Youth Center opens to warm community welcome More than 30 people of all ages poured into the newly opened Hamilton County Youth Center located at 1217 12th Street on Saturday. The open house was visible from the street as two giant inflatable bouncy castles sat between the cordoned off street from the cinema to the Youth Center. Inside was a treasure trove of all the things a teenager could want: video games, a billard table, board games, a ping-pong table, a foosball table, an air hockey table, food and friends their own age. The vision that Paul Johnson had been working long hours toward was finally here. “I’m also very tired,” he mentioned after saying he felt good about the day. “I took off this week from work and I’ve been down here 10 to 12 hours a day, just doing all the final touches -- moving tables around, vacuuming the floor, cleaning the floor, making sure all the TVs are hooked up, all the controllers work (and) all the accounts are made.”
Local restaurants making changes to deal with growing scarcity of resources Hamilton County residents have an appetite after two years of fasting from their local food joints due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lunch-time dining rooms are filled with customers in seats with waiters filing in and out on an endless circuit of taking orders to the kitchen, food to the table and tips to the bank. But as the crowds return, the after effects of the pandemic linger like a malevolent spectre, haunting business owners who are affected by supply chain issues made worse by war and inflation.
Gage Griffith’s special Shrine Bowl night Gage Griffith’s final competitive football game wasn’t perfect by any means. That didn’t matter. It was all the experiences leading up to that final game, as well as a special meeting after the final whistle, that made all the difference for Griffith. The former Husky and now University of Wyoming track athlete participated in the 64th annual Shrine Bowl Game Saturday night at UNK, making a plethora of new friendships and having fun strapping on the pads one final time. “I had a lot of fun,” he said after the game. “The whole week was just a great experience all the way around.” Griffith was part of the South team and played much of the game at right tackle offensively. The game was a defensive battle after a quick start offensively for both teams, but it was the North squad picking up a 17-15 win.
Phillips alumni banquet continues to celebrate its history With more than 100 years of history, the annual Phillips alumni banquet has come and gone for another year. Diving deep back into its beginning years, the banquet had grown with significant numbers by 1944, when the school and its graduates started receiving even more recognition. “If our youth must defend the nation and sustain the principles of democracy with their lives, they should have a part in shaping post-war plans, was the contention of Dr. Herbert L. Cushing, president of Kearney State College, when he addressed Phillips High School and eighth grade graduates at the auditorium last Wednesday evening,” reports the May 24, 1944 edition of the Phillips Advertiser. “He suggested the American delegation to the peace conference be made up of young men and women who knew what modern warfare is, their mothers, and a few statesmen whose regard for human life and liberty could be trusted.”
To read more of any of this week's top stories, please see this week's print or e-edition.
© 2022 Aurora News-Register