“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
― Mark Twain (Samuel Clements), The Innocents Abroad (1869)/ Roughing It (1914)
Although this quote is more than a century old, these words are even more relevant today. While everyone should be encouraged to travel, people should also be encouraged to expand how they think about their place - where you live, work, and raise a family. I am talking about your hometown.
Aside from a physical location, I think Twain’s quote addresses how a community lives together, builds personal relationships, and works together to keep a hometown vibrant.
Twain writing in the late 1860s could not have imagined all the advancements in health care, transportation and technology we take for granted today. He was likely influenced by the deadly and divisive Civil War and the mass European immigrants settling in the Midwest and Great Plains. These were people with big dreams, high expectations and determination to make a better place for themselves. Yes, some of those people were my ancestors.
More than 130 years ago, my great-grandfather took out a homestead claim just north of McCook. For four generations, my family has farmed and ranched in this area and McCook has served us well. To continue to do that, McCook must remain an economically active, culturally vibrant, and attractive place where people want to live.
McCook has the good fortune to be the geographic hub of cultural and economic activity for our region. Along with that comes much responsibility, for the area’s success falls more proportionately on our shoulders. McCook has carried this responsibility well when you think of all the innovative “Dream and Do” projects that McCook has accomplished over the years.
Forty years ago, we opened the current YMCA facility and established Heritage Hills Golf Course. In the last 20 years, partnerships involving public, private, and charitable people and institutions came together to create the Keystone Business Center, Kiplinger Fairground buildings, Anderson Cancer Center at Community Hospital, and McCook Community College’s Graff Events Center.
These projects, along with many others, were “Dream and Do” projects requiring the dedication of McCook leaders visioning, planning, and working together to take a calculated risk.
Initially fueled by the railroad and farming, McCook businesses and services grew to serve the needs of a fast-growing community. Early inhabitants had a vision and a commitment to build schools, a hospital, places of worship, theaters, a college, a YMCA, and many other community assets.
With minimal ties to the area and limited resources with them, they relied on their vision of the future and tried to anticipate the needs of 50, 75, 100 years later. Gazing down the bricks of Norris Avenue, their vision continues to serve us well 130 years later.
I continue to see a very bright future for McCook if we work to meet future demands. Internet technology, robotics, and artificial intelligence advances are changing how people live and why people choose to reside in a community. Career choices, recreation and lifestyle options will be increasingly important.
While the projects of the past century have served us well, community infrastructure must meet our needs of the next 50 to 100 years.
There is no denying our community is on a journey…friends and family traveling through time together, sharing space on the high plains with McCook as our provider of essential services.
McCook’s economic development director Andy Long has proclaimed that “This is McCook’s Decade!” to capture our community’s potential. As we share this enthusiasm, there are other McCook leaders discovering that our future is not what we settle for but rather what we make it.
Can we take McCook on an incredible journey this decade? Can you imagine 20 to 50 years from now? It will require us to travel mentally, physically, and virtually - over some rugged terrain at times - to understand what we presently do not know. The path may not always be easy, as my ancestors and I have discovered, but where it leads will be worth pursuing.
Dale Dueland is a member of the McCook Community Foundation Fund and board chairman of the Nebraska Community Foundation, as well as a life-long resident of McCook where he shares his passion, knowledge and vision.
Linda Graff named McCook Volunteer of the Month for December 2025
By focusing on what is important, we can make an even better impact in our communities.
After a 10-year hiatus, the McCook Holiday Home Tours return focusing on downtown upstairs apartments.
