The Greater Seward Area students placed well in the recent GFWC Nebraska Federation of Women’s Club’s Arts/Photography Contests at the State Contest in Lincoln April 10 and 11 th .
In High School Photography, the Student Photography swept the show with six First Place winners and the “Best of Show” award by the GFWC Nebraska Federation of Women’s Clubs. In the “Natural Wonders” Category – Olive Burell placed First in Color with her “Jack in the Pulpit” and Brianna Hill placed First in Black and White with her “Star Fish.” In the “Reflections” Category – Lydia Jurchen placed First in Color with "Reflections” and Olive Buell placed First in Black and White with her photo “Lucy Tough.”
Quinton Deyarmond’s photo “Water Drops” placed first the “Our World” category inBlack and White and it also was named “Best of Show!” He also was First Place in the Color Category in “Our World” category.
In “High School” Art- Lucy Huntington from Seward HIgh placed “First” In Pencil and Addison Petzoldt from Centennial placed Third in Colored Pencil, and Gabe Pomajzl won Second Place in Charcoal Drawing.
In Middle School, Francheska Hernandez won First Place and “Best of Show” in Middle School with the Pen and Ink and Mya Boggs was named First Place with her oil painting of “Ducks.”
In the Elementary Division, Aspen Samuels-5 th Grade won First in Pencil-Self Portrait and was also named “Best of Show” in Elementary. Dumamis Kinyua of Centennial MS won Second Place in Third Grade with a crayon drawing and Charlie Wolfe of Centennial Second Grade won Second Place with his crayon drawing.
The annual GFWC Nebraska Federation of Women’s Clubs, INC Annual Literature Contest-2025-2026 has selected the top entries to be entered in the National GFWC Literature Contest and share the entries that will appear in the new 2025-2026 GFWC NFWC Anthology.
Winners include…
Poetry K-2
Second-Owen Samuels-“The Color Poem”-GFWC Seward Womans Club
Third-Gabe Gubanyi-“The Owl”-GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club
Poetry 3-5
Third-Philip Jank-“The Polar Bear”-GFWC Seward Womans Club
Honorable Mention: Aspen Samuels-“Homework”-GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club
Poetry 6-8
First-Naomi Jurchen-“Like Footprints In The Sand”-GFWC Seward Womans Club
Honorable Mention:
Evangeline Rusnak-“The Great Exchange”-GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club
Poetry 9-12
First-Jordyn Samuels-“Silent Night Sleepless Night”-GFWC Seward Women’s Club
Third-Daryann Rodriguez-“I Am Not His Weather”-GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club
Short Story K-2
Third-Jensyn Foor -The Gingerbread Dog”-GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club
Honorable Mention:
Knox Pierce-“The Gingerbread Dog”-GFWC Seward Womans Club
Short Story 3-5
Honorable Mention:
Ava Huebuer-“Hidden Secret”-GFWC Seward Womans Club
Harrison Janda-“Fallen”-GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club
Short Story 6-8
Third-Sawyer Wollenburg-“Old Jungle Magic”-GFWC Seward Womans Club
Honorable Mention:
David Hibbard-“694 Years Later”-GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club
Short Story 9-12
Second-Jacey Forbes-“Catch Me If You Can”-GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club
Honorable Mention:
Emaline Janda-“Panda’s Adventure”-GFWC Seward Womans Club
In the Adult Division, Poetry Adult
First-Ellen Chaffin-Seward- “A Early Morning Glimmer” -GFWC Seward Womans Club
Short Story Adult
First-Kim McCord Fisher-Seward -“My Own Prison” -GFWC Belvidere Women’s Club
Noted is that the First Place Winners in the Literature Division now have been entered in the GFWC National Contest and will be announced in the Summer. All the entries in the State Literature Contest were printed in the annual GFWC NFWC Anthology, and a GFWC NFWC Anthology was purchased by the GFWC Seward Womans Club and the GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club and delivered to each student that was a finalist at the State Level and had won First Place on the local level and entered into the State Contest.
The GFWC Seward Women’s Club and GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club sponsors the annual student entries in the Photography, Art and Literature Contests on the Local, District and State Levels. Amy Metschke was the chair for the GFWC Seward Junior Women’s Club and Ellen Chaffin and Barb Schauer were the co-chair for the Student Lit Contest and the Photography Contest. Brab Schauer and Ellen Chaffin also served as the GFWC NFWC State Literature Chairs and co-edited the Anthology.
