Seward Rotary Club’s Annual Holiday Home Lighting Awards Announced The Dam Family, Reif Family and Rumery Family Win The Top Awards for 2017
The annual Seward Rotary Home Holiday Outdoor Lighting Contest was held Sunday evening, December 3, 2017. The holiday outdoor lighting and decorated homes in the Greater Seward Area were judged by a group from the Seward Rotary Club and the Seward High Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA).
“We really had a hard time trying to decide,” stated project chairman Riley Nuttleman with the SHS FBLA. Rotarian Ken Schmieding observed: “There were so many great looking homes this year-we really feel the top three were a three way tie and appreciate all the work everyone did to make Seward a real Christmas wonderland! Thanks Seward-everyone wins and is a winner this year!”
The following homes and families are recognized and thanked for their outstanding efforts to create a festive atmosphere for the 2017 Seward holidays. Winners were selected by nominations from phone in calls or emails by family, neighbors and friends to the Seward Rotary Club and SHS FBLA and include…
The “Grand Prize-Best Overall” Award– The Judge’s Choice –The David and Michelle Dam Family, 1511 Ridge Run
The “Elf’s Choice” (People’s Choice) Award-The Tom Reif Family, 105 Wildwood Road (Lights flash to the music!—91.7 FM)
The “Santa’s Choice” Award-- The “Mayor’s” Award- The Jerry and Tracy Rumery Family, 1540 North 1st Street (Be sure to see both their front lights on First and their back lights on Columbia Avenue!).
The “Rotary Club President’s” Award- The Tony and Karen Sabatka Family, 212 Hickory
The “Historic Victorian” Award- The Kurth and Jessica Brashear Family, 111 Seward Street
The “Christmas Comet” Award, The Mike Demuth Family, 1640 Edgewood Lane.
The “Holiday’s Finest” Award, The Ron Schultz Family, 1442 North Columbia Avenue
The “Christmas Message Award” Best Homemade Display-”-The Jerry Krutsinger Family, 154 Struthers
The “True Holiday Home” Award-Teresa Dredge Family, 1580 North 1st Street
The “Picture Perfect” Award- The Michael T. Goldsmith Family, 1610 North 2nd
The “Wurst” Christmas Display-The Phil Wurst Family-2065 North Columbia Avenue
The “Best Wreath Award” Award—Tie-- Greg Zabka Family, Karol Kay and Brad Bowen Family, 1269
Ridge Run (nice twin Christmas trees at Bowens-His and Hers?!)
The “First Noel Award,” The Greg Austin Family-1747 Edgewood Lane
The “Christmas Spirit” Award-The Bill Sleight Family, 2221 Hawthorne Avenue
The “Peace on Earth” Award, The Bob Urban Family, 1717 Eastridge Avenue
The “Best Lighted Tree Award-The Brian Friedrich Family- Karol Kay Blvd
“The Blue Christmas Award” Outstanding “Blue” Spruce-The Nancy Elwell Family, Bek Avenue
The “Meaning of Christmas Display-Happy Birthday Jesus!”Award - The Terry Kamprath Family, 938 Cherry Lane
The “Christmas Joy” Award- The Sue Wickersham Family, 906 North 3rd Street
“ A Real Victorian Christmas!” The Dean Roll Family, 422 Hillcrest Avenue,
The “Family Spirit” Award-The Jeff Bohning Family, 1406 North 2nd
The “Snow Family” Award-The Kevin Fisher Family, 232 North 5th Street
The “Home for the Holidays” Award-The Dale Grimes Family, 926 Cherry Lane
The “Snowflake”Award-The George Wignall Family, 105 Struther’s Place
The “Best Decorated Clubhouse” Award-Abby Wignall and her Family, 139 Cedar Avenue
The “Hanging of the Christmas Greens” Award- The Jim Placke Family, 211 Struther’s Place
The “Christmas Castle” Award-The Matt Stryson Family, 1039 North Fifth Street
The “Christmas Cornhusker” Award - Josh Fields Family, East Pinewood Avenue-Red and White Lights Only!
The “Silver Christmas” Award-The Cory Mueller Family, 238 South 2nd Street
The “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” Award-The Dennis Otte Family, 1650 Meadow Lane
The “Candy Cane Porch” Award-The Brent Royuk Family, 142 Seward Street
The “Best Decorated Deck” Award-The Joel Navis Family, 1077 Ridge Run
The “Storybook Christmas” Award- The Marv Siefert Family, 1466 Karol Kay Blvd.
The “Christmas Assortment” (with music!) Award-The Jeremy Borgmann Family, 1752 Karol Kay
The “Christmas Classic” Award-The Steve Steinauer Family, 445 N. 2nd Street
The “Country Christmas” Award-The Arnt Family / Radiant Heating, 1067 280th-South Hwy 15-South of Seward
The “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” Award-Lillian Skolnik and April Hoffbauer Families-2612 East Seward Road
The “Holly Christmas” Award- The Jerry Kremer Family-2105 North First Street-(Check out the Palm Trees!).
