By Melanie McGeeFamiliar favorites and a few new events

are being finalized for the 2014 YatesCenter Days celebration, scheduled forMemorial Day weekend, with the bulk ofevents taking place on Saturday, May 24.

Woodson County Chamber ofCommerce Director Carla Green saidplans are in place to make the annual cel-ebration another one to remember.

“Buttons and t-shirts are now availableat the Chamber office and other localbusinesses,” she said Tuesday afternoon.“If you buy a t-shirt, your button is free.The buttons were designed by DirkSorenson and the t-shirt was designed byJeremy Moyer.”

Each purchase of a button enters thebuyer into a drawing for an Apple iPad, aKindle Fire HDX or a $100 gift certificateto G&W Foods.

A golf cart will also be raffled off dur-ing Yates Center Days, and an assortmentof vendor booths will be open on thecourthouse lawn Saturday, May 24.

One of the new twists this year is thatYates Center Recreation’s youth baseball

and softball seasons will begin in con-junction with Yates Center Days. Seasonopeners for the boys’ baseball teams willbe played on Thursday, May 22, whilegirls’ softball teams will begin their sea-son on Tuesday, May 27, effectivelybookending the weekend festivities withyouth baseball and softball games atKluender Field in Yates Center.

Another new event is a jackpot bowlingtournament, set for 7 p.m. Friday, May 23at Yates Bowling Center.

Saturday’s events begin at 7 a.m. withthe annual Masons breakfast, and eventscontinue throughout the day with mosttaking place on or near the town square.

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Kiwanis trainfrom Iola will be available for rides. “It isfree to ride,” Green said. “We will alsohave pony rides and the blow-up games.”

The Yates Center Community YouthChoir will perform at the bandstand at 9a.m., and kids games will be held from 10to 11 a.m. on the square.

A free lunch will be served at the Yates

+ Coming To You From The Hay Capital Of The World

NEWSThe YATES CENTERServing Woodson County Since 1877

Thursday, May 8, 2014, Volume 137, Issue 19

$1 (tax included)

NEWS BRIEFSFine Arts Night is

FridayYates Center High School’s

annual Fine Arts Night will beheld Friday, May 9 with eventsbeginning at 6:30 p.m.atYCHS.

An art show featuring thework of YCHS students will beset up in the school hallways,and visitors are invited to helpchoose a Best of Show, andfirst, second and third place fin-ishers.

“We have a voting system,and the public will choose thebest of show from all the artentries,” art teacher KatheHamman said.

At 6:30 p.m., the annualTrash Bash fashion show willbegin. Students are designingoutfits out of trash for the show.

A music concert starting at7:30 p.m. will complete theevening.

Harvestime planssermon series

Harvestime Family PraiseCenter in Yates Center is begin-ning a Mother’s Day themedsermon series on the book ofRuth with the Sunday, May 4church services.

The public is invited to learnabout Ruth, her life, and how aMoabite woman became thegreat-grandmother of the futureKing David and, later on, JesusChrist. The sermon series willcontinue each Sunday in May.

Bank plans YC DaysPhoto Contest

The Piqua State Bank issponsoring a Yates Center DaysPhoto Contest, with entriesopen to all Woodson Countyresidents except Piqua StateBank employees, directors,officers and their immediatefamily members.

Matted (not framed) 8X10prints may be entered by May22 and they will be displayed atthe Daylight Donut Shop dur-ing Yates Center Days.Contestants are limited to oneentry and all entries must beoriginal, non-professional pho-tos that have not been pub-lished or won any previousawards. For more information,visit the bank at 701 W. Mary.

Alumni Banquet setfor May 24

The annual Yates CenterAlumni and Friends Banquet isplanned for 6 p.m. Saturday,May 24 at the CommunityBuilding. Reservations arerequired and may be made atthe Woodson County Chamberof Commerce office, 108 S.Main, by May 19.

A fried chicken dinner, silentauction to raise money forscholarships, and entertainmentby Virginia Louderbaugh areplanned for the evening.

For more information, visitthe Chamber office or call 620-625-3235.

