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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GROW Nebraska started in 1998 and is a 501C3 educational nonprofit foundation that focuses on helping Nebraska entrepreneurs get access to the global marketplace. They strive to help Nebraska entrepreneurs get more visibility online whether through social media or other platforms and get the connections they need to move their business in a forward direction of growth. They offer a free training to the public every third and fourth Thursday of the month. GROW Nebraska is also a Google premier partner and offers a free Google training to the public every first Wednesday of the month. To learn more about GROW Nebraska you can visit grownebraska.org
Today we are at the Whispering Pines Bed and Breakfast in Nebraska city. We are sitting in the Rose Room which is absolutely gorgeous. And we're going to be...
It's my room.
Yes it is her room. She got this. I have the beautiful Arbor Room downstairs. Anyway, we are here with Tammy and Amy from the Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce, here in town, and we are really excited to sit down and chat with you ladies about what's going on in Nebraska City. Welcome to the podcast!
Well,
Thank you!
I was going to say welcome to Nebraska City! Is it your first time? We talked a little bit. It sounded like you knew your way around.
I have not been here for years and years, and I think it was for a football game. So really, honestly, it's...we'll count it as my first time.
We've been here a few times. We really enjoy the tourism here and...big history lovers...so J Sterling Morton and his wife Carrie...big thing for me like that. So yeah, so welcome to podcast, we're going to be chatting about all kinds of things that are going on here and how you're blending Tourism and Commerce and growing your small town. So let's talk about what kind of things are a challenge. You have Nebraska City, it's so known for tourism, you have to probably work a little bit harder on building your commerce and small businesses in this town just because tourism is so well taken care of.
But that's a good thing to start with. Because that's something that Amy and I struggle with. And Pam in our office, our entire office struggles with, quite a bit actually is that balance because we are a hybrid office of Tourism and Commerce. And it's hard sometimes for people to remember that both of those things...t's symbiotic. They help each other and the more tourists that we have, the better the businesses get, the better quality, the better quantity of businesses we have, tourists come, and so we do have a balancing act between the two ends.
And it's such a balanced view of having things that everybody enjoys. So like a history lover, you know, that's a big draw here. But then there's some people that aren't interested in that. So you have to have the small businesses to really draw that.
And like she was saying it is such a balance thing. It's very delicate, because some months...we've got Treestock coming up, we are really hitting the tourism stuff hard, but obviously commerce side as well. So ,but we're really fortunate we have businesses and they're all in, for example, our Treestock is coming up. I think that's what we're talking a lot about. And so we'll get into the nuts and bolts of that but sponsorship, our businesses are like yeah, we get it, we're gonna help monetarily make sure that this these girls have enough to make this event happen, because they see how tourism directly impacts their business. Whether it be a beautiful little boutique, whether it be a museum, whether it be the gas station, I mean, everybody realizes how tourism is a big industry for our community.
And there's an event that we have at the end of the summer a Farm to Fork long table meal. It's become sustainable the ticket price and that makes it so that we don't need sponsorships. But we've kept it open for sponsors just to help with incidental costs that things come up. And we were surprised that the first year that we told our regular sponsors, listen, we'd love it. If you want to help. That'd be great. You don't need to because this event is so popular. And we still got like 10 sponsors that said, we just want to be a part of this. We want our name on this. We want to help support it. And because of that, we were able to purchase tables and chairs for the event instead of having to rent them. That's just something that speaks highly to the character of our businesses in town.
You're kind of talking the dream, right? That everybody wants. So did it take you a while to get to that point?
It did for a lot of our festivals, because we've got kind of bookmark festivals, as Amy likes to call them...Arbor Day in the spring, Applejack. In the fall. We introduced a few years ago, a new festival in the summertime; and then doing shopping and commerce things and small little tourism things throughout the year. But right now we have a great group in our office. And we've been able to, I think, gain the trust of our businesses and the trust of our residents, and the trust of our tourists that we're going to put on a heck of a show whatever it is that we do. And so it's it's a lot easier, I think to get that. I mean, no pressure to do well.
