Lindsay Welcomes New Gym and Fitness Center Facility
Written by: Braxton Busselman
I am a junior that attends Lindsay Academy, and I am very excited to share with everyone that our fitness center and gym will be opening up soon, following with our event center opening up this December. This will be for our community as well as our students. We will be able to have PE classes in a gym for the first time in a while, and we will be getting a brand new weight room that we all can come and enjoy for ourselves. The fitness center hosted an open house at the end of September with complimentary rolls and coffee for everyone to enjoy while they toured the new facility. Memberships are now available as the fitness center officially opened their doors on October 1st. If you are interested in touring the facility or looking into a membership, prices and information is available on the FCA Lindsay Fitness Center Facebook page.
Staying on schedule, the new gymnasium opened up on September 1st, 2025. This was a great new addition to the school, especially from a student's perspective, because this means that we can have more efficient PE classes, and even weight room access. Getting back into a normal routine is something the students have been looking forward to, although we did always look forward to what Mr. Beranek would come up with for PE class! He sure keeps things fun and interesting. Let’s just say, a lot of us now know how to “just dance”. In addition to the opening of the gym, we will also gain the ability to hold/host our own sporting events, such as basketball and volleyball games. Our first sporting event in our new gym was on October 7th, which was a high school volleyball game against Elkhorn Valley. It was an awesome feeling to finally have an event happening in our new building after years of hard work and preparation by the Lindsay Area Development team. It was a sea of pink as the crowd wore pink shirts to recognize cancer awareness. The support everyone showed during this game was remarkable. Along with high school volleyball, we are also hosting grade school and junior high volleyball games and tournaments in the month of October. As volleyball comes to an end in November, we are already prepared and gearing up as we are also hosting the basketball holiday tournament in our new gym, which will be happening over Christmas break. This is a two day tournament in the middle of the basketball season.
I am getting very excited, along with all of the other students, about our gym being open and the new Event Center also opening up soon. It has been very exciting these past few weeks, as I mentioned since we are able to have P.E. class in our new gym facility. The football team is also very grateful to have the locker rooms finished up. This year we were able to have our first football game back in Lindsay after a couple of years, and that was a very monumental moment to witness and be a part of. We also had a burger bash that brought over 400 people to our first home football game in Lindsay! Along with the burger bash that was a successful fundraiser for our booster club, we had split the pot, which was a great outcome bringing $500 back to the club. While parents of the community and surrounding towns enjoyed burgers, kids enjoyed the nice evening of running with friends, and they were also able to show their team spirit with bulldog pawprint tattoos.
To stay updated with all the new and exciting things happening in Lindsay and the new facilities, check out our Facebook page or website! There are daily updates to keep everyone in the loop. If you have questions, you can also reach out to the Lindsay Area Event and Wellness Center at 402-428-3302.
October Teacher Spotlight: Mr. Danny Fernua
Written by: Cooper Herchenbach
As we kick this school year off I, Cooper Herchenbach, a senior at Lindsay Academy, have recently had the opportunity to interview our new guidance counselor, Mr. Danny Fernau. Mr. Fernau graduated from Butte Public High School in 1976 and went to Wayne State College to get his bachelor’s degree, where he also wrestled for 2 years. He then went on to the University of Nebraska-Kearney to get his Master’s degree. His first job was teaching business education at Grand Island Senior High. He was then a school counselor at O`Neil Public Schools and West Point Beemer High School. Mr. Fernau is happily married and has three adult children, and is now Lindsay Academy's guidance counselor!
Q: What made you want to come to Lindsay Academy?
A: “I wanted to come to Lindsay because I wanted to continue my job as a counselor. I enjoy working with students and parents as students work their way through high school. Lindsay Academy provided a very good opportunity to pursue that goal. Lindsay Academy is a new school and a new program that I want to be able to be a part of.”
Q: What has been your favorite meal?
A: “My favorite meal has got to be a hamburger with a side of fries.” When asked what his favorite desert was, he responded with, “A warm peach pie with ice cream on top.”
Q: What is your favorite hobby outside of school?
A: “I’ve got three things that I really enjoy doing. I really enjoy golfing and I have for a very long time, as well as hunting and fishing.”
Q: What is your favorite sport to watch and support?
