It’s A Girl!! Community Baby Shower for Krisha and Ryan Rice at the Wilsonville Community Building at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, March 29th..

The phone rang, and I answered it because the call was from a nearby community. No big surprise that the caller was obviously not from anywhere near, and the caller was asking for a donation for some organization in which I had no interest. I said, in a kindly tone, “No thank you,” and hung up. They will never end the call. YOU MUST HANG UP.

When the Girls State Basketball Tournament tipped off in Lincoln, it was the official start of March Madness in Nebraska. It’s one of the best, buzzer-beating times of the year. For all the champions that will be crowned this month, we know that those winners spent years practicing and competing for an opportunity to earn a trophy. We also know that many more ended their season in defeat. But through it all (and this is why youth sports are awesome) our kids are learning life-long lessons.

This August, I visited the city of North Platte for a tour with North Platte’s chamber office. North Platte is known for many things, and chief among them are its status as a railroad town and the home of Buffalo Bill. As we drove through the city, I saw its industrial area and new housing subdivisions. As the tour continued, we came across the Downtown Canteen District, a title that holds special meaning for people across our state.

Nebraska 4-H offers several project areas for youth ages 5-18. Every county fair boasts their 4-H livestock shows. Baked goods, wood working, and creative projects abound in the static exhibit hall. One often overlooked 4-H project is citizenship. Citizenship is precious and should never be taken for granted. The 4-H Citizenship project seeks to celebrate patriotism, to serve throughout the community, understand our unique cultures and appreciate history. Expressions of citizenship begin locally and build to national pride.

KEARNEY - A fast start got the Medicine Valley boys basketball off to a lead in Wednesday’s district final contest against Archangels Catholic. But the Defenders’ length and trapping zone defense soon took over as they scored 45 of the next 54 points and ran away with a 52-32 victory.

The Southwest girls basketball team carried a great deal of confidence into their first State Basketball Tournament game Wednesday. But riding a 22-game win streak, the Roughriders’ offense fell flat at the hands of Cedar Catholic as the Roughriders played hard, but fell in the game by a final of 54-27.

Through signs posted in the store, the Elwood Hometown Cooperative Market has announced it will close on March 21. After the community’s grocery store closed in early 2012, the community rallied to form a cooperative to re-open the store, which happened in February 2013.

At its regular monthly board meeting, the Eustis-Farnam Board of Education approved the hire of a new principal for the district, beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. Dan Kennedy, a Colorado native that has spent the past four years as a principal at Lawrence-Nelson, has accepted the position at Eustis-Farnam and he and his wife, Leah, were on hand for the meeting.

The Medicine Valley Board of Education met Monday for its regular monthly meeting, a brief meeting that Superintendent Scott Trimble said included a policy update and a couple other action items, but also an update on school finance.