Two-hundred and four. That’s the number of pages in the 2024-25 Guardian yearbook which will be distributed in May; plus there will be a 32-page spring supplement that will come out this summer. Every one of those pages are connected to the others through the theme that the Guardian staff selected for volume 2 of the publication.
“I think the message is really strong,” Guardian Co-Editor-in-Chief, senior Natalie Hayhurst said. “I think it relates to everybody in the school and all the different groups. I don’t think it leaves anybody out.”
The theme is carried out throughout the book and reflected in the design, writing and overall aesthetic. Wanting to focus on a message of perseverance and determination that the yearbook staff felt described the students and staff of the school, the 17-person staff selected the phrase, “Mind Over Matter” to be their theme.
“It really stands out to me, because the word ‘matter’ is just so big,” Guardian Co-Editor-in-Chief, junior Laci Smith said. “I feel like there are big things that we overcome in life, and there’s challenges we have. I think it’s a very powerful message.”
The staff has been working throughout the year to capture and present stories that matter through their writing and photography.
“I think we’re doing a really good job of carrying the theme throughout the book,” Guardian Copy Editor, junior Brayden Hansen said. “You especially see it in the stories and captions we write. We’re telling the stories of people overcoming challenges because, when you think about it, everyone is going through something. This theme is a perfect way to tell those stories.”
The judges for the 2025 Nebraska Journalism Education Association Winter Contest must have agreed with Hansen as they awarded it the highest award possible in the contest, a Superior, for yearbook theme development. With 32 schools entering the JEA Winter Contest, Gretna East was one of only two schools that earned the ranking.
“It makes me really happy because we’ve worked really hard on the theme– to make the cover and layouts and then get our message across through the stories and pictures– it honestly feels really good knowing that the work we’re putting in is getting noticed by others,” Smith said.
With their theme developed and over half of the pages submitted to the printer, Walsworth Yearbooks, the yearbook staff is still working on finishing the book, but they are doing it on a quicker deadline than last year because creating the theme together wasn’t the only new thing the staff has implemented.
Unlike last year, the 2024-25 book will be distributed at the end of this school year. Although there is no official date yet, the Guardian staff’s goal is to have them and distribute them before the seniors’ last day, May 7.
“We wanted to make getting the yearbook something special, and when is a better time to get a yearbook about that year than at the end of that school year?” yearbook adviser Ranae Duncan said. “Switching it up to have a spring delivery instead of the fall will allow for everyone to sign each other’s books and personalized their books with their own memories of each other that they can look back on years later.”
Because the yearbook staff’s deadline for the book itself is in March, spring events, athletics and activities will be covered in a 32-page spring supplement that will be mailed to seniors who ordered a book and distributed to underclassmen in the fall.
Once the books are available for distribution, an email will be sent out to students and parents, and Gretna East Media will make a post that will provide pickup details.
As of this morning, 371 of the 425 copies of the 2025 yearbook that the yearbook staff ordered for the school have been sold, meaning only 54 copies remain for sale. They may be purchased at yearbookforever.com for $75 until March 31, or until they sell out. Once they are sold out, no more books will be available to purchase.