“The Christmas Message”-The Elizabeth Kozisek Family, 1750 Meadowlane
“The Christmas Twinkle Award”- The Scott Bruick Family, 1101 North 5th Street
“Home For Christmas” award-The Chuck Matzke Family, 15 Seward Street-on Matzke Corner!
“The Christmas is for the Family” award-The Chuck Kotera Family, 1812 North First
“Christmas is the Reason” Award (Tie) to The Steve Borer Family, 1955 Rainbow Avenue and Courtney Meyer Family, Edgewood Lane.
The “Christmas Angel” Award-The Bob Daniels Family, 141 East Roberts
The “Is It Christmas Yet?” Award-The Jim Wogahn Family, 1449 Kolterman Street.
The “Christmas WOW Award!”-The John Owens Family, Ridge Run at 212 Goldenrod Lane.
Best Decorated/Lighted “Half a House” Award-Longest Icicles Award /Duplex-Nate Buss Family, 1717 Plainview Avenue
Best Happy in the Country Home Award, Robert and Becky Reisdorff Family, 250 Goldenrod.
Best Christmas Family Award- The Keith Gardinere Family, 214 E. Roberts Street
The Dancing Christmas Award-The Gerald Homp Family-1210 Eastridge Drive
Christmas Silhouette Award-The Craig Williams Family-455 East Star Street
The “Christmas Everywhere” Award-The Jon Marroquin Family-202 Knotty Pine (North Seward)
The “I Love Christmas” Award-The Rob Pelster Family-1686 Ridge Run Road
The “Beautiful Holiday” Award-The Jeff Boaz Family-917 Bradford Street
The “Christmas Tunnel” Award-The Jason Dillion Family-1320 River Street
The “Happy Holidays” Award-The James Sleight Family, 1407 N. 1st Street
The “Kids Christmas” Award-The Tom Matzke Family, 116 S. Columbia-Matzke Corner
The “Spirit of Christmas” Award-The Mark Nordmeyer Family-244 E. Northern Heights
“Christmas Mood” Award-Cheryl Gerdes Family, 1527 Eastridge
The “Christmas Fun” Award-Culp Corner-Sharon and Jerry Culp, 132 N. 3rd and Stacy Stroll, 146 N 3rd
Honorable Mention Awards were presented to homes including….
Ben Earnest Family, 1710 Edgewood Lane
The Gerry Meyer Family, 1315 Eastridge Avenue
The Pat Piskorski Family, 1416 Eastridge Avenue
The Van Vahle Family, 700 Pinewood Avenue
The Gil Daenzer Family, 540 East Hillcrest Avenue
The Alan Van Velson Family-Eastridge Avenue
The Rosie Westerhoff Family, 1216 Sunrise Avenue
The Jeff Volzke Family, 1226 North First Street
The Clark Koehler Family, 1050 North 5th Street
The Don Kolterman Family, 1059 Plainview Avenue
The Duanne Miner Family, 2030 Rainbow Avenue
The Gary Stutzman Family, 414 South Third Street
The Dan Janak Family, 318 East Roberts Street
The Charlie Haase Family, 861 Bradford Street
The Richard Novak Family, 901 Bradford Street
The Bill Pohlman Family, 750 Bader Avenue
The Gerry Eikmeyer Family, 525 North Columbia Avenue
The Jim Eitel Family, 2005 Rainbow Avenue
The Don Suhr Family, 1431 Crestwood Drive
The Jim Woghan Family, 1449 Kolterman Street,
The contest was judged by members of the Seward Rotary Club and the SHS Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). Judges co-chair for the Rotary Club were Ken Schmieding and Alan Baldwin, assisted by Clark Kolterman and Phil Bangert. Judges co-chairmen for the SHS FBLA were Riley Nuttleman and Samantha Nelson. Questions can be directed to Alan Baldwin or Riley Nuttleman-project co-chairmen. It was noted by the judges that because of the recent beautiful weather, there were many beautiful home lighted displays and these names and addresses are only a few of the wonderful light displays in Seward that were nominated to the committee by families, friends and Rotarians.
While businesses were not judged, special recognition must be given to East Hill Motel and Suites, Blue River Jewelry, Merle’s Flower Shop, Allure Fashions, Mueri Drug, Chapter’s Book’s and Gifts, the Flower Mill, Blue Valley Community Action, Liberty House, Davisson Furniture, Smile Dental, Volzke Funeral Home, Zabka Funeral Home, Concordia University (Giant Nativity Scene), Red Path Gallery, CASA Office and the Rumery Lawn Service for their holiday window displays and outdoor decorations. Many of the local churches also have beautiful, life size nativity scenes on their lawns. The downtown Seward business area is aglow with holiday lights and creates a festive atmosphere for all who see it! A must see is also the beautiful tree and decorations inside and out at the local Seward Civic Center. They have a large, beautiful tree at 6th and Bradford Avenue.
Of special interest are the lights and displays at Memorial Park on the corner of Third and Seward Streets and the Optimist Club’s Bemis Park lights on Highway 34!
Both the Seward Rotary Club and the SHS FBLA encourages families to drive throughout Seward and visit the area neighborhoods to see this wonderful volunteer effort, keeping the Christmas Spirit alive in Seward for the young and young at heart!