Hey everyone, I'm Sheila Jenkinson and you are listening to the Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast where my co host Marcie Sextro. And I ask community leaders and business owners about their efforts in revitalizing the Cornhusker State. If you love your small town and you're looking for ways to make it even better, or maybe you're interested in what this revitalization movement may mean for you and your family. Join us as we talk with small town Nebraskans making our state the definition of the Good Life.
Hello, everyone. I'm Marcy Sextro. We are coming to you from the Intersect Co-working and Incubator podcast booth here in downtown Norco. intersect is a co working community that gives workers the spaces and tools they need to succeed.
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(Music) Thank you to 4th Street Sweets for sponsoring this episode. For your chocolate fix or an original gift you can find 4th Street Sweets at 103 North Fourth Street in Norfolk. See their delicious treats on their Facebook page: 4th Street Sweets. Let them sweeten your day.
Welcome once again. Marcie and I, we took some time off...kind of...not really though. We're always working behind the scenes to continue to plan and learn and grow; and well, to bring you more great stories of revitalization through the small towns throughout Nebraska. Some of the things currently happening with the Growing Small Town Nebraska Podcast include traveling and speaking. For instance, Marcie recently attended the Nebraska Unity Tourism Summit in Lincoln; and she was also invited to speak to a group of librarians in Battle Creek about the show. My plans include attending Marketech in Kearney at the end of the month, and then speaking at the Women Embracing Business general meeting in March in Norfolk.
We have a lot of new guests lined up and those will start to be aired beginning in March. And of course, as we head into spring and summer, Marcie and I have many Nebraska travel plans in the works.
So in our two episodes this month here in February, we decided to revisit the top podcasts of 2023. At number one on our most listened to podcasts of 2023, this is the Elmwood pyrite episode. Enjoy!
Today we are chatting with Marie, who has an itch for rural economic development, and is known in the Elmwood area for efforts in building the local park, bringing high speed internet to the county, and creating the Pie Ride. Welcome to the podcast, Marie.
Hey, thank you, Marcie.
We are excited about Nebraskans starting to fill their calendars with events to celebrate summer, and the Pie Ride has become a wonderful way to spend a Thursday evening. Tell us how the idea of having the Pie Ride developed.
Yeah, thanks for asking. It's a great story about collaboration. And I work with a group called the MoPac Alliance. So, it's a bunch of board members from different trail organizations, and we're trying to get some trail work done out here. And we were meeting in my house and developing strategies, and I am known for baking pies, so I made pie, and cyclists are really lean people. So one of them said, Marie that's it, you should have a Pie Ride, and you can make pie and sell your pie. And I said that's a great idea. But I do not want to make that much pie.
(laughing)
Anyway, the idea was hatched, we kind of had it includes both pizza, which is done by the local businesses, and pie, that's made by the local church groups and civic organizations. So, everybody's pretty darn happy about it.
You know, I'm not a big bike rider, but I would probably ride for pizza and pie.
Yeah, you know, that's true. Sheila. You know, the thing is that we realized right away that's like, oh, wait, we can't just target cyclists. Lots of people want to do this. So we went to realizing, oh, let's invite everybody to (drive) ride their bike, or walk. Local citizens to do walk the event and everybody really enjoys it. So it is for everybody, not just bike riders.
That's wonderful. Is there a certain route that cyclists ride for this event? Or do they just all come in from different areas?
Well, we're fortunate to be between Lincoln and Omaha. So we can draw from both metro areas and the MoPac Trail, which is a really easy, easy ride because it's a converted rail. And so it's a very low grade; 3% grade. So they typically will start in Eagle, which is just eight and a half miles away, and so that when they ride back, they just have another eight and a half miles. So if they're coming from Lincoln, that's what they would do. If they're coming from Omaha, they would start perhaps at Wabash, which has got a new trailhead there, and that is only four miles away. So that's an easy ride to or they can start a little further out from Wabash if they want a better ride. But mostly people come for the activities.
Okay, so when they reach Elmwood...everyone meets in the park...what events await participants there?
