Busy volunteer tapped parade Grand Marshal

    A retired teacher and community volunteer will lead this year’s Chase County Fair Parade as Grand Marshal.
    Dennis Batterman of Imperial was tapped for the annual honor and will sit in the lead vehicle for the Aug. 19 parade down the streets of Imperial.
    Chris Lee, a chamber parade committee member, said Batterman was an easy choice from a list of nominees.
    “He taught school for a number of years and a lot of people he taught are still in the community,” Lee said.
    Batterman’s “all-around generosity” in Imperial and the county made him a good candidate, according to Lee
    “He’s continued to stay busy even after retirement,” he said.
    Batterman ventured into southwest Nebraska in 1974 when he was hired to teach in the Wauneta/Hamlet schools.
    “The first three years I actually taught in the Hamlet building,” he said.
    For the 1976-77 school year, he taught in Wauneta.
    He then accepted a position with Imperial Grade School at the time, which later merged its district with Chase County High School and now continues as a K-12 district known as Chase County Schools.
    He’s always taught in grades 5-8, he said. He retired in 2016.
    But retirement certainly hasn’t meant sitting at home for Batterman.
    In addition to volunteer work at the community center, he’s active in the Imperial Lions Club, the Lied Imperial Public Library, the Methodist church and Goodwill Industries.
    His involvement with Lions finds him often at fair in the club’s bingo stand, where he is one of the callers.
    But he’s also involved in setting out the Lions flags downtown all of fair week, and in recent days he helped the club get its picnic tables repaired and stained for use at the fairgrounds and in the parks.
    While this year he’ll lead the parade, Batterman has been on the Lions float often over his 38 years of membership.
    “Someone had to throw out the candy,” he smiled.
    You’ll also find Batterman putting in some volunteer hours at the Eagles food stand during fair.
    At the community center, he starts coffee each day for the men’s coffee group. He also helps sort, price and sell items from its thrift store.
    That has spilled over into volunteer hours with Goodwill, he said. Items the thrift store can’t use are boxed up for the next Goodwill truck’s visit to Imperial. While here every 4-6 weeks, he monitors the trailer set up at the Methodist church parking lot.
    At the library, he is “unofficially” in charge of its genealogy section, he said, and has undertaken a major project cataloging local history from the county’s newspapers as far back as he can go.
    He is through newspapers up to the 1980s, recording information about families on individual 3x5 cards that now number 50,000 in old-fashioned card catalog files. He’s taken over Kermit Karns’ web page, and is in the process of inputting the data from all of those cards.
    He is active in the Methodist church, calling himself the “designated dishwasher” for its many events. He’s served on nearly all of the church boards, too.
    He’s a lifetime member of the Chase County Historical Society, plays golf, bowls and enjoys bridge several times a week.    
    He is an on-call part-time employee with Imperial Manor, as well.
    If called and he’s available, he takes manor residents, and at times, those in Parkview-Heights, to medical appointments.
    He can also be seen calling a bingo game or two for residents at Imperial’s senior care facilities.
    He hasn’t lost his tie to education, remaining a member of the Nebraska State Education Association, and served as a past NSEA board member.
    He believes it’s important to encourage new teachers.
    For any new CCS teacher who joins NSEA, Batterman pays their Imperial Education Association dues the first year, which amounts to $30-$60.
    “Anything I can do to help out a first year teacher,” he said.
Parade form now online
    Forms to enter the Chase County Fair Parade are now online at the fair’s website: chasecountyfair.com.
    Paper forms can be picked up at ALLO or The Imperial Republican office.
    Lee said he’ll also take registrations over the phone at 308-882-1548.  
    The parade has a 10:30 a.m. start time Aug. 19 and the following parade categories are set—business/professional, organizations, religious, equestrian and open class.
    The theme is “Come Home to the Chase County Fair.”