It's totally our team. We have a team of three in the office right now. And we're looking to maybe add a fourth person on, but that's also a delicate balance, because we can almost work without talking. And that's become actually our biggest challenge adding somebody else, because there's a lot of times...I tell the girls, if Tammy says she's going to do something for an event, I literally check it off my list and don't think about it anymore. That's how close we are. And we know it's going to be done. And if any little hiccups come when she's planning her little...she's going to take care of it. And it would be like we would all do. So we're just really lucky that over...How many years have we worked together?
So going on seven.
So our team of three that we have now has been together for about seven years. So yeah, we we know what we expect out of each other, and the community knows what kind of deliver. So we've just been really lucky that we got a great team. And that helps because we live and breathe this community as well. And so we're out living it day by day. So it's not just coming in, throw in a festival. Moving on out. We're livin' Nebraska city lifestyle every single day.
And the three of us that are in the office now. It's it's kind of a hard thing, because we can't seem to go on vacation without "How did these people do it?"
Sure...right.
How can we incorporate this? And I was just on vacation, and I was even texting them ideas for things that we could do in Nebraska City. How do we make it our own? And that's a good thing and a bad thing.
Yeah, absolutely. You can list the other team members if you'd like.
Well, we've got Pam is...
Pam Frana is our membership person. And that's where...we can't let her go. Because...
Sorry, Pam, you are committed...for life!
You know what, she wants to retire.
Well, let's talk about about part-time.
You are not retiring...
Her number one goal in our office is to make sure our members are taken care of. And that's why they have the buy in. They know that we're gonna take care of them because Pam's visiting them, she's shopping in their store, she knows what their needs are. And so when something comes up, like a sponsorship, and maybe that member didn't say anything, she might reach out and say, Hey, this would be a great opportunity for your business. But we've also put together packages for our members that don't cost anything. So it's not always a dollar amount. We have summer movie series going on right now. So for nine weeks, in the summer, on Saturday night, we show a free movie and our businesses sponsor those, but that's not a dollar amount to us. We write grants for that. So their sponsorship is to come up with some fun activity that goes along with the theme of the movie for the kids. So at 8:30 'til whenever it gets dark, which by the way, you're in Nebraska...is about a half hour window.
Yeah. (Laughing)
On cloudy nights. On other nights, it's like it's 10 o'clock, we got to start this.
We never have to beg for people to sponsor those summer movies. And as Amy said, it's not a dollar amount sponsor, it's a come out and wear your bank t shirt and do a little fun Go Fish Game when we're watching Finding Nemo.
Aww...
Right?
So I mean, it's fun.
Just because you've tried it once. And it didn't succeed doesn't mean you shouldn't try to get I've been with the Chamber since 2007. And we had tried an outdoor movie, and it just flopped. It didn't work. So when this was brought back up to our group of three, I was like, I don't know, this is kind of what went bad. But we have to try new things. Right, we got a new team, let's try it again. And it just hit the ground running. It's been a really popular event for us.
I think we have an average of about 90 people a week.
You know, a lot of it's about timing. And it is because other things have been built up now. And maybe different things, you got a different set of people, they are doing more activities, and it feeds one after the other like that. So a lot of times it's timing.
Absolutely.
Yes.
I like that message of encouragement.
Just like we were talking earlier before we started. Starting a festival or starting something and not having it work can be so discouraging. But trying to just keep going and keep giving a community these wonderful things that they can participate in, find out who your neighbors are, find out more, you know, just grow in that community sense is so important for our small towns.
You know and that's what I love about your podcast name. You know, Growing Small Town Nebraska. That's what small towns need. Because if you don't grow...you're always changing in some way...you're either growing or you're dying. And if you don't see the growth than the death is happening. You just don't know it. We have a big Treestock event, which is our fourth of July celebration. And we've tried for a few years to get something going on the Fourth of July weekend. We have a great fireworks show every year that the Jaycees put on. And people would come and they would watch the firework show, and then they'd go back home. And so we wanted to kind of say, hey, stick around a little bit, or come in early, and let's do something. So a few years, we tried something, Freedom festival.
We were doing our homework before the show...
(Laughing)
...about the Freedom Festival and I had actually forgotten about that, because we were hearing from people. There's like 3000 people at the fireworks. And we're like, holy smokes. They are and they're coming into town at night, watching the fireworks and going straight home. How do we capture that piece of tourism? And yes, how do we capture that person that's coming to town. Everybody knows Nebraska city is great. But also everybody knows Fourth of July is kind of like summertime, boating, and all of that. I was a lifeguard growing up and Fourth of July at the pool was kind of a yawner because everybody left to come back for the fireworks. So Tammy found some of our notes where we had the freedom festival because we're like, you know, have a carnival. A carnival says festival. Right? And it does and it kind of worked. But that's not all you have to have a festival. And so how did we come up with Treestock?
