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."
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Hello, everyone. We are in Waterloo today at the Agnes Robinson library with the Waterloo Days committee; and Megan and Amber are with us today. Welcome to the podcast, ladies.
Hey, we're excited to be here.
Waterloo Days has actually had a restart in 2020, but tell us about your memories of Waterloo Days as children. What was that like?
(Laughing.)
That was a huge production! We would close off the whole street downtown. They had the big parade. We'd have a teen dance, we'd have a beer garden...there would be...it was like...it just filled the whole day with stuff...lots of games; just a fun atmosphere, all together, all the time.
Well..there was a couple of us that wanted to see it happen again. And, so, we just decided to start our committee, and there were two of us. And, we said, that's okay, we'll get going. We had...
So we had our committee.
Committee just means more than one, right?
Yeah.
So special memories for you.
Super special.
Yeah. Fast forward to 2020, and you had decided to start this venture all over again and bring it back to the community. How did that come about?
Yeah!
So we had our committee. Yeah, we had you know, before it was 2019. And so we were
We had you know, before...it was 2019. And so we were really gung ho, we were getting started. We're going to have the parade and we're going to have all the park activities, we're going to try to restart it like we had in our childhood...and then COVID hit.
Yeah. (Laughing.)
And so that made it pretty difficult to get started. So we ended up just doing a Cruise the Loo, where we actually went all the way through every road in town (and went) drove past everybody's house.
Oh, that's fun.
And so that was really fun. So but yeah, it wasn't exactly what we wanted it to look like. (Laughing.)
No. No, but you got inventive with it and creative. And that's what had to happen for a lot of those things. It's nice that you even went forward to do things like that. So way to go! I appreciate that. But so do you continue that? The Cruis the Loo?
We continue that, but we turned it back into a regular parade.
Nice.
So we go downtown, and each year we've added some new activities. So in 2020 was just the cruise. And then in 2021, that's when we started the family activities. And...
I think what we've seen before COVID, and coming out of COVID, is this rural excitement that people really wanted to get involved again. And believe us, we capitalized on that. That's where most of our volunteers actually came from were people who wanted to get back involved, and they wanted to be part of the community again. And so now we have a pretty big committee along with our board who works tirelessly to make sure that these events go off without a hitch.
So just checking here because we are small town Nebraska...your pretty big committee went from two to three? I'm just kidding.
(Laughing.)
Megan, what are we sitting at now?
There's sixteen of us!
Wow.
Awesome!
Admirable.
We're still taking applications. So ladies...
(Laughing.)
It does make a big difference how many people you have on your committee, because every bit of that just more things that get accomplished and more things are taken care of easily. That's wonderful. You have a wonderful committee. So, has the community come on board to help you with the event?
We've had such amazing show up and show out of our community. It's actually great to see everyone from itty bitty kids all the way up to the grandparents and great grandparents kind of stepping forward and kind of helping. I think hugely, our businesses locally have really stepped up for us. One, they live in this community. So it's important to them, but two it's a really great way to get their name out there even further than just Waterloo, right. So we are literally in this weird spot where we're small town, but we're literally one exit from Elkhorn, right? So when we tell people we're from Waterloo, Nebraska, they go, where's that? And so we literally tell them where we literally one exit from Elkhorn. They're like we had no idea anything other than junkstock was out there. And so it is a really good opportunity for us also to branch into some of those other areas. And it's just been great for our community overall.
How many people do you usually have in the last couple of years that you've had it? Do you have like a lot of people come from Omaha, Elkhorn, all that area to come into town?
I see....I recognize quite a few faces. But there's a lot of people that come (from) from Valley area. Yeah. From the surrounding area we see from Omaha. We probably had at the family activities... 300 last year?
At least. We ran out of food.
Oh, that's a good problem to have, yeah.
But yeah, unless you were hungry.
(Laughing.)
Sure. After what kind of impact have you seen on the community since you have done these. So you've had a couple of years now under your belt. Are you seeing an impact in people coming to town more often? Or businesses...have they mentioned to you that it's helped increase their sales?
I think probably the biggest impact that we've seen is people are asking us about it. Right? It was something that they remember from childhood, especially a lot of those have been around for a while. But now they're asking us when is the next Waterloo Days? And what else is this foundation going to do? And so we literally as a board just had to sit down and talk about, well, we were only thinking of Waterloo Days. But now the community is asking us to host some additional things like our annual trunk or treat, if that's something that we can take over and maybe some other things.
So about calling it "this on the loo" and "that on the loo" do you think that British people are like...What?!
(Laughing.)
Well, hopefully they show up!
Yeah! Draw them in however you can!
They're like, wait, we gotta see this. No, it's really cute. And I love the creativity that goes into it. So talk a little bit about some of the events that are going on.
