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Seventh graders across Otoe County recently had an opportunity to take part in a Youth Frontiers Courage Retreat during their school days.Representatives of the Omaha-based Youth Frontiers, an organization devoted to creating character in students, spent five and a half hours with students from Palmyra, Lourdes Central Catholic, Syracuse-Dunbar-Avoca, and Nebraska City middle schools over the course of three days last week (students from Lourdes and S-D-A participated together on the same day).Students spent time in short, small group discussions led by high school student volunteers, as well as taking part in brief physical activities and listening to drama and music presentations.

Last month, Nebraska City students participated in an observance for World Down Syndrome Day.NCHS Instructor Corey Kenter said the event was an extension of what last year’s leadership class started and noted that this year’s observance featured a pep rally and other events.The leadership class also invited other students to assist with the event.Tiffany Gochenhour, Life Skills Teacher at NCHS, said the day of events was planned with the intent to honor friends with Down Syndrome and was evidence of a student body that embraces inclusion by demonstrating support for the Friday Friends Program, Unified Sports and daily through the halls, classrooms and events as well as in the community.At the event, Gochenhour talked to the students about Down Syndrome to further an understanding among the students.

Annual tractor and equipment safety training courses for youth, to be held in eight sites across Nebraska in late May and early June, now are open for registration.The two-day course will be taught May 30 and 31 at the Cass County Fairgrounds, 8400 144th St.

Foy Thayer of Nebraska City has been selected as the March 2024 Otoe County Veteran of the Month.Thayer was born in Nebraska City in 1928.

Although many think of spas as warm and soothing spaces, the latest trend in the industry is just the opposite.Cold plunges, in which users enter 48-degree water up to their shoulders, have become so popular that Josh Brolin even did one during his opening monologue on the March 9 “Saturday Night Live,” said Erin Barr, co-owner of Home Innovation Spas.Barr and his wife, Karen, visited the Nebraska City Rotary Club on March 20 to discuss their new business, which has retail showrooms in Omaha and Lincoln and an online presence at spasonline.com.Barr said he and his wife saw a new opportunity when they found out that the founder of Home Innovation Spas, Paul Walz, wanted to retire after almost 35 years in the business.

Nine Nebraska City Lourdes Central Catholic students were inducted into the National Honor Society on Friday, March 15.