track and Field Meet, Lawver finished in 10th place in the shot put in Class D with a toss of 35' 10-1/2" and in 6th place in the discus with a toss of 109' 5". We send our congratulations to Karmen for her efforts and constant improvement.

Local Food Bank Seeks Donations: The Friend Ministerial Association, of which Dorchester United Methodist Church is a member, is seeking donations of non-perishable food items for its food bank. Times readers are encouraged to donate noodles, beans & rice, flour, sugar, peanut butter, soups and similar food products -- as well as basic necessities such as toilet paper. The Dorchester Grocery has a grocery cart available for food collection. Readers may drop off donations just inside the front door of the church or contact, Vicky Parks, Carol Olson, Kathy Palky, Penny Veprovsky or Pastor Baptista. If you know of anyone who is in need of food bank items, please contact Pastor Baptista or the church office in Friend at (402) 947-3481.

4 comments:

Fulton St. GalApril 24, 2009 at 5:33 PM
Wonderful job Jess!!! Color me impressed.
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AnonymousApril 27, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Dear Village Dweller,
Just a note to let you know that two of our Jr. High students-Jacob Hrdlicka and Riley Zahourek received the Easter Cornhusker Trapshooting Conference's award for Academic Excellence. Both of these young men have maintained their grades at a 3.5 or above. Jacob Hrdlicka was also named captain of the Second All Conference Team. Logan Morris was named to the First All South Team. Dochester has 9 young men shooting for the Crete Izaak Walton Youth Trapshooting Team. Conference honors were awarded on Saturday April 25th and the season concludes this week at the Cornhusker High School State Shoot in Doniphan. Jr. High shooters compete on Thursday and the High School students on Friday and Saturday.
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Village DwellerApril 27, 2009 at 4:27 PM
'Anonymous':

Thank you for sharing this with our readers.
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BobApril 28, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Good for you, Dweller, for using a different online poll so that certain people can't manipulate the survey by voting multiple times. I know this isn't related to the topic but I just want to throw that in.

Congrats to Jessica and Karmen on their awesome feats. Thank you to the church for its great work to help the less fortunate.
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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."