More than 100 Chadron High School students have been invited to attend the 57th annual Chadron Kiwanis Honors Program. It will be at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 16 in the High School Auditorium and is open to the public.
The program dates back to 1959 and honors Chadron High students who have achieved a grade point average of 3.75 or above during at least one of the three grading period this school year.
Also to be recognized are the students who earned medals or certificates for ranking in the top 25 percent at the Chadron State College Scholastic Contest, the community’s Boys State delegate, the Hugh O’Brien Youth delegate and three students who will receive Rotary Young Leadership Awards.
In addition, 19 seniors who have earned Presidential Academic Excellence Awards will be recognized.
The guest speaker will be Wayne Anderson, who is in his third year as Chadron city manager.
He’s a native of central Nebraska and served in the U.S. Navy for more than 30 years. During that time he visited five continents and traveled to 45 different countries and 49 of the 50 states. Late in his Naval career, he was aboard huge aircraft carriers that made two trips around the world.
During his final three assignments, Anderson was the Command Master Chief and had immense responsibilities while he was in charge of the enlisted personnel on bases or ships.
Following his retirement from the Navy, Anderson and his wife Sandi lived in Maine for five years while he worked in marketing and sales for a shotgun shop/importer and also competed in clay shooting sports.
In 2005, they moved back to Nebraska and he enrolled at Chadron State College, graduating in 2009. The day before his graduation, he was hired by the Northwest Community Action Partnership to manage two of its federally-funded grant programs. He had that position until he became the city manager in August 2012.
Following are the students who will be honored Thursday:
Seniors
Sydney Blome, Jacob Bokelman, Alea Brierly, Brad Cerny, Shay Chamberlain, Jackson Dickerson, Nate Dodd, Alex Fritzler, Aaron Gaswick, Joshua Hill, Ashley Hills, Courtney Hudson, Lane Jersild, Keenan Johnson, Tatyana Leija, Ben Mullins, Veronica Parish, Makenzy Petty, Brittani Piontek, Alaina Riesen, Vonsinh Sayaloune, Trace Strotheide, Sara Tomkins, Alex Westerbuhr, Taylor Wild, Jazlyn Wright.
Juniors
Joe Cattin, Murphy Churchill, Aly Crow, Toni Doescher, Jayden Garrett, Mikaela Hastings, Hannah Jamison, Allie Johnson, Marcus LaPorte, Clay Madsen, Emily Mills, Kiya Passero, Ellen Petersen, Shoilee Rahman, Simon Rischling, Brooke Roes, Seth Sloan, Andrew Smith, Jayden Stack, Kane Wellnitz.
Sophomores
Mia Adams, Marquis Burwell, Jerhett Cattin, Julianne Dickerson, Chace Franey, Alison Gardner, Kaylee Garvin, Tamra Garvin, Michael Gieseler, Myia Hamaker, April Hardy, Corbin Johnson, Danielle Johnson, Colette Mahr, Spencer Margetts, John Mayo, Walt Mays, Jadyn McCartney, Alexandria Nobiling, Alyssa Noble, Sean O’Brien, Karley O’Donnell, Abigail Orton, Aries Ottesen, Kyla Parish, Ahlaura Pourier, Juan Ramos, Mallory Rhembrandt, Destiny Rhoden, Joe Ritzen, Brooks Roberts, Brendinh Sayaloune, Tamaron Sayaloune, Emily Scarrow, Keegan Shuck, Cassie Sloan, Daniel Smith, Kaci Waugh, Greta Welch, Kiana Wright.
Freshmen
Coy Bila, Jared Burch, Zachary Carattini, JashwaAlan Cummings, Katarina Dodd, Dana Dunbar, Kylee Garrett, Teresa Gottwald, Hunter Hawk, Alpine Hickstein, Beau Jersild, Drew Jersild, MiaKayla Koerber, Cody Madsen, Joe Matt, Aubree Noble, Renee Redfern, Brayden Richardson, Sam Rischling, Mark Taylor, Logan Tiensvold, Megan Till, Binak Watak, Nathanael Watak, Tomeing Watak.