The kids traveled in packs, grade by grade, down Beercroft Street and through the Elm Creek City Park before landing on the football field.

Some groups plopped down on the grass. Some ventured into the bleachers. All wore solar glasses, provided by the Elm Creek Public Library, and awaited the peak of 2024's total eclipse. For the older students, this was all old hat. They remembered the total solar eclipse back in August of 2017. For the youngest students, this was something new and mysterious.

Awesome, even.

"It may not be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but it's close to a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said superintendent Tom Moore. "So we thought it was worth doing something and celebrating and observing it together."