Actually when they get into town, we give them a big sign to show them where the pizza is being served at a couple of different businesses there. There's pizza slices at the C store, there's pizza slices at the Quonset Bar and Grill. And so typically, while it is true that a significant number to go have dessert first, probably the majority go have their pizza and maybe a beverage first and then they come down to the park. When they get to the park, they'll see the host organization serving pie in the picnic shelter, and they'll see a band in the gazebo. And people will be sitting in their lawn chairs around the gazebo. And usually the kids are over on the playground having a lot of fun. What we will do is we usually direct them with flag signs on on where to go and what they can get at each location.
So you talked about collaboration, and you mentioned a host organization. How does that collaboration come together?
When the idea was launched, you know, we had somebody making pizzas, somebody making pie. So we went to talk to the different businesses about this. And they said, Yeah, sure. And we would talk to the local organizations about how we thought this could go and how (they) they could possibly make some money selling this. So we have six different dates, the first and third Thursday (of) through July and August, on a regular basis. Although this year, we're moving it up to June 8 and June 22. In any case, each of those organizations, there's three of them, they chose the date on which they would be the pie host. And they then come out and make their pie; and they make a lot of pie.
Some of the pictures will show you that the first year, right away, they're like, Whoa, this is a great thing. Are we going to do it again next year. So then we knew we had them hooked, because they're pretty proud of what they can bring to the table, shall we say?
Yeah.
Yeah.
(laughing.)
(laughing) And, yeah, it is something to be proud of. People just gobble it up. They make alot of money, too.
Literally. Literally they gobbled it up.
(laughing) Yeah. So I'm sure through the time, because this will be year three for you with the ride. But in the past, have you had some kind of fun stories or some things that have happened that have really inspired your group?
Yeah, there are those moments where you just realize, oh, wow, this was really worth all the work. So one of them was that there was a family from Omaha that came to our Pie Ride. And it was a lovely July evening; picnic shelter was full of people eating the playground full of kids. And this is in the first year before music even so up rides this family, but they're riding on this bike that the dad had created. And I think I've sent you pictures of this, because you can't describe it. But on the first bike unit, there's five people on it with the dad leading the whole thing. It's a chain of bikes together. And then the mom gets to ride separately. So they pull up and everybody's mouth is open at this contraption that pulls up with this lovely family. So little boy says, hey, it's my birthday. And I just really, you know, got his name and how old he was and asked the crowd if they wanted to sing and pretty soon everybody is just singing Happy Birthday to this little boy, oh, man, my heart. Because you know (that) one of the goals of the Pie Ride is to bring people together in an outdoor setting, you know, just for people, you know this was post-COVID. So that was it. That was like the moment that we knew that this is a really good thing. And certainly that little boy is going to remember that moment.
Yes.
That was a great, great moment for me.
That's wonderful. This year with 2023, you have any new things coming up? You said that you have bands are there certain bands...
Yes.
...that will be coming in that might draw more of a crowd as well.
Fortunately, with the sponsorship of local businesses, like you know Grandpa's Woods and American Exchange Bank, Stock Seed Farms, some of the businesses (local) locally are really helping us hire these bands, along with a grant from the Nebraska Arts Council. So we had a band last year that we're bringing back this year called Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal and found them through the Nebraska Arts Council. They're just fabulous. They bring their whole like, it's probably five pieces, really a big band jazz sound. And I believe Joshua was either on the voice or American Idol. I'm not sure which one; they're just great to listen to. They're on August 17, and Kusi Toki, which is a really lovely Mesoamerican band that plays music from like Colombia, and Central America with like pan flutes and guitars that are from the Spanish tradition. They are playing on July 20. And so they're really great to listen to.
I love that you have all these different kinds of bands coming in! I love jazz. I love what you were talking about. I don't know the name for it.
Josh Hoyer...
Yeah, well, no, but the other band as well. I love the variety music. And of course, what that does do is you're not just gonna want to come once you're gonna want to come and listen to the variety of bands and meet all those different people every time.
Oh, exactly. Thank you for that. That's exactly one of our goals. Because, you know, we're kind of out here, a little bit away. We looked at our population statistics. We have a number of elderly folks that live by themselves. So this is great opportunity to expose folks to the many varieties of music and that talent that we have here in Nebraska. Really, we really do have big talent. We even have a guy that comes every year Chris Sayre comes every year and plays just a variety of instruments from the mandolin to the saw.
