During the McCook Chamber of Commerce’s recent annual meeting, I had the pleasure of sharing several projects that the McCook Community Foundation Fund and the McCook Chamber are working together on.

There are the Third Thursday events in downtown McCook throughout the summer and Beautify McCook projects to bring lights and flowers and - beauty - to our community.

But perhaps the project that could have the most impact but is just slowly gaining steam is McCook Connects.

McCook Connects is a program that matches up newcomers or short-term young people, such as medical students or student teachers, with current residents. Before anyone is matched up, both sides share information about themselves, including their hobbies and interests. Once a match is made, the long-time resident helps the newcomer or student learn about the community. Maybe, it is taking the newcomer on a boat ride at a nearby lake, showing them  where the boat dock is located or where to buy a park pass, which they may not know is needed. It could be that the newcomer is an avid golfer but doesn’t know the ins and outs of getting into a league or when to get a tee time and the connector shows them the ropes. Or the newcomer is into all types of live music but doesn’t know what is available or how to buy tickets so the connector makes the connection.

The goal is to get the newcomers engaged and for them to feel like this is truly their home. Or for the students, the goal is for them to feel like this could be their home in the future.

McCook Connects began as a collaboration between Community Hospital and MCFF to help connect medical students with current residents. The hospital knows that the med students are going to leave at the end of their rotation, but the goal is for the students to leave with a great impression of McCook and the surrounding community. Why? When a job opening happens at Community Hospital - and that will happen - and the hospital calls the former med student, the hospital wants the med student to remember their in McCook with fondness and has a desire to return to the community. The job opportunity is much more likely to be filled if the young person made connections during their short time in McCook.

Those connections can’t happen if all they do is go from the hospital to their apartment with a short stop at the grocery store. If a med student is paired with a current resident who then takes them golfing or horseback riding or to the lake - wherever their mutual interests lie - they will hopefully learn to appreciate the community even more.

McCook Connects is also beneficial for student teachers, another group of young people who could possibly call McCook home in the future after spending a short time here.

But perhaps McCook Connects biggest impact could be with newcomers. The slogan of McCook Connects is “From Welcoming to Belonging to Engaging.” If we want our newcomers to feel like they are truly a part of our community and for our newest residents to stay long term, we have to get them engaged.

For those most part, everyone is already welcoming. We all do the one-finger wave as we drive down the street and say “good morning” to everyone we meet walking down the sidewalk.

But McCook Connects is designed to get people to the next stage, where they belong and eventually engaged throughout the community.

And while connecting new or potential new residents to our community is important for long-term viability, there is another important reason to get people connected.

Studies are showing that people are having fewer and fewer face-to-face interactions. People are going longer and longer - sometimes several days - with having a conversation with someone. People will say they are communicating more but the majority of that communication involves a screen. Sorry, communication over a phone is not the same as being in the physical presence of others. Body language is lost. Inferences are overlooked. Even the tone of the voice cannot be adequately conveyed on a screen or through a device.

By connecting people and getting them involved in activities throughout the community, we are building the social fabric that is so sorely needed.

If you are interested in McCook Connects, whether as a newcomer or a long-term resident, please visit the MCFF website, mccookfoundation.org, to learn more and to sign up.

We need connectors, who are willing to share their interests and passions and to celebrate McCook and Southwest Nebraska. And we need newcomers to evolve from being welcomed to belonging to engaged if we want our community to be an even better place to call home.