We started it during COVID This is the third year so 2021 was the first year and if you think starting a festival is hard try starting a festival during a pandemic. It was risky, but at the same time not, because people are in 2021, it's been a year they were ready to get out right? They wanted life. They wanted golf and these are all things that we have..uhoh right by the firework show. This is working now.
So we thought let's just commandeer Steinhart Park for the whole day. A fireworks around Saturday night around the floor, have the whole park the whole day and bring in live bands and maybe a cornhole tournament and trucks. So we did and it was fantastic. They loved it. And then the next year we added a new worship service the next morning in the beer garden, which is fine. (All laughing) We've got communion wine.
There you go.
And then we added a Show and Shine Car Show. The pancake man came. This year, we've got the waffle man coming; and we're doing BMX, like a freestyle show.
Show, yes..that's a whole different demographic.
It is. We can't wait! He's gonna bring his own ramp and set everything out. But the partnerships when we first approached different groups about this, the partnerships came out of the woodwork. People were so excited to be a part of something new; and there's a church just across the street from the park and they're doing...they do watermelon feeds and bounce houses they get all the food trucks, vendor fair dunk tank, which everybody's volunteering, because it's freaking hot out.
Oh yeah.
And then Jaycees are all on board. We've got the football team is running the cornhole tournament. Everybody (is) wants to be a part of this. And it's been a success every year. In fact, I've had people this year, a couple people apologize. They can't come because they're gonna be out of town. And they're so sorry. And it's only the third year.
Wow.
And talk about family reunion time, because that's the apologies I'm getting...Oh, gosh, I've been planning this reunion for 100 years. And now I have to go. (Laughing.) We get it.
They'll have to move their family reunion location.
Yeah, I did. Because I'm in charge of this family reunion. And I'm like, Well, I really can't because now we have Treestock.
Yep.
So I can't do it anymore. Well, yes, I can...just come to Treestock.
That' right.
So we pulled up a bunch of tents together, and our whole family set under there. It was actually perfect. So if you have a family reunion, you want to take all the work out, I didn't have to work on food. It was already there. I didn't have to have everybody bring a potluck. It was already there. No one had to worry about bringing tea, if that's what they wanted.
Or games, or anything.
That was already there. It was so nice.
So who are you having for live music this year?
I'm so excited because I do it starts at one o'clock with The Flyovers. They're fantastic. They've been at the state fair they they're just like Pentatonix; and then at three o'clock the Handgun Cowboys. Five o'clock is Mike Semrad and the Riverhawks, and they've got this horn section that's amazing. And then at seven o'clock our headliner is the Talbot Brothers, who are...so, I have to say this correctly, because I always say they're so good looking...
...that's what she says I didn't know if that was gonna be on here...
I'm supposed to say they're so musically talented.
Fun fact: seven years ago she had them for a house concert. Now, we can barely afford them.
That's how that works. Good job. Nice scouting out the talent.
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So we were fortunate enough, after you guys who shared some information with us, to attend an open house today for your Nebraska City Beautification, which was really interesting. We got to meet some great people there. And then we went for supper at El Portal, which was phenomenal. If you haven't gotten to eat there...man, it was wonderful food. Sheila and I loved it. What other places in town do you recommend? Because, one of our biggest things is, we will encourage people that you don't have to go out of state to do fun things for family. There are so many wonderful things to do in the state of Nebraska.
If you're talking food, I have mine.
What's your favorite?
Well, obviously El Portal was one. That's why I told the ladies you have to, and plus we had been talking a lot about the citizen that goes the extra mile and that is totally Rosa and her family, and they're the owners. It's family owned. Everybody in there knows...as a matter of fact, I ordered something different last time, and the server was like are you okay?
Laughing.
What else?
I'm going City Taphouse.
Oh, that's fantastic.