While many people think volunteering is for older residents, serving your community has no age restrictions. And young people can regularly be found lending a hand or offering their services in their hometown. The November 2025 McCook Volunteer of the Month recognizes one of many young people are working to make their community an even better place to call home: Grady Riemenschneider. Currently a senior at McCook High School, Grady volunteers with a wide variety of organizations and groups. As a four-year member of the McCook Community Foundation Fund’s Youth Change Reaction, Grady serves as the ambassador for the youth group’s “Cars Under Stars,” the outdoor movie theater at the Red Willow County Fairgrounds. At nearly every showing, he can be found operating the projector and setting up the parking lot, as well as passing along his knowledge to the next ambassador. In McCook’s FFA program, Grady has held officer roles the past four years and is currently the chapter vice president, organized the chapter banquet in 2025 and coached for the conduct of chapter meetings. Along with serving as the president of the Driftwood Feeders 4-H Club, he assists with setup, tear down and fundraising for the dog show and helps fellow members train their dogs. Grady steps in to help and lead at local events, including Prairie Plains CASA’s Kick in’ It Up for CASA and the Cajun Broil; the Edward Jones Alzheimer’s Walk; operating sound boards for various groups; and Feed the Farmer. And he has served as a youth leader at McCook Christian Church for elementary youth since approximately 2018 as well as stepping up to ensure the ag program ran smoothly during a teacher’s maternity leave Upon request from his mother about some of Grady’s activities, Sharleen noted that he is the “Chief Household Operations Officer: first responder for Mom’s to-do list, go-to chauffeur and caretaker for his favorite sidekick (a.k.a. his nephew), and the family’s unofficial event planner who somehow keeps everyone together without a clipboard.” The McCook Philanthropy Council recognizes a volunteer every month who is doing good work in McCook and Red Willow County. If there is a volunteer in the community who should be recognized, please contact the McCook Chamber of Commerce at 308-345-3200 or visit McCook Volunteers on the McCook Community Foundation Fund’s website, mccookfoundation.org to complete a nomination form. The only requirement is that the nominee must be a resident of McCook or Red Willow County but please have information about the nominee along with where and how they volunteer in the community. The volunteer honoree is selected monthly by the McCook Philanthropy Council.
With the holiday's nearing, MCFF member and Mayor Linda Taylor reflects on the many things to be thankful in McCook.
The names of those people who have made a generational impact on McCook and Southwest Nebraska is a long list. Many of them are working day-in, day-out right now to make their mark on the community. And then there are those people who no longer call McCook home but still make an impact long after they are gone. Allen Strunk is one of those people. Allen passed away on Nov. 1 at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada but he never lost the love of his hometown. Born and raised in McCook, Allen was a member of an already well-known family, Harry and Arlene Strunk. The Strunks started and published the McCook Daily Gazette, with the motto, “Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy in this world.” A saying that was so important that Harry had it etched at the top of his downtown newspaper office on Norris Avenue. That sense of service was passed along to Allen, who continued to serve his community as he took over leadership of the Gazette. I didn’t know Allen personally until he came back for visits years later. Even though my first job upon arriving in McCook was at the McCook Daily Gazette and Allen had turned over the publishing reins to Gene Morris many years prior, the Strunk legacy loomed large. He was instrumental in the building of the then-new YMCA, moving the facility from downtown to its current location next to the McCook High School. He was a key player in the new hospital, again moving from one location to a new expanded space. And McCook Community College benefitted his involvement in an expansion. Those projects continue to impact McCook today. And the support didn’t stop just because Allen retired from the Gazette and left McCook. There are programs the Strunks are involved in that benefit McCook and Southwest Nebraska. The Strunks continue to support Santa Claus Lane, which is overseen by the McCook Chamber of Commerce. And which after a few years of decline is seeing a resurgence of enthusiasm and nostalgia for the decorative holiday pieces lining Norris Avenue. Allen funds the annual McCook Area Outstanding Teacher award, which provides a financial prize to several teachers every year. And Allen recognized the work of the McCook Community Foundation Fund, providing a donation several years ago so that he could see its impact while he was still alive. This has led MCFF to consider how they will recognize and remember Allen for years to come. Because of his belief in service to his community, this could mean more recognition for the countless volunteers who keep our community thriving. It could be a day of community service, to see how many people can come together to make something happen. It could be a celebration for all the great things happening in our community. During Allen’s memorial service this past week in McCook, his step-daughter-in-law read the poem, “The Dash" by Linda Ellis, who published it in 1996. It reflects on the meaning of the dash between the birth and death dates on a tombstone. The dash is a reminder of everything that happens between the moment a person is born and the moment a person dies. The dash emphasizes the importance of how one lives their life during that time. The dash prompts a person to think about living, rather than worrying about dying. Ultimately, the dash is where all the good - and the bad - happens. And Allen Strunk made the most of his “dash,” both in his community and within his family. We can’t all run a newspaper. We likely aren’t going to etch our favorite saying into a building. But we all need to consider how we are paying the “rent for the space we occupy in this world.” And we can all make a difference in our hometowns, whether we currently live in them or even if we haven’t stepped foot on the main street in years.
Everyone feels a need to be needed and it is shown through the Big Give and Meal Kit Giveaways
SWNE Big Give reaches new heights thanks to enthusiasm of organizations, individuals and businesses
Food pantries are seeing an increased need, which means the community must step up with donations of food and time to help those who struggle to put food on the table.