A: “My favorite sport to watch, since I’m from Nebraska, is watching the Huskers in just about anything they do. If I had to choose one, I really enjoy watching baseball.”
Q: How has your experience been so far here at Lindsay Academy?
A: “It has been nothing but positive, the staff has been excellent and the students have been very pleasant. I am really happy with the way things have been going.”
Q: What is one of your favorite memories that you would like to share?
A: “My favorite memory since I am a parent has got to be watching my children be born and watching them grow up. It’s just something you’ll never forget. As far as school goes, watching people or teams that aren’t as gifted or talented work hard and still succeed. Just showing and proving that hard work pays off.”
Q: What are you most excited about for this year and the years to come?
A: “I am most excited this year just to be able to get back in and working with students. I enjoy the job that I do and I love working not only with teachers but also with kids and helping them through the tough decisions as they get closer to moving on and getting outside of the school.”
Q: What is a goal you have as a School Counselor?
A: “To try and work hard and make a difference. I hope the little things I do here help the students and help them decide what they want to do as they move on.”
Q: Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself?
A: “I would like to share that I have 6 grand kids and I really enjoy spending time with them and watching them grow. They grow up way too fast.”
The students are very happy and excited to have an active guidance counselor inside of the school. As a senior student, I can say that Mr. Fernau is very helpful when it comes to signing up for college classes as well as applying to multiple different colleges to avoid waiting lists. He is also very helpful when it comes to filling out and applying for scholarships. He is also very easy to talk to and loves to interact with his students. With that being said, Lindsay Academy is happy that Mr. Fernau has made the decision to come here and help our new school and students thrive.
Plant Knowledge Growing Skills
Written by: Max Stenger
This year at Lindsay Academy, we as students have the opportunity to take a landscaping class. We are planning to do a variety of hands-on projects and many in-class experiments as well. We are also looking into some bigger projects throughout the school year. This year, we are taking care of all the mowing and weed-eating needs. On top of this, we will be planting flowers and helping with all the landscaping around the new school.
One of the projects we will be working on in the near future is an outdoor classroom. It would be a place to do your homework or reading. It can also be a space to go outside and get some fresh air. There will be tables and chairs for you to comfortably and productively complete your schoolwork, as well as a nice little area for a wildflower garden that our class will plant and put together. We will be able to design and build the area ourselves, so it will be totally student-made. We applied for a significant amount of grant money, and we are patiently waiting to hear back on the acceptance of the grant, which we should know by the end of the fall semester.
On top of this, we are considering putting in a putting green in the front of the school. It would be about 17 ft by 25 ft. We would custom design it and then help build it, making sure students are as fully engaged as possible in these projects. The putting green would have about 4 to 5 holes, with some of the green flat and the rest sloped differently. This would make it more challenging while still keeping it simple enough for younger children to enjoy.
There has also been talk of putting in a couple of frisbee golf holes behind the school. Frisbee golf is a fun game where there is a basket elevated about 3 feet off the ground. You have to throw the frisbee into the basket and count your throws like strokes in golf. This would be a cost-friendly option to get kids outside and trying a different activity. It would also not take up much space. With a couple of baskets, it would be easier to make a game out of it. It could be a fun and competitive game for many students, as well as a chance to broaden their horizons and try something new.
We just started doing some landscaping around the school as a class. When the landscaping company came to lay the grass, the construction company was not finished, so some spots did not get seeded. Now that the construction is done in that area, we seeded and fertilized the grass, which is already starting to come up. This will make the school look much more presentable instead of just bare dirt being the first thing you see when you pull into the school. Our goal as students is to create a welcoming atmosphere for others entering our building.
Lastly, we have been taking care of the grass around the school with mowing and weed-eating. The grass did get too tall for our mowers, and we had to bring tractors and shredders to cut the back. We finally got it done in about a half hour, and now we can use the mowers on it again. We have all been helping out with the mowing, taking turns bringing in mowers and mowing the grass around the school. Those not on the mowers are weed-eating and leaf-blowing. Others are out in the grass picking up the mesh left over from when it was seeded.
Overall, these new beginnings are filling Lindsay Academy students with excitement. The availability of these hands-on courses allows students like myself to break up the school day and get out of the classroom for a while. As we patiently wait to hear back on the acceptance of the grant money, we continue to expand our knowledge of landscape design.