So City Taphouse is a new family owned business downtown. And it was actually a dream of his for a long time. I love kombucha. I drink a lot of kobucha. And he would come to the farmers market, and I'm talking about maybe you should sell us kombucha there. But eventually he wants this store front beer wall. So basically you buy a card, little slot in and you can just take a little taste of each kind of drink. Almost all of them are Nebraska made, locally made drinks. They're not all beers. There's some hard ciders and other things like that. But now they've added to their menu, they have sandwiches. And pizza.
Oh the pizza is fantastic.
And so I get a pizza almost every week at the summer movie series because they deliver across the street. And so does Bings, but that's my number one place to go. Because it's so awesome. And you don't even feel like you're in a small town when you're there. You definitely feel "downtownee."
Well, and he took like a year to renovate that building. And it's exposed brick, and he found this bar somewhere on the west coast or east coast. I would say the...experience wise...Arbor Day Farm is such a draw for so many people. You know, you could do a whole show on that.
Right...
Really, you could.
How great is that. Really you could. I mean, all ages. Yeah, my mom was 70 I think when she went in the treetop village they have which is those bouncy nets. And she was bouncing around...seventy! And she's had back surgery. And we had to help her up for a few times. And it was so much fun. It's educational, and it's entertaining. And you don't know you're learning stuff in there, which is really great. Another awesome place, soo I think you're going to talk to Doug Friedli, and the Lewis and Clark Center. And it's all about the flora and fauna. And it's so interesting. That's one of the places.
I don't think most people will realize how much research they did and all of the things that...they did as they were traveling.
Yes, and how many ways they misspelled the word mosquito.
Only you would catch that word.
Umm...I would also catch that...
Yeah, first, it's mosquitoes, second, it's a misspelling. So there's that.
Is there anything you might want to make sure that we cover here, today?
I would say for growing small town Nebraska. It depends on your perspective. If you are someone who is working hard at growing your small town in Nebraska, just don't give up. Amy and I both grew up here. This is our hometown, Sheila and I know each other because we did Norfolk together for a time. We were at US92 on the morning show for awhile. So that was kind of a fun catch up. And I loved my time in Norfolk, but I was only there two years, because it wasn't home. And so I moved back home to my hometown of Nebraska City. And I spend my days promoting it and talking about how wonderful it is. And I don't think I'll ever get sick of it. It's not perfect. No place is, but the more that you can work with people and collaborate with them, the better it makes it for anybody who comes afterwards. And, I didn't see that when I was a kid growing up here. I don't think you can see it until you get away from it.
We love to share our information, because everything that we do we maybe seen it somewhere by somebody elsewhere that we borrowed.
Oh yeah, nothing we do is original. We steal everything...
We get a lot of calls on the hybrid with tourism and commerce, and then a lot of event calls; and we're willing to share. I mean throwing a new festival is hard work, writing that blueprint is hard work, and you need a champion behind you; and we've done that for a lot of other small towns in Nebraska. So put our number on there. We are totally willing to share. Don't make the same mistakes. Don't reinvent the wheel. Let's just make sure that all small towns have this to give to their city.
That's great. We really appreciate that.
So we do have one final question we like to ask all the guests. Tammy, what do you love about living in small town Nebraska?
I walked here. Whispering Pines is five blocks from my house. I walked here on a beautiful summer night, and the sun is not going to go down yet. And I have time to still make water aerobics at the aquatics center, if I want to.
Oh, nice. I'll go with you.
That'd be great. Do have your suit?
I do.
Because...(and I) I'm going to know every person at water aerobics. So that's what I love.
You know what, it's the same for me. It's family. It's kind of knowing people. I actually left work a little early to go to the Aquatic Center and I knew a ton of people there and I had never tried the slides. Holy smokes, try the slides. They were so fun. I told Jamie I would have been a slide junkie back in the day. I could have went on them a hundred times. It was so awesome. And then we went to the concession stand and then grabbed some Yellow Taco Truck and we're gonna hit home; and I just, I love that I can call my father-in-law to come watch a game...call my parents to remind them to come to town, or hey, a volunteer couldn't show up...one of my brothers or my parents will come. So it's it's definitely family for me.
Thank you ladies so much for coming and, and for inviting us to Nebraska city. We're very excited to be able to come and we appreciate your time.
Well good luck with the podcast. We love listening to the old episodes and can't wait 'til this one.
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Join us again next time as we talk with business and community leaders who are working to revitalize the Cornhusker State. Thanks for listening!
