Wilber, NE

Polka music wafts from loudspeakers and red, white, and blue-flowered Czech signs that read Vitame Vas (We Welcome You) decorate businesses up and down Main Street in Wilber, Neb. (pop. 1,532).

Townspeople in the “Czech Capital of America” take pride in their heritage.

“When Czechs work, they work. And when they party, they party,” says Charlie Keller, president of the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber and a state Department of Roads retiree. “Czech people give from the heart. Their first thought is of the happiness they can give to others.”

Czech roots run deep in Wilber, first settled in 1865 by immigrants seeking religious freedom from what is now the Czech Republic. They found the rolling hills and low bluffs of southeastern Nebraska reminiscent of their homeland. The town was officially platted by Charles Dana Wilber, a professor from Illinois, in 1873. Today, 40 percent of the townspeople are of Czech descent.

Descendants of the town’s founders have built a close-knit community, whose residents honor the past and celebrate the present. Irma Freeouf Ourecky, the town historian whose grandparents immigrated to the United States in the 1880s, is one of the community’s stalwart citizens.

“It’s born in us to be honest and helpful to our neighbors,” Ourecky says. “Czech people don’t sit around and think about themselves.”

Known as “Mrs. Wilber,” Ourecky, 89, also is president of the town’s Czech museum and craft shop. She can be seen nearly every day driving her car down Main Street, en route to assist in any number of community projects.

A major focus for Ourecky and hundreds of other local volunteers is the Nebraska Czech Festival, which draws 30,000 people from across the United States to Wilber each summer. Busloads of people reserve hotel rooms in nearby Lincoln, Beatrice, and York for up to a year in advance. The 40th annual event is slated for Aug. 3-5, but work is under way year-round.

“Everyone does so much,” Keller says. “For every Irma that you see, there are so many others who you don’t hear about.”

Doris Ourecky, Irma’s daughter-in-law, is quick to add, “Once you’re on a committee, you’re on for life.”

The polka music that plays on Main Street every day comes to life during the festival thanks to the award-winning high school band and the 175-member-strong alumni band. Colorful provincial costumes, lively polka and ethnic dancing, kolace-eating contests (kolace is a Czech pastry), parades, and mouth-watering dumplings, sauerkraut, roast pork, and duck are just a few reasons the event is popular. The Miss Czech-Slovak USA Pageant draws contestants from across the nation.

With the festival well-established and recognition solidified by President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 proclamation of Wilber as the “Czech Capital of the United States,” townspeople are confident their heritage will survive.

“Many towns are dying, but ours isn’t,” adds Doris Ourecky, 66. “We have grown and kept our town alive. Young people go away to college, but they come back.”

For example, Mayor Russ Karpisek, one of the youngest mayors in the state at 34, and his wife, Jill, returned to Wilber after graduating from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. They run Karpisek’s Market, home of the Wilber Wiener and award-winning beef jerky.

“I know our Czech culture will be preserved,” Irma says. “I know it will keep going because my children and grandchildren are all involved.”

“The young kids are learning to make kolace. They’re learning to make dumplings and sauerkraut,” Doris adds. “It warms your heart.”

Cindy Murphy McMahon is a freelance writer in Omaha, Neb.

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