Preparing to Leave a Legacy in Your Community

Preparing to Leave a Legacy for your Community

Last week, more than three dozen financial advisors and community members gathered together in McCook to learn more about how you can leave a legacy in your community.

Leaving a legacy can mean many things and can be done in a variety of ways.

For some, leaving a legacy means serving in public office, instituting laws and passing ordinances, which will shape the community for generations to come. If you don’t think attending a city council, school board or county commissioner meeting matters, consider that what they do at those meetings affects you and your children and your grandchildren on a daily basis. Those people who have served as a public servant have left a legacy in their community.

For others, they leave a legacy by their involvement and volunteerism in the community. These are the people who recognize a need in the community and fill it by creating an organization to help the situation. Or they volunteer their time to help others and make the community a better place for everyone who lives there. Those people who live to serve others have a left a legacy in their community.

And finally, there is the matter of leaving a legacy financially.

That was the topic covered last week during Nebraska Community Foundation’s Lunch and Learn webinar. Area financial advisors were encouraged to join a watch party at McCook Christian Church to learn more about estate planning and its affect on a community. Accountants, attorneys and investors joined community members to hear from author Mark Weber, who wrote “A Spectrum Legacies: The Gifts You Leave for Your Children and Community.”

The watch-party was hosted by the McCook Community Foundation Fund and the McCook Philanthropy Council. The council is a group of local non-profits who are working together to raise awareness about supporting local charities and non-profit organizations with financial gifts, specifically “Five-to-Thrive” which asks for five percent of assets to be left to a community so that it can thrive.

As our community ages, there is going to be a massive transfer-of-wealth from one generation to the next. If that next generation doesn’t live in this community, those dollars will leave the community, mostly likely forever.

So the conversation has begun about what legacy a person wants to leave not only for their family but for their community by leaving a financial gift for their hometown.

Some might be saying to themselves that they don’t have the financial resources to leave a legacy in their community. But ultimately, it isn’t the size of the gift that matters. It is recognizing that you want to support the organizations and the community that was there for you and your family as they grew up.

This is a different type of mindset. Traditionally when people have worked on their wills or long-term financial planning, all assets would have been passed down to their heirs, traditionally their spouse and/or their children.

But as our part of the state enters the largest generational transfer of wealth, we are working to change that traditional way of thinking. During a different session I attended about Five-to-Thrive, the speaker noted that if his children couldn’t live on 95 percent of his assets, then they wouldn’t be able to live on 100 percent either. That is putting it very bluntly but also very realistically.

And the Five-to-Thrive concept is not asking anyone to abandon to leaving assets to family members. Instead, the idea is to simply consider leaving a legacy in the community where you live or where you grew up if you have moved away.

The decision about your legacy will not be made overnight but rather through many conversations. It won’t be made by reading a single book but by reviewing many articles and stories. And it won’t be made by just reading this article or by what anyone else says but ultimately by following your values and what you would like to leave behind.

We are all going to leave a legacy, one way or another. It can be left up to others.

Or you can take the time to be intentional about what that legacy looks like by being prepared, by considering what your family needs and what will make your community an even better place to call home - for generations to come.

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Getting Outside to National Night Out

By Ronda Graff • August 4, 2025

Getting Outside of National Night Out Nearly everyone can tell you their last interaction with the police or the fire department. And unfortunately because of the nature of the organizations, it is usually not at a positive moment. My last contact with the McCook Police Department was just a few weeks ago, when I was pulled over on B Street in McCook…on my scooter. I pulled into the wrong lane when making a turn, which is illegal. But in my defense, it was an act of self-defense to just get through the intersection of East B and Sixth streets alive. Since the drivers haven’t seen a stop-light since Holdrege, cars and semis regularly run the traffic light, which makes me a wee bit vulnerable as I pass through the lanes. I got off with a warning but the true punishment were the texts throughout the day from everyone who saw me with my scooter and the police officer. Since most exchanges with police and fire are not on good terms, National Night Out was created to have an evening of positive interactions, to remind the public that the police and fire departments are just normal people, doing their jobs, looking out for their friends and neighbors, trying to create a safe community for everyone. National Night Out is designed to simply join your friends and neighbors for an evening of fellowship and fun. It is an opportunity to meet local law enforcement, creating safer and more caring neighborhoods. McCook is joining thousands of other communities across the country in hosting National Night Out, which typically takes place on the first Tuesday of August every year. Planned for Tuesday, Aug. 5 from 5:30-7 p.m. in and around Norris Park in McCook, the night includes a bike parade, a walk, awards for bike decorating, desserts and more. In other words, it is simply a block party to hang out. Numerous organizations have come together to make the evening possible. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and the McCook Rotary Club are hosting a bike parade that starts at 6 p.m. Linda Maiden with State Farm, a bicycle helmet advocate, will also be in Norris Park. The streets around Norris Park will be shut down to provide a safe area to ride, as well as more space to cruise around the block. Participants are encouraged to decorate their bike, scooter, roller skates or anything on wheels. This could mean streamers, pompom balls, markers or even the old classic - playing cards in the spokes of your wheels. Some supplies will be available at the park for use if you show up and realize you are the most underdressed person at the party. If your bike has an inch of dust on it, this is a great time to get it out, wipe it off and get it rolling. And if your bike needs minimal fixes like a flat tire or a brake adjustment, bike tools will be on hand along with myself and my hubbie, who know just enough about bike repair to be dangerous but did manage a 300-plus mile bike ride last week so we must be doing something right. But let’s say you don’t have a bike or biking isn’t your cup of tea? Then you are still encouraged to join the “Walk in the Park,” hosted by Community Hospital. Designed to encourage a healthy lifestyle, walkers will stroll around the park and the neighborhood at whatever pace you feel like with strollers and dogs on leashes welcomed. And perhaps most importantly, there will be a chance to meet members of the McCook Police and Fire Department, getting to see police cars and fire engines close-up in a non-emergency manner, always the best way to see them. And if the weather cooperates, there may be a fire hose, water and spraying involved. If you have been at the Culbertson Fourth of July parade, you know it is up to you to stay out of the line of fire if you want to remain dry. We all have excuses for why we don’t want to go out at night, especially after a long day at work. But National Night Out in McCook on Aug. 5 is a great reason to get out your bicycle and lace up your walking shoes. Hang out with your friends, get to know your neighbors and meet your first responders. That is what makes our communities just a little bit better.