“There’s nothing to do here.” “I can’t have a career here.” “There’s no entertainment.”
On the flip side….”Good schools.” “Low crime rate” “Great outdoor recreation.”
These are just a few of the views from McCook youth as part of a recent survey.
This past spring, the McCook Community Foundation Fund conducted a youth survey through the McCook High School. All 400-plus high school students were given the opportunity to voice their opinion on a variety of topics related to their community.
This is the fourth survey of local youth since 2006 with relatively the same questions each time. The answers may vary a bit but for the most part, the results have remained consistent.
The youth want to stay or return to their hometown because they have a strong connection to the community but a majority say they have’t been asked how to make their community better. They want to be involved but again, the majority say they haven’t ever been asked by an adult or community leader to volunteer. They like the size of McCook, with more than half the students saying it is their ideal size compared to smaller and larger cities.
And in what I consider one of the most important questions, “Has an adult asked you to stay or return in McCook?” More than 65 percent said they had never received that simple invitation.
I admit that I didn’t consider that question important until my oldest daughter was graduating and I wonder if that was too late to instill in her that we wanted her to return home.
But along with simply asking our youth to return home, we need to be actively encouraging them to follow their dreams whether it is a career or entertainment. We need to create opportunities from unique office space to family-friendly activities. We need to help them realize that they can make their ideas, their dreams and their hopes come to fruition.
In other words, they can make it happen here.
This summer, the McCook Community Foundation Fund has hired a hometown intern to help tell McCook’s story. McCook High School grad Lexi Gross is spending the final summer before her senior year at Fort Hayes State University in McCook creating a video series called, “Make It Happen Here.”
We are focusing on those who “make it happen here,” whether it is starting a new business, creating unique entertainment opportunities or those who specifically choose to return to their hometown after time away from the community.
Lexi has been interviewing local business owners who took a chance to start a business which is unique to McCook such as Bill and Jade Lesko at Cita Deli and Tyler McCarty, who has built a shrimp farm 1,000s of miles from the ocean. She plans to create video of the water activities at our area lakes and use footage of area concerts to highlight musical opportunities. And she continues to interview those who have made a conscious decision to return to their hometown after graduating college or after living in another town.
All of these videos will be available on the MCFF website, on Facebook and YouTube, wherever we think and hope we can reach our youth to let them know that they can make it happen here.
Andy Long, executive director of the McCook Economic Development Corp., is really good at asking pertinent questions and one of my favorites is “What three words would you use to describe your hometown?” The question makes you stop and think about what is important about your community, what is going right and what needs improvement.
I have answered the question several times and the words I pick can fluctuate based on how my day is going or how someone responded to one of my many “golden” ideas, but generally I use positive words to describe the state of our community.
When you have a moment, take a minute to ponder the words you would use to describe our community. Are they positive? Do they suggest room for improvement? And most importantly, are you doing what you can to make it happen here.
McCook's last hometown bakery closed this past week, leaving a void not just for donuts but for connections.
Many organizations and businesses in McCook offer the opportunity to recycle, reuse and repair items that may just end up in the trash.
Organizer for Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival and former librarian named Oct 2025 volunteer of the month.
McCook's Third Thursdays were created to get businesses and organizations involved and designed to create life-long memories for the community.
Long-time community advocate Barb Ostrum received the Sept 2025 McCook Volunteer of the Month award.
We need to celebrate our young people while they are here and encourage them to return.
While some like myself appreciate a rainy day, others dread them for a variety of reasons. We need to be empathetic as interact with others.
MCFF Fall Grant Deadline is Oct. 1. Complete list of former recipients on MCFF website
With so much going, it is time for a “This, That and the Other Thing” column, where we will cover several topics, not very deeply but hopefully with a sense of humor as we clean up and prepare for a busy week in McCook. *** McCook again made state and national news this week for ice. This time, it was in the form of hail that pounded the community for hours upon hours. Conversations this week begin with “where were you….?” or “how many windows did you lose?” And while they may be legitimate and are offering their services, it is like vultures with all the roofing repair and dent removal businesses which have descended upon McCook following the storm. As city officials noted, do your due diligence with any company doing repairs for you and follow the old adage, which is old and still around because it’s true: If something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is. And one last note on the storm, we need to be careful what we ask for. As storm after storm approaches McCook and then splits in two to go around the town, we finally got one to roll right over us. The storm liked McCook so much it slowed down and just there. I was in Lincoln during the storm and trying to determine when I would drive home. I thought the weather app had frozen or the radar was broken because every time I looked, the storm was still sitting over McCook, doing its damage. I guess we can be thankful the next time a storm seemingly just goes around us. *** We are in the thick of McCook’s Heritage Days celebration. Congratulations to all the Heritage Days Royalty, which was announced at the MNB Bank Mixer this week. A special shout-out to Bill Donze, better known as Mr. Bill and his wife, Kathy, who were honored as royalty for their impact in McCook. As many know, Mr. Bill is fighting cancer and the prognosis isn’t good. The chances of him selling snow-cones and candy out of his van next summer near the McCook Aquatic Center are not good. One judge of his impact was the response to my column about Mr. Bill a few months ago. The post was shared thousands of times, viewed nearly 70,000 times with just as many comments by people sharing their fond memories of Mr. Bill. So when you see Mr. Bill riding down Norris in the convertible this weekend in the Heritage Days parade, send extra prayers and well-wishes to the man who has brought so much joy to so many kids - and adults too - over the years. *** Continuing on the Heritage Days theme, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the McCook Rotary Club is tossing all egos and formality out the window this weekend. As the president of the McCook Rotary Club, I invite everyone to at least watch, if not participate, in the Rotary’s first inflatable costume relay race on Saturday as part of the festivities in Norris Park. These are those giant, blow-up costumes you usually see around Halloween. The first costumes were usually T-Rexes but now there is everything imaginable available as a design. With the idea for the race originally conceived by Melanie Goodenberger, she has purchased everything from corn on the cob to a cowboy riding a chicken. This is a fund-raiser for the Rotary Club with a cost of just $20 for a team of four to participate in the relay race. But it is also a chance to giggle, perhaps make a fool of yourself and just have fun. Come to the park Saturday afternoon for the Wiener Dog races and stay for the Rotary Relay races. While the dogs will already be close to the ground, the relay race participants will likely just end up on the ground. *** With so much going on in McCook this week, I debated whether there should be another activity the next week but the response has already been great for the Lied’s Arts Across Nebraska’s next production in McCook. Hosted by the McCook Creative District, the Omaha Street Percussion ensemble will perform at the Fox Theater on Wednesday, Sept. 24. There is a matinee showing at 10:30 a.m. but I will be up-front…we are testing the capacity of the Fox with every seat already claimed with students. If that is the only show you can make, please come and we’ll find you a seat but it may be those up in the rafters. Otherwise, please plan to attend the 7 p.m. show on Sept. 24. And even better, there is no cost thanks to the Kimmel Foundation and the Friends of the Lied. This is a busy week and a busy weekend but this is a great opportunity to sit back and enjoy a fun, entertaining evening of live music.
Most likely, we aren't going to be good at something at the start. But that shouldn't stop us from trying.
