Dan Policky is obviously passionate about Bee.
He is excited about the upcoming 16th Annual Bee Buzz Run that will more than double the village’s population for a few hours on April 12.
Bee’s population is a bit more or a bit less than 200 people depending on your sources. As of April 3, more than 200 people had registered for the 1- and 4-mile walk/run. That does not count their friends and families who will come to cheer them on and the others who will just come for the buffet breakfast people say is amazing.
“People will chatter. It is a happy atmosphere,” Policky said of Bee Buzz Run day.
This year, What’s the Scoop is also bringing ice cream to town and the Seward County Sheriff’s Posse will return on their horses to assure safety and amaze the kids.
When he appeared before the Seward County Commissioners to get permission to close off sections of 238th Road, 252nd Road, Agnew Road and Rock Creek Road for the path of the four-mile race, he told commissioners what a great route that is.
Parts of the roads are gravel and parts are paved, he said later, and relatively flat. There is only a slight hill to go down and later climb up, unlike some other races he has run in the “Bohemian Alps” after which his legs took weeks to recover.
“It is just so peaceful out there,” he said.
And it goes around Bee. Policky loves his hometown.
For the past 16 years, he has been among the organizers of the Bee Buzz Run, which was started and continues to provide financial support for the States Ballroom, the 1939 Works Progress Administration-built ballroom/gymnasium/community hall structure recorded in the National Register of Historic Places.
He was thinking about stepping aside after the 15th annual race, but No. 16 drew him in.
He and his wife of 48 years, Rosellen, have lived in Seward for many years, but their hometown and others who love it are constant parts of their lives.
One of the community’s bigger fundraising traditions for the ballroom is an annual Windsor loin dinner with entertainment and auction each November.
Sometimes community members gather kids and adults willing to dress up and perform lip synch numbers to put on a benefit show at the ballroom. Other times they will bring a band to town.
Around 1990, after the movie Sister Act was out, Policky and some friends dressed up as nuns from the Convent of Perpetual Motion and put on a swinging lip-synch show as part of a fundraiser. The group then performed at senior centers and other venues here and there without much promotion.
They made a road trip to perform in Norfolk a few years ago when the late Ed Plisek invited them to perform there, joining in for part of the act. Plisek and his wife, Maxine, were longtime Seward residents and supporters of Bee.
This year Policky, expects the descendants of Jim and Elna Young of Milford to return to the celebration in honor of their parents and grandparents. They have had as many as 22 family members sign up for the walk/run some years.
Both Youngs participated in the one- or four-mile races as long as they could, starting in their 80s and causing Policky to keep adding older age groups for run medals.
There is a category for 90 and older now.
Elna Young used to walk the four-mile route the day before the run, picking up litter along the way. Then she would return with Jim so they could walk the one-mile race together on Sunday, Policky said.
In Jim’s last year, he walked the last block of the race to cross the finish line.
Family members told Policky Jim kept his medals close to his recliner and that Elna was buried in a specially made yellow Bee Buzz Run sweatshirt. Some of her funeral memorials were designated for the States Ballroom Renovation Fund.
The Garland Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad also helps regularly, and Policky recalls a year when the sky began pelting participants with sleet just after the four-mile race began. The squad had to help gather them up as lightning started to cause concern.
“My daughter’s legs were just all bright red from that sleet,” Policky said.
He says he could go on with more stories about the run and the many people who have made it the tradition it is.
“If you have a passion for something you can do anything,” Policky said.
Over the years, a variety of businesses and individuals have contributed to sponsor the event. Policky knows they are asked to support many events.
“It takes work, but it is a lot of fun and it is rewarding,” he said of the fundraising. People in and around Bee promote the event everywhere.
Policky loves that a flyer for the race made its way to Kearney a few years ago, which led a woman who does not live in Nebraska to arrange to meet four friends in Bee for the run.
“How does the world not know about this place?” she asked Policky after that run.