Yeah, so we have two fun-filled days, it's gonna start with a Run in the Loo, which is ran by a local business. And they yes, they're doing a 5k and a mile run. So that'll be fun. And that's free will donation, so anyone can sign up and register that morning. So I know some kids that are going to come run their first time. And then we have our cornhole tournament: Bag and Brag the Loo.
Oh, I love me some cornhole. That sounds fun!
It draws people here.
I bet it does.
It really does. Yeah, we have a competition and a social League.
Oh, fun!
I like that. I like that. Yeah. (We'll have to) we'll have to form a team. Marcie.
(Laughing.)
Please come.
Yeah. Yeah. And then what else is going on after that.
So then we'll also have our beer garden open at that time. So people can enjoy it while they're also Shopping the Loo or vendor fair will be open. And there's some other local businesses that are going to be doing some of their things too. And then that night, we have a barbecue competition, which is our first this year.
Ooh, that should be fun!
Yeah. That's where (the) lots of committee members helped because somebody brought this idea up to us. And then (some) one of our committee members up take that on, because we weren't sure if we had the space and they stepped up. So that's awesome.
And yet another local business came through and provide a donation of all for that.
So you can mention them.
Ellsworth Cafe.
Crossing.
Crossing,. They are absolutely amazing. And they're just a great wholesome family who just wanted to be part of this. And they wanted to be able to give back. So what better way than giving Waterloo Days some meat?
Yeah.
(Laughing.)
We gladly took it.
Yeah.
That's right.
When you do these kinds of activities and events, then do you think that there are people who are taking the time... they're seeing more of downtown Waterloo, they're seeing what's available to them? And are there some businesses that you'd like to highlight that are in Waterloo for our visit to back. We kind of wandered around, but we really had no idea where we were going. So we went down the main street and check that out. But what else is Waterloo known for?
Well, if you don't know junkstock, then you probably know Farmer Browns or El Bees, those are staple restaurants in our area. A lot of people are coming out for that.
We have Watts. Believe it or not, we have Local Collective, which is some boutique owners actually went in together, and they purchased the space and they actually bring in all other boutique owners who may just have an online presence. And they actually bring them in and they have huge events two to four times a year and they pack out that place. It's great. We have food trucks. It's just another really great event. We also have Beyond the Basics, which is also in downtown Waterloo, which is another storefront she also just moved into Gretna as well, just because her clientele just kept growing. And so I think that's great. We also have some staple bars, which our bikers around here absolutely love. The doghouse is known for that
I mentioned it, we drove down the road and I go Oh, I love that title.
Oh my gosh, it's so great. And the food is fantastic. But really just seeing all those bikes lined up along downtown is just something to be...it's just a sight to behold. It really is something great.
And we're really seeing a turnover downtown. There's a lot of people taking over and the storefronts are looking really nice. So that has definitely brought people in, you know, getting things up and coming again, making it look really nice downtown is...
Yeah, and every, every event makes a difference in your economy and in your ability to grow your whole community. And that's what you want to be able to have more and more people want to be here, live here, grow, and your small town to thrive. So it's great.
And collaboration...like you're talking about the donation of the meat. You're talking about the boutiques who get together and when they collaborate..it's not a competition...you collaborate, and it grows everybody's business and grows the area for the better.
It's just been really interesting, and kind of beautiful to see all those businesses come together. My cousin Sarah, who also sits on the board as vice president, she has Omaha Shower Door, which is another local business out of Waterloo. And just to see the collaboration that we see not just in Waterloo days, but now we're starting to see it bleed over and other events and seeing those businesses come together to offer something especially for raising money for like charity. We have our own firehouse and so Waterloo Days this year, got to participate in that and give some raffle items to raise some money to make sure that we are protecting our folks here with...
Yeah...
It's kind of important. Yeah...We'll figure out how to get you something.
(Laughing.)
Exactly. First thing when I moved to when we moved to Stanton was we had fire right away. So we met a lot of people that way, but we were like well, uh welcome to the neighborhood.
Thank goodness we had you.
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So the parade you had talked about that earlier. So how many entrants do you usually have? And is it? It's probably... I'm sure that was usually something that are really, you know, people will really look forward to.
Yeah, every year it's been growing. So I think last year, we had 34 entries, and that's anywhere from businesses, to fire departments, to individual person who wants to just decorate their ATV that comes in. So that's really fun, too. But I think this year, we are about halfway there. And we're really going to start pushing here soon. So I think we'll see that if not more really fun when the local or the area fire departments also come because we'll see (the valley) Valley comes and Mead will attend. They all come together to support each other.
So we probably have mentioned it earlier. But just in case, what are the dates again? August 26 and 27th. Okay, so there's still plenty of time to get involved yet signed up all of those things, right, and spread the word and share with people.
So Sunday afternoon to have you want to bring your kids who have a family hullabaloo that you have all kinds of different events and it's free events. So tell us a little bit about that.
The Family Hullabaloo is like you said it's free. That's what we try to do. We bring businesses that will have booths and they'll have activities. We'll have some of our own games that the other businesses will also run our games will have bounce house. We're having bubbles
Oh bubbles.
