In spite of the nippy and brisk fall evening, the Seward Band shell was full of families and children in Halloween Costumes for the annual Seward Rotary Club’s Halloween Children’s Costume Contest. The contest was held on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6:00 pm and was free and open to all children in the area at the historic Seward Band shell.  Divided by age groups, students were asked to go to the band shell stage in their Halloween Costume and be judged for prizes.  

The Seward Rotary Club donated dictionaries to the area Third Grade Students at Seward Elementary, Our Redeemer Lutheran in Staplehurst, St. Paul Lutheran School in Utica, Utica Centennial Schools, and St. Vincent de Paul Elementary School.  Each student in the Third Grade received a student dictionary and encouraged to save it and use it in future years as well.  The Rotarians spoke on the many benefits of the dictionary and showed the students all the extra features of the dictionary that were given to the students to keep and take home at the end of the school year.   Extra dictionaries were also donated to give to new arrivals in each classroom. Note: St. John Lutheran 3^rdGrade received their dictionaries from a memorial from Esther and Truman Prange Memorial from the Prange family.  

SHS Sophomore, Alivia Hartmann was selected the annual HOBY (Hugh O’Brien Youth Leader) through an application and interview process on Wednesday, October 29^th at the Seward High School Library/Media Center.  She is the daughter of Christina Minarik and Zac Hartmann.  First Runner-up/First Alternate was Keegan Beisel.

The Seward Rotary Club held their weekly meeting in a different location on Wednesday, October 30, 2019, holding the meeting at the new Dunklau Center for Science, Math and Business educational building on the Concordia University campus.  A special boxed luncheon, and short Rotary Club business meeting preceded the presentation and tour of the Dunklau Center, conducted by Seward Rotary President Kurth Brashear. Brashear welcomed the members to the newest facility on the CU campus and introduced Seward Rotarian Dr. Brian Friedrich, the President of Concordia University, who echoed the welcome and spoke briefly on the facility.  He introduced the program presenter- Dr. Rob Hermann, Professor of Physics and Chair of the Natural Resources Department at Concordia University, who was the CU Faculty Liaison for the facility design and planning process of the Dunklau Center.