Oh fun! I love it all.
So that is one of our goals is to bring in a variety.
Well, that's wonderful.
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You have a lot of collaboration in your town, which is so vital to being able to pull off anything, especially the size that you have. When you do that, are you gaining new members into your group as you go along as they're seeing things are, you know, happening in the town and what a benefit it is for them?
The Bike Cass County group is getting lots of local support from...there's a group of us...you know how it is, when you've got the itch and you've lived in the same place for 36 years. And you know the same people and it's always the same leaders that show up, but now we're getting more people. Last year we got a great grant from the Merchants Association. And they of course have really stepped up and helped us work with local businesses. There's a great organization called the Elmwood Murdock Foundation. It's doing wonderful things about building community that lasts, so we're collaborating with them quite a bit, making this a lasting event, because it is so beneficial to the community. So we have had people that are really helping us in lots of ways. I personally need to take some of it off of my shoulders and and bring others into the fold that will help run the events. Right now. I'm running a lot of it in my car.
We get that!
So these are the stories that we love to hear about: collaboration and groups and people just working together. You know, you start with an idea and people just run with it. And that is what is growing these small towns in Nebraska are things just like this. What is your personal favorite part of the Pie Ride?
Oh, it is the collaboration because I get (a) collaboration from organizations outside Elmwood as well. It is the collaboration. It is just to seeing that we actually have created something that will last and people will continue to come out because of the value that it brings to their life. I have a guy that designed our logo for free, and he's from Lincoln, you know, he didn't need to do that. But he gets the value of this. He used to live out here. And now we're starting to collaborate with other towns and other events in Cass County. And that's what we elevate on our website Bike Cass County. So we're collaborating with Eagle, which is not very far away, to help bolster their Nacho Ride, because the same people that come to Elmwood for the Pie Rides are probably interested in knowing about the Nacho Ride, they're probably also interested in knowing about a 5k Fun Run that happens in August for the Elmwood Rescue Squad that's on the trail as well. They're also probably interested in what's called the Gravel Mission, which is a benefit for the Legion in Eagle that goes out and around Elmwood and Eagle as well. And things like that, Wear Yellow, and all of the things that are happening locally, we want to continue to nurture each other. So for example, (when) there is an event called Rummage Around, people go to consignment store in the local town. So it's advertising the locations in the proximity of each other...have this loop of businesses around these consignment stores. So we will put that out and let people know that they could also ride around. But hey, this is happening out here. So we all really have each other's back. Knowing that the more that we elevate our local community, the more our local community gets what it needs in in its shine, it needs to shine.
Absolutely perfect. I love it. So Marie, we do have one final question for you today. We like to ask all our guests something to this extent. Why do you love living in a Nebraska small town?
Oh, that's interesting that you should say that. I was just thinking about this yesterday. So my car is just as an example. My car is about seven years old;runs great. My bike, Our truck is you know, probably more than 10 years old. We were just out in Orange County for about a month and you know, seeing Mazarati and Lexus every day...super shiny. And I was like, you know, I'm a simple person. I love being people that enjoy (not to put folks in Orange County down) but this is what I love about being in the country. I love being able to drive around and my seven year old car and nobody considers that a status indicator. I love that we just take each other at face value. And we all live together. We've lived together for many years, happily. We coexist here despite our differences. And that's what I really love about living in a small town.
Yeah, Nebraska is wonderful, isn't it? (We always) we travel too and then come back and we're like, yeah, we're so glad to be home.
Yeah.
Well, thank you so much, Marie, for coming on and telling us about the Pie Ride. We're definitely going to be having links on social media for everybody to be checking into that in June, July, and August, the first and third Thursday of the month. So thank you again, for being on with us today. And we hope you have a wonderful time cycling this summer.
Thank you, Marcie. Thank you, Sheila. I appreciate it so much.
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If you're interested in being a sponsor for the podcast, you can find out more information on our website or email us at growingsmalltownne@gmail.com. The Growing Small Town Nebraska Podcast can be found on Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon, Pandora, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. We have new episodes the second and fourth Tuesday of every month. Join us again next time as we talk with business and community leaders who are working to revitalize the Cornhusker State. Thanks for listening!
