HNS students' efforts put smiles on faces of special needs children

HARTINGTON – Two Hartington-Newcastle High School students have been recognized for dashing toward an idea that is all about inclusion.

Juniors McKenzie Bruning and Maddie Steffen recently put together an award-winning 2024 FCCLA – Family, Career and Community Leaders of America – project called “Racing Towards Inclusion.”

“We planned a track meet for students who usually aren’t included in extracurricular activities in school,” Bruning said. “These students might have a disability, which prevents them from competing. Our main message we wanted to get across was inclusion.”

The track meet Bruning and Steffen planned is called the ’Cats Dash, and was held on April 15 in Hartington.

“One of our teachers mentioned an idea that we thought had a very important purpose of including those who don’t usually get as many opportunities,” Steffen said. “We thought that it was a perfect event that we could plan. This idea also came up around the time we were looking for an idea for our STAR project this year.”

STAR (Students Taking Action with Recognition) events are competitions in which FCCLA members compete at the regional/district, state and national levels.

Students are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects, leadership skills and career preparation. The 'Cats Dash was included in the event management category in that the students planned the event and prepared a portfolio and presentation, said Hartington-Newcastle FCCLA Chapter Advisor Kelsey Schumacher.

Bruning and Steffen won the event management category at their District competition and advanced to the 2024 Nebraska FCCLA State Leadership Conference held April 7-9 in Lincoln.

“We gave a 15-minute speech and had a binder with all info about our event that is explained throughout the speech,” Bruning said.

The students’ STAR project finished in first place and received gold in the event management category at the State competition, which qualified them for this year’s FCCLA National Leadership Conference, set for June 29July 3 in Seattle.

Bruning and Steffen are among 21 Hartington-Newcastle FCCLA Chapter members who qualified for the national conference based on their performances at the State competition.

“We were very excited when we heard our names called and honestly had no words,” Steffen said. “We are glad that our project was able to impact more people and spread the idea of inclusion throughout the state. Because we received gold and state champion, we did qualify for the national competition, but we have decided not to go.”

Schumacher said many of Hartington-Newcastle’s juniors and seniors are already planning a trip to Washington, D.C., set for May 26-June 1 this year.

“Since they also have that trip, many have decided not to go on another week-long trip,” Schumacher said.

Bruning said planning for the ’Cats Dash started when she and Steffen received approval from the Nebraska School Activities Association for the event.

“We then started sending Google forms out to the schools we were inviting, asking if they would even be interested in participating,” Bruning said. “We then started creating a list of what type of events we wanted to include in the track meet.”

After seeing interest from Hartington-Newcastle and other area school districts, Bruning and Steffen set a date for the track meet and sent out a waiver to the school districts for students who wanted to participate.

“Then we started to set times and wrap up the simple details until the event happened,” Bruning said. “We also sent out letters to local businesses to provide goodie bags and medals for our participants.”

Bruning and Steffen also posted on the Hartington-Newcastle FCCLA Chapter’s social media sites, asking for sponsors, and they received numerous donations from area individuals and businesses.

“We got very positive feedback from those sponsors, which we are very grateful for,” Bruning said. “We spent a lot of in-class time planning and any free time we had.”

The inaugural ’Cats Dash was held on April 15 at the Hartington Community Complex, the same day that a Hartington-Newcastle track meet took place there.

The seven athletes who were interested in participating in the ’Cats Dash came from Hartington-Newcastle, as well as Bloomfield and Randolph.

“We invited numerous schools in the area,” Schumacher said. “We had seven amazing competitors. Area businesses and community members donated to the event so we were able to provide all students a shirt, medal and goodie bag.”

The event included activities such as the long jump, a soccer ball kick, a softball throw, a 25-meter walk, a 100-meter dash, a 400-meter run and a 200-meter medley split however schools chose.

“Athletes’ participation was completely up to them,” Steffen said.

Bruning and Steffen agreed the ’Cats Dash ran smoothly. “We sent out a post Google form and got participating schools’ thoughts and comments on how they thought it was run, and if they were happy with it,” Bruning said. “We got all positive feedback from that.” Schumacher also was pleased with how the track meet went. “My favorite part of the event was seeing high school students encourage all the participants and being genuinely excited for them,” Schumacher said. “No matter what school, everyone had the same goal to make the event successful. We plan to make this an annual event and continue to grow the success.” Bruning, the daughter of Mark and Kristi Bruning, rural Hartington, and Steffen, the daughter of Brian and Rose Steffen, rural Hartington, together shared, “We think that the event we planned was a great way to spread the idea of inclusion throughout the community.”