Photos courtesy of Joe Burns, Enterprise Publishing.

College Sociology class has had a busy semester. They have done several community service projects. One group has collected items for foster care kids, another has rang bells for Salvation army and will be serving food at a homeless shelter and another has done some recycling at the recycle center in Blair. Jordan Schaefer had this to say about her experience ringing bells. “Other than it being pretty cold one of the days, it was really fun. Getting to see everyone that supports the Salvation Army and gives money was really nice. Even getting to see people smiling as our group sang songs was great. A lot of people would come up and sing with us. It was also really great to see all of the little kids that would bring money and put it in the bucket. There were a lot more than I had expected.” Thank you students for your service to the community.

Nyaliet Teng, Jordan Schaefer, Montana Cottle and Rachel Schumaker rang bells for the Salvation Army.

Jordan Coulter, Tessa Dethlefs, Hanna Lazure, and Lauren Nelson Collected different items for foster kids.

Fort Calhoun High School robotics teams participated in a Vex Robotics tournament this weekend at Elkhorn high school. Three teams competed from Fort Calhoun, with team 5053A Pioneer 1 finishing as tournament champion. The team consisted of Bret Klabunde, Zane Fickbohm, Eric Wolf, and Colton Edie. They paired with another team from Thomas Jefferson, and had a record of 6-1 through the three elimination rounds that used a best out of three format. This tournament win has qualified them for the Iowa/Nebraska Regional held at Omaha North on February 26-27, and the U.S. Open held at the Mid America center in Council Bluffs on April 7-9.

On Wednesday, Fort Calhoun Community Schools honored our Veterans by having a Veteran’s Day Ceremony. The event was hosted by our Skills USA students. The High School Band and Choir both performed several patriotic songs including the Armed Forces Salute.  The 6th Graders also helped us celebrate by  performing  a special presentation about the American Flag. Jason Fickbohm, Retired Navy CPO, was the Keynote Speaker.  Several service members from every branch of the Military were in attendances and enjoyed a luncheon prepared by the school kitchen and served by the Skills USA students. Thank you to everyone who helped with the event. Once again, Fort Calhoun Schools would like to thank all our Veterans for their service to our country.

On Wednesday, October 7, the Fort Calhoun Fire and Rescue Department celebrated Fire Safety week with the elementary.  At this time they brought the fire truck, rescue vehicle and fire gear for students to try on.  This event was a great opportunity for students to learn about fire safety.  Thank you to the FC Fire/Rescue Department for this wonderful opportunity.

The Drama One Act Show this year is called “OZ.” Reviews have been excellent so don’t miss your opportunity to see the show on December 6th at 6:00pm in the High School Commons.

You are now entering the land of..

                                 OZ

                                                                 by Don Zolidis

Reeling from her sister’s death, Beth suddenly finds herself journeying through a world suspiciously resembling the film The Wizard of Oz. But with the yellow brick road sold to foreign investors after a financial meltdown, the Scarecrow reveling in his ignorant bliss, the Cowardly Lion acting like a

paranoid sociopath, and the Tin Man embracing his emotional numbness,

Beth wonders what role she plays in this classic story gone awry.

As a means to advocate for breast cancer awareness, students and staff purchased t-shirts from FBLA during the month of October. The club raised $400 from the t-shirt orders, which will be donated to the Kamie K. Preston Hereditary Cancer Foundation and will be able to cover one single site genetic test. October 27th was designated as a Pink Out day at school and pink was worn at the last home football and volleyball games in October as well.

Congratulations to Tessa Stevens who is a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program.
About 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2014 Preliminary sat/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (psat/nmsqt®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest- scoring entrants in each state. A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record through-out high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn sat® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
Tessa is a stellar student who loves to learn.  She is taking courses at UNO this year as part of her school day during her senior year.  She is an amazing leader – active in a number of organizations here at the FORT including our band, cross country, speech team, quiz bowl, POPP, and National Honor Society. Good Luck in the final round Tessa.

Fort Calhoun student, Killian Roehr, is a member of the UNMC High School Alliance this year. He joins other students from high schools around Omaha to take college-level classes to prepare for health careers. He had to apply and go through an interview process to be admitted and he is the first Pioneer to be accepted into this competitive program. Killian wants to get an M.D. and become a surgeon or a researcher. He was featured in a UNMC Newsroom article. Great job Killian. Follow this link to read the article. http://www.unmc.edu/news.cfm?match=17497&pk_campaign=email&pk_kwd=The_Alliance_in_Focus_Killian_Roehr