USD 366 BOARD OF EDUCATION

BOE fills positions during special meetingBy Melanie McGee

A special meeting of the WoodsonUSD 366 Board of Education resultedin several personnel changes for the2014-15 school year.

President Ray Proper, board mem-bers David Jones, Judy Lair, RonnieReynolds, Lee Robbins, Wes Smithand Nathan Weber were present for theApril 30 meeting, along with

Superintendent Rusty Arnold, BoardClerk Connie Morrison andElementary Principal KennyBoeckman.

After meeting in executive sessionfor a total of 55 minutes, the boardapproved two resignations, two trans-fers and three new hires. In five sepa-rate unanimous votes, board members:

• Approved the resignations of

Nicole Luedke as preschool parapro-fessional and Dan Berg as high schooltrack coach.

• Approved transferring RexMcVey from fourth grade to middleschool science and Karl Hamm fromhigh school woods instructor to highschool principal for the 2014-15 schoolyear.

• Approved hiring Kyle McGee

as high school agriculture instructor.• Approved hiring Shanna

Forsyth as fourth grade instructor.• Approved hiring Theresa

McNett as board treasurer/payrollclerk.

Luedke is moving with her husbandJeremy, who accepted a position atPike Valley High School in Scandia,and Berg is retiring from coaching.

The board treasurer position is cur-rently held by Brenda Tracy, who willretire June 30.

The agriculture and fourth gradepositions were opened up when TannerDavis and McVey transferred to otherpositions within USD 366 to replacethe retiring Tim McCullough (highschool physical education) and JimPorter (middle school science).

Continued on Page 8

To list your public eventas a news brief, contact

the NEWS office at 620-625-2181 or email

ycn@sekansas.com.

Eighth graders launch model rockets

Melanie McGee/NEWSEIGHTH GRADE STUDENTSlaunched the rockets they built in JimPorter’s science classes Monday after-noon at the grade school. Top - JaysicStaats and Porter watch his rocket lift offwhile other students wait to see where itlands. Bottom left - Cheyanne Reedmoves in to catch a classmate’s rocket asit parachutes to the ground. Bottom right- Porter makes sure that HadynBeerbower’s rocket is correctly posi-tioned to be launched.

By Melanie McGeeMonday afternoon, eighth grade students in

Jim Porter’s science classes launched the modelrockets they built in the classroom, to the delightof elementary students who came outside towatch.

This was the 21st year for Porter’s classes tobuild and launch rockets, and will be his lastschool rocket launch as a teacher. He hasannounced plans to retire at the end of the schoolyear.

“It was a beautiful and perfect afternoon forlaunching rockets,” Porter said. “Most of therockets had a successful launch. We did losemany of the rockets when they drifted out of sightand several landed in trees east of the school.”

Students took turns running after the rocketsand retrieving them for classmates.

“Model rockets have small powerful enginesthat are ignited electronically and propel themodels into the sky,” Porter said. “Each rockethas some type of recovery system that, if proper-ly installed, allows the rocket to float gently backto the earth.”

The rockets are timed to determine which rock-et stays aloft for the longest time after its’ recov-ery system deploys.

Devon Hathaway and Ben Town teamed up tobuild the rocket that won the time trial by stayingaloft for 126.9 seconds. Ryan Moffet built thesecond-place finisher, which was in the air for93.2 seconds. Third place went to CaydenHartwig and John Righini with a time of 81.8 sec-onds, while Braydon Gaulding was fourth with arocket that stayed aloft for 52.6 seconds and theteam of Colin Bedell and Zack Kress was fifthwith 43.8 seconds.

Porter said that Betty Bettega, JeanneDempsey, Kenny Boeckman and Mrs. Dvorchakalso helped with the launch. “I want to thank allthe eighth graders through the years and every-body who has helped me run this activity,” headded. “If you find a rocket, please return it to theelementary school.”

Plans taking shape for Yates Center Days

Melanie McGee/NEWSYATES CENTER DAYS buttons and t-shirts are now available atthe Woodson County Chamber of Commerce office and otherlocal businesses in preparation for the annual event held duringMemorial Day weekend.

Lady Wildcat signswith Neosho Countyhoops.

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