New Horizons PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA NE PERMIT NO. 389
A publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging
March 2024 | Vol. 49 | No. 3
Kastrick spreads knowledge of south Omaha history through local museum
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By Ron Petersen s a civilization, studying history is vital. History can be fascinating because it allows us to understand how societies, cultures and civilizations have evolved over time. Omaha has plenty of rich history, and it’s Gary Kastrick who has the knowledge that shares the past about those people, events and background of Nebraska. “I do tours of Omaha and people do not realize what is in this town. Omaha doesn’t have a real appreciation of its history and it’s about how little people know,” Kastrick said. “I’ve wanted to make people aware of the history and the important events that have happened right in their backyard.” Kastrick, 71, grew up in south Omaha where he’d attend high school at Omaha South. After graduating in 1970, Kastrick went to school at the University of Nebraska-Omaha where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. He later went back to school to get a master’s degree in economics and teacher’s license from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Once Kastrick finished school, he went to Big Springs Neb., where he
became the only teacher in the history department. Kastrick moved on after one year in western Nebraska to teach at Bryan Middle School in 1980 and then went to teach at Bancroft Junior High School for two years, before he ended up at Omaha South High School. Kastrick went on to teach almost every subject you can think of, but most notably, Omaha history. In 1999, Kastrick received a grant, which allowed Omaha South High School to create the first and only local history museum in a
After working at Omaha South for 28 years, Kastrick retired and took majority of the belongings from the museum with him. Currently, Kastrick took his knowledge of Omaha history to a new museum. He is the curator for the South Omaha Museum of Immigrant History, which opened in March of 2023. “I’ve done tours on Olly the Trolly, helped with exhibits at the Durham Museum, but this museum is set up to be a great one for people to visit,” Kastrick said. “We got off the ground and running. We are turning into an interesting museum when it comes to the artifacts that NEW HORIZONS PHOTO we have.” Kastrick works alongside Jose school, in the country. Garcia and his wife Linda, who pro“We wanted to use the museum vide plenty of history when it comes to teach local history because all to the exhibits. of that Omaha history was there, “Jose probably has the largest which made it the perfect location,” Mexican artifacts of history in the Kastrick said. Midwest,” Kastrick said. “He has Project Omaha became a place for students to use technology, study about 10,000 things there because he’s been collecting his whole life.” local history, record oral history of Douglas County Commissioner, southern Omaha and create original Jim Cavanaugh, and Roger Garcia products of history. For the success that it had, the museum was selected helped with funds for the museum because Cavanaugh’s grandmother as one of the top 10 projects in the nation and was awarded $30,000 in always said, “You don’t know who --Kastrick continued on page 9. technical support.
The Intercultural Senior Center recognizes 15 years of growth
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By Ron Petersen celebration of the 15th anniversary of Intercultural Senior Center (ISC) this month coincides with their mission to improve the dignity, quality of life, and physical well-being of seniors from around the world through advocacy, education, access to social services, and cultural enrichment activities that benefit the entire community. The celebration during an open house at the center will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. on
March 19. the beginning. “The ISC started as “Older adults will a grassroot organizabe informed about the celebration in March,” tion — when nonprofits start, the struggle Intercultural Senior can be huge, and they Center founder and eventually go away. In executive director, our case, there were Carolina Padilla said. Dating back to 2009, difficult times because people did not believe the ISC have moved that this community to various locations needed services for dibefore landing at their verse populations,” Pacurrent location at dilla said. “It was hard 5545 Center St. to get the word out The ISC moved to and it was hard to get several different locaengagement. We did tions including a few have a few hard years churches along with doing partnerships and a previous YMCA presentations, but it building, which made also didn’t help it very difficult to get --ISC continued on page 8. established in