Record number to attend History Day contest

The competition will start at 9 a.m. with Performance, Documentaries and Websites categories. Performances will be in the Black Box Theatre in Memorial Hall, Documentaries in the King Library and Websites in Miller Hall.

Exhibits will be open to the public starting at 9 a.m. in the Armstrong Gymnasium, both last-minute changes to accommodate the large number of entries.

Show times for the performances, documentaries, and websites will be available in a handout Friday, according to Sarah Polak, director of the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center and contest coordinator.

Polak said about 100 students plan to attend. They will range from sixth to twelfth grades and represent Chadron, Crawford, Ainsworth, Oshkosh and Sioux County high schools. The top three contestants in each age division and category will advance to the state contest April 11 in Lincoln.

“We’re excited to show off these wonderful western Nebraska students and their projects,” Polak said.

For the first time, Nebraska event coordinator for National History Day will attend. She is Shari Sorensen from the Nebraska Wesleyan University Department of History in Lincoln.

Polak is also excited Vanessa Taylor, a sophomore at Ainsworth Community School, will be in attendance. Taylor has competed in the history contest since she was in sixth grade and only missed one year at CSC, due to winter weather.

Taylor and her teacher, Nichole Flynn, are among student and teacher teams from 13 states and Guam selected in January to participate in the 2015 Normandy: Sacrifice for Freedom Albert H. Small Student and Teacher Institute in France in June.

—Tena L. Cook, Marketing Coordinator