When I became a member of the McCook Community Foundation Fund, an unexpected shift happened in my thinking.
Through the affiliation with the Nebraska Community Foundation, I began to see the potential of “what can be” instead of the common mindset about our lack of resources, lack of creative leadership, or just plain apathy that can become troublesome to our local community organizations.
Along with our other Fund Advisory Committee members, there have been many conversations about McCook and the surrounding communities' future growth and the ability to attract new families and businesses. These discussions tend toward a listing of improving existing programs or facilities and the resulting obligatory debate about how to fund such undertakings.
Numerous times, it comes down to a perceived lack of funding, along with other sparse resources, that can make such impactful generational change difficult to attain.
Time after time, this very type of thinking holds organizations hostage from the actualization of their goals and dreams. This scarcity mindset accepts the belief that there will never be enough, resulting in feelings of fear, stress, and uneasiness, along with a resulting fatalistic attitude.
On the other hand, an abundance mindset flows out of a more profound inner sense of personal worth and security. It is grounded in the belief that there is more than enough for everyone. Abundancy thinking leads to utilizing the resources around us to facilitate the change we are seeking.
Abundancy-thinking recently guided local leaders to significantly increase our community's availability to childcare. A group of like-minded individuals, led by Andy Long, executive director of our McCook Economic Development Corporation, decided to investigate what was possible.
In the early stages, my thinking led me to believe that we needed a childcare facility, which would require a capital campaign for adequate building funds, start-up costs, and staffing needs. As we first perceived it, this project would have been a considerable endeavor and had a high potential for failure.
Through a survey of affected community members, results demonstrated that parents preferred their local in-home childcare options instead of a single large day care facility. The local data also showed that currently, McCook did not offer an adequate number of daycare spots, and new daycare spots for infants were scarce or nonexistent. The survey results were counterintuitive to my prior thinking, but this is what the data said, loud and clear! Our resulting goal has become: Make our county the best place in Nebraska to be with young children.
Our newly formed McCook/Red Willow County Community 4 Kids committee got to work, and within two years, we have made a significant impact. We created a JumpStart program that has realized three local individuals completing a 3-credit hour course at McCook Community College. This class required creating a business plan, creating a parent handbook, and then going on to start or expand an existing childcare center. Also, each successful candidate received a $3,000 start-up grant.
There was also a financial incentive to add infant spots by offering a $250/monthly stipend to cover additional costs associated with appropriate infant care. This program realized 15 other infant spots that were otherwise difficult for parents to find for our youngest citizens.
And the final part of our plan offers two Early Childhood Full-Ride Scholarships, in partnership with McCook Community College and the McCook Community College Foundation. We currently have awarded one scholarship to a local student studying Early Childhood and planning to work in this field in our local area.
The above demonstrates abundant thinking at a local level. When we began this endeavor, we were a bit overwhelmed about how to start.
But everyone was brought to the table, including the Early Childhood network, state level partnerships, local early childhood advocates, the McCook Economic Development Corporation, and the McCook Community Foundation Fund.
Also significantly, we could tap into local resources to fund this project without asking additional taxes or community fundraising. We were able to tap into fiscal resources that we were unaware of when we began this process two years ago.
We started talking about what it would take to make the program happen—demonstrating one example of how thinking with abundance, not scarcity, can lead to unimaginable change.
Think of a time in your life when you've been told, "You can not do that; you should focus instead on a safer or more predictable path." But rather than selling ourselves short, we can utilize our untapped potential if we adopt an abundance mindset.
Cindy Huff is chairperson of the McCook Community Foundation Fund. The former superintendent has a passion for youth, families and our community. She took over to give Ronda Graff a week off to celebrate 25 years of marriage to her first husband.
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.
