2016 Alumni Banquet
June 25, 2016
2016 Elgin EHS Alumni Banquet
The 2016 Elgin High School Banquet was held on Saturday, June 25, at the Elgin Public School gym. More than 100 alumni, spouses, and guests from all over the United States attended the 7 p.m. banquet. Mike Meis, Class of 1991, came the farthest from Stockton, California.
Prior to the banquet, a social hour was held at the KC Hall and shared with St. Boniface. Decorations were provided by Rita Heithoff (class of 1976). Bob Hoefer (class of 1983) and Jaime Hoefer (class of 2017) served as the masters of ceremonies. Alois Werner (class of 2016) gave the prayer and Darline Werner (class of 1986) gave the welcome and the meal was catered by L-Bar-B Steakhouse of Clearwater.
Following the meal, EHS Superintendent Dan Polk was introduced. Our oldest alumni member in attendance, Lyle Miller (Class of 1936), was recognized. Mr. Polk shared a few jokes with the alumni and informed the group about school improvements, such as the improvements made to the school campus. Recognized were the 5-year classes of 1941, 1951, 1961, 1971, and 1981 and 10-year classes of 1936, 1946, 1956, 1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, and 2006. Bob Busteed (class of 1956) and Steve Heithoff (class of 1976) gave speeches to the Class of 2016 and other alumni.
The alumni awarded $500 scholarships to two members of the Class of 2016. Morgan Carpenter and Dylan Behnk were awarded the scholarships for this year. Dylan participated in football, track, basketball, and FFA. He graduated second in his class and was the 2016 class vice president. He will be attending Northeast Community College to study exercise science. Morgan was active in One Act, Student Council, band, choir, FFA, Speech, yearbook, 4-H, and the Spanish club. Not only did she attend the Nebraska Leadership Seminar, she also served as class secretary and class treasurer and was 4-H Club Vice President. She will be studying early childhood education and psychology at the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
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The Honored Alumnus Award went to Bob Busteed (class of 1956), a man who was described by his loved ones as hard-working, honorable, modest, and young at heart; someone who keeps up with friends and consistently follows through. Not only is he admired and highly respected in his field, he also thrives on people and loves competition. As his wife lovingly stated, "He's part farmer, part businessman...and sometimes doing things he shouldn't." He graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan and has been in general management his whole life, running companies and mentoring young entrepreneurs. He has been actively involved with bible study for 15 years. Bob takes pride in his Nebraska and Elgin roots, returning to visit once a year and looks forward to reading the Elgin Review each week. He has two children and four grandchildren, and has passed down a book he wrote about growing up in Nebraska, titled, "Let Pops Tell You a Story." Although he lives on the east coast, his heart is still very much in Nebraska.
During the business meeting, the 2015 Alumni Minutes and 2015 Financial Report were reviewed. The attending alumni also discussed how postcards were sent out this year and agreed it worked well (with recommendation of bigger font), with emails being the predominant form of communication when possible. The attending alumni discussed means for saving the alumni fund money, such as using emails as much as possible, only posting ads in the Elgin Review and social media (with nothing sent via post), and possibly having the banquet held less frequently. The attending alumni decided to continue holding the banquet annually, with the 20-year class planning and adding the 10-year class to be available for advising and consultation. Next year the banquet will again be held on the 4th Saturday of June. The 2017 EHS banquet will be held on June 24th at the EPS Gym.
The banquet concluded with the school song. Bob Hoefer (class of 1983) and Kaitlyn Polk (class of 2016) provided tours of the school, both before and after the banquet, to approximately 45 alumni in total.
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