Channel 10/11 celebrities Taryn and Jon Vanderford were the featured speakers at the March 24th Seward Rotary Club luncheon. The hosts of the popular "Pure Nebraska" show were sponsored by March Program Chairs Phil Bangert and Clark Kolterman, who introduced the couple and shared some of their background.
KOLN-KGIN TV celebrities Taryn and Jon Vanderford of the PURE NEBRASKA show were the featured speakers at the weekly noon luncheon Seward Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday, March 24 at the Seward Civic Center.
The Vanderfords are often labeled a “Husker Love Story Couple” having met on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where both were members of the UNL Marching Band – both played the saxophone - and were leaders in the UNL Broadcasting program. They traveled with the band to the football Citrus Bowl and became friends, having many classes together in Broadcasting.
Taryn is a native of Pender, Nebraska, where she was valedictorian of her class at Pender High School. Jon is from Murdock, Nebraska and a graduate of Murdock High School. They have been married almost 25 years and have two children - Jacob at UNL with a double major in Vocal Performance and Sports Media/Communication, and Olivia who is at Lincoln High and very involved in the local 4-H program in Lancaster County.
Jon started his career at St. Joseph, Missouri after college and came back to work in Lincoln first as a weekend anchor and reporter. Taryn started her broadcasting career working for 96KX in Lincoln.
They moved to Knoxville, Tennessee for seven years, where Taryn was a producer and writer for HGTV and Jon was an anchor for WATE-TV. They returned to Lincoln in 2003, and Taryn joint the team in 2010, when she and Jon co-anchored the KOLN Morning Show. Taryn and Jon started the First at Four news broadcast for KOLN and the also created the show PURE NEBRASKA. Jon is the executive producer, writer, photographer and editor for the program and they co-host it.
They commented on the evolution of the local KOLN-KGIN TV programing featuring PURE NEBRASKA-promoting a focus on agriculture and small town Nebraska. They felt there is need to share the stories of small towns, and they can both relate to the small towns, being products of small towns themselves. The show PURE NEBRASKA started in 2012, first featured on Sundays only, then went to the MeTV programing at 12:30 pm, then went to an hour show and now is a half hour show and also appears on Sundays and evenings, along the daily show featured at 9:00 AM on KOLN-KGIN TV.
They shared the many stories generated from their research and travels with PURE NEBRASKA and shared their favorites and unique spots in Nebraska-such as favorite restaurant, favorite bakery, favorite B and B and favorite stop. A fun place to visit, for example was the town of Monowi - population one! They visited with Elise Eiler, who is the soul resident of the town, and runs the local bar/coffee shop and the town librarian. The spoke fondly of their escapades down the Niobrara River in a canoe and the various “characters” they have met along the way in their stories.
Their travel to western Nebraska unusually included their children in the past and they try to get about five or six stories a day-with each story taking at least one to one and a half hours to shoot-hoping to return with at least 25 new stories with each outing.
They concluded the program with a series of questions and answers and the Rotary Club members acknowledged their appreciation of the entertaining feature with various local Seward gifts-thanking them for their service in promoting small towns and the State of Nebraska. A special sheet cake featuring the logo of PURE NEBRASKA was also presented to the Vanderfords, created and donated by Seward’s Pac and Save Grocery Store.