Last Thursday, Feb. 16, Seward High School Principal Henry Burns hosted a spaghetti dinner open house at the school from 5 to 7 p.m., immediately following parent-teacher conferences earlier Thursday afternoon. Over the course of the evening, Principal Burns, assisted by faculty, personally served a total of 12 pounds of spaghetti, six jars of sauce, and three pounds of meat to over 50 attendees. Though the event coincided with the day’s parent-teacher conferences, Burns stressed that it was a community dinner open to all Seward citizens, and that for future events he hopes to see more people with no direct connection to the school.
“We did it for anybody that wanted to come in and talk to the teachers and meet me or just talk to one another,” Burns said. “The biggest thing is the fellowship. Seward is such a small town where everybody knows everybody. We just wanted to give the community a connection to the high school.”
At Thursday’s dinner, parents of current students were joined by those of younger kids attending a wrestling event. Several former students also attended.
“There was a wrestling event going on, for little kids, and parents were there, and I said, ‘Come on over and I’ll feed ya!’” Burns said. “Going forward, my goal is to have hundreds of people show up. If I can get somebody in the building who doesn’t have a connection to the high school, that’s a win.”
The spaghetti dinner marks the beginning of what Burns hopes will be a new tradition, whereby the school hosts meals to better acquaint the larger community with the school. The next dinner is tentatively scheduled for spring, he said, with additional plans for ongoing events throughout the year.
“The biggest thing is, me just getting help to cook some stuff up,” he said. “When it gets a little warmer, we’ll probably do some hamburgers and hot dogs. It will probably be around April.”
Among other events Burns has planned, on April 8, the school gym will play host to an Easter egg hunt for kids of all ages. Participants will be grouped according to age and let into the gym at regular intervals to hunt for a total of 5,000 eggs, placed throughout the gym.
“Last year, we did it and I didn’t plan enough,” said Burns. “I think I only had 500 or 600 eggs out there, and they were gone within five minutes.”
All the events, Burns said, are designed to offer parents of kids across all grades greater opportunities to connect.
“Seward’s a very inviting place, and the community, it just gives them another opportunity to meet and greet people,” he said. “I just want kids to come and get connected with the school, more conversation and fellowship between the parents, and generally just trying to get the community together.”
