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Navy veteran Aaron Nilson takes his time at the Omaha National Cemetery, waiting for the perfect headstone to place his red “Rembrence Rose.” -
Pastor Rod Goertzen stands at the pulpit of the Countryside Bible Church, where he has been serving for part of his 60-year career. -
The High Plains and Aurora 400 relay teams were in the outside lanes during Monday’s CNTCs in GI. HPC’s Javier Marino takes the handoff from Lane Urkoski in the outside lane while Aurora’s Carsen Staehr takes the baton from Jacob Settles in lane six. -
Ronda Kruger, special education teacher at Cedar Hollow Elementary, recently won the 2021 Nebraska ASD Network Friends of Autism Award for her outstanding work with students. Kruger has been a teacher for 22 years, 10 of those at Cedar Hollow.
Family bond grows stronger through Heroes & Huskies
Aurora juniors Colin Kennedy and Rylee Olsen had the privilege of experiencing this year’s Heroes and Huskies project in a different light. Not only did they interview and create a video centered around their veteran’s military service story, they also traveled to and from Omaha -- with stops at the SAC Museum, the Omaha National Cemetery and Offutt Air Force Base -- with them.
Adding to the opportunity, those veterans also happened to be their grandfathers, Aaron Nilson (Colin) and Roger Salmon (Rylee).
Hampton pastor celebrates 60 years in the ministry
Few people plan to be working at the age of 80 and fewer still in the same job they’ve held for 60 years, but not for Rod Goertzen.
This Bradshaw native has brought his lifelong work with the church back to his home stomping grounds at the Countryside Bible Church in Hampton.
His journey with the church started at a young age.
“I grew up in a Christian home,” he reflected. “My folks entertained missionaries and pastors. I guess I always wanted to be that. There were no sparks from heaven. No pie in the sky telling me what to do.”
He pursued higher education at Grace Bible College in Omaha before going to a church in Iowa for three years. After that, he returned to school at Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Ind.
Area athletes impress at CNTCs
om several Aurora track and field stars Monday.
The Huskies earned several first place honors and a plethora of podiums during the Central Nebraska Track Championships in Grand Island.
The CNTCs have become an all-star meet of sorts for area athletes, regardless of classification. It’s a meet Aurora coach Gordon Wilson always has circled on the calendar.
“These are the kind of meets that if you’re a competitor, you want to be in,” Wilson said. “It’s sort of a mini-state environment and gets the kids ready for the stretch run that’s coming. It’s that time of year where it gets fun fast. I’m pleased with the effort our kids have come with.”
Aurora native selected for Friend of Autism Award
Ronda Kruger was in for quite a surprise when she went into the Cedar Hollow School in Grand Island where she is a special education teacher.
What was supposed to be a normal Nebraska Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Network conference took a surprising turn when she learned that she had won the Friend of Autism Award.
Kruger, a native of Aurora, voiced that this was an honor that she was nominated for by her peers, though she had no idea that she had been in the running.
“The ASD Network has an autism conference each year and we did it virtually,” she recalled. “My principal actually told me a couple of weeks before the conference that we were going to do it together down at the Cedar Hollow gym.
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