Bubbles, yeah. you gotta have bubbles. Yeah, the fire department will be there at the last hour and they have their splash pad. Absolutely have fun. And what am I missing?
We just have a lot!
(Laughing.)
Yeah. We tend to do so many things.
We tend to do so many things and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and just more ideas and we get approached, right, by local businesses who are like: have you thought about...and you're like, not at all, but you sound great. Let's go ahead and bring you in. And so it's been really good. I think that's probably one of the best places to see the generational span that Waterloo Days has. And it was just huge. I mean, we had Don Bacon out here last year who we'relike, where did this ice cream truck come from?
Huh...
And the ice cream guys just handing out all this free ice cream. And we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what I'm looking at? I'm thinking did you pay for this? Because the secretary is worried because the treasurer is going to ask. And I'm so I made eye contact with the guy and he just said, Don Bacon paid for this. And he told me just to go for, you know, the hour and a half. And it was just absolutely amazing. And yet again, just another way for somebody to show up in a completely unique way. And I got some ice cream out of it, too. So it was a good thing.
Any fun stories that you can share with us? Maybe something that happened at your event? I know you talked about ...Well, let's go the other way first. So you talked about...we always do prep questions, if you guys don't know...and you shared about trying to take down to stage did you do have some live music too? And how difficult that was to take down the stage when you didn't know how to do that?
That's Yes.
Just so that we're clear, we Megan has decided that we can pay for that this year.
That's a great idea. (Laughing.)
For people who actually know how to do it. It was a very long day. It was extremely hot. We had rain that came in during the beer garden. So we had tents that were actually we're over the stage. And the tents actually collapses.
Water over the sound system. Yeah.
Not our sound system. So thank goodness they were gracious enough to not send us a bill for that.
They have insurance.
Yes. Oh, and...
...you feel terrible.
You should have seen Meagan's face. I was like, it probably should have another beer. But I think it's one of those things where you see a small group of people and you see them rally. And we were trying, right, our Waterloo police were there. We have our own police department. And they were very gracious to make sure that everyone was behaving themselves. And we promised them even pinky swore...
... oh, well...
...we were going to be alright. And everyone was great. They did fantastic. But then comes the cleanup. And it's kind of like your kids when it's time to clean the room, and you're looking around...where is everybody?
This is where the parade comes through exactly where we were, you know, so we had to get it all cleaned up and ready to go. And it's midnight. 1230. And, you know, I'm out there making everybody take it down and bow everyone did a great job. You know, that's where it's awesome. This group is is just a wonderful group of people that comes together with everything. And we we did it,
You got it. That's all that matters. So let's swing the other way. And how about some fun story?
Oh, goodness, I would probably say cornhole, this was the first year that we actually had used a business to do cornhole for us. And so they got to announce it, the guy, boy, he was an absolute who, and he did such a great job. But that competition is fierce. And everyone gets a little liquid courage at about, you know, two beers in. But it was just really great to see people that we have seen before, or maybe not even seen before just really come together and we're as one another. It wasn't even about the prizes. At that point. It was really just about having fun, and really the bragging rights for the next year. It was just really, I think, a really fun memory for us.
Really, Marcie, I think we can take 'em.
I would have to practice a lot...for us to get to that point.
Is there anything else in particular that you guys want to add to share on on the show?
I would just say we're incredibly humbled, right, by our community, in allowing us to bring back such an event, but then also for showing up for it. Right? There's one thing to put all this time and effort into it. But it's another when you have the community that really welcomed you with open arms. And that includes our businesses, who have been incredibly gracious with us with sponsorships and making sure that we have the funds to be able to put this event in motion, but then also our committee members and our board. I mean, all of us have full time jobs. Many of us have more than full time jobs and other commitments, but they always show up and show outm and so we're incredibly humbled to be able to offer this to our community because of those folks who really just don't sleep at night, like Megan.
(Laughing.)
Right there with you.
One final question we like to ask all of our guests: Megan, why do you love living in a small town?
I love the community. You get to know somebody. I've known people my whole life. You know you see them from either you know old or or young. You see them from all parts of all walks of their life and you just get to grow with them. And I love that about this town and small towns in general.
And Amber What do you love about Living in a Nebraska small town?
it has to be the childhood that my son has. I get to literally watch him play outside, like I did as a kid until those streetlights come on. And even then I'm still yelling for him to come inside. But he gets this childhood that my friends come over and they visit and they just can't comprehend it, right? When they see him running from house to house and playing in other people's hoses or getting a snack from a neighbor and then getting a drink from another neighbor. It's just something special and it's definitely the best decision we ever made was moving to Waterloo.
Well, thank you so much for contacting us wanting to be on the Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast. This has been a blast and house man, we appreciate it.
Ladies, you are the best and we cannot wait to continue to see what you guys do.
Oh, thank you so much.
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