Rural Fellows 2021 - Valentine and Chadron

Jenny Nixon Author

02/06/2025 Added

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Presentation from Valentine and Chadron Rural Fellows. Recorded June 30, 2021.

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[00:00:00.960]Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Rural Rendezvous again. We've got a couple more people,
[00:00:06.160]Victor's coming in, that's good. We'll just give a couple more seconds here.
[00:00:15.920]Today I've asked the westernmost counties who are hosting Rural Fellows to bring them forward
[00:00:23.360]and have them speak to the projects they're working on in each of the communities. So I'm
[00:00:28.320]excited to see Connor and Victor back from Valentine. They joined us two weeks ago.
[00:00:33.200]And then I've asked J.C. Hafer and Chantel Schultz, who are in Chadron, to join us as well.
[00:00:39.040]And I think the kinds of projects that they're coming to us with will hopefully give us some
[00:00:46.320]great ideas and actually probably inspire some questions. And maybe you'll have ideas for
[00:00:53.840]interns in the future. I think that would be a huge, huge thing. I've just seen
[00:00:58.080]so many cool things going on. But we had just a little dab of taste of what
[00:01:04.080]Connor and Victor are working on in Valentine. And Mike, would you go ahead and introduce them
[00:01:09.920]and kind of what they're doing there? Get us started.
[00:01:13.260]Oh, they're playing around a lot. Connor joined the golf club. So, and Victor spends most of his
[00:01:23.020]time thinking about projects that he could get involved with. So, but anyway,
[00:01:28.060]it's been great having these guys here for the first four weeks. We basically started things off
[00:01:33.760]with Connor working on developing healthcare workers and a pipeline of how, how do you develop
[00:01:41.940]a local workforce for healthcare and Victor working on some daycare issues. We have a
[00:01:48.620]Valentine children and families coordinator, and he's been working closely with her and getting
[00:01:54.680]out to the daycares and trying to encourage them to step up.
[00:01:57.580]Get licensed to improve the quality and hopefully we can come up with some ideas on how to improve
[00:02:04.060]or increase the number because we're short on numbers like everybody else is in the daycare
[00:02:09.720]field. And it was kind of an interesting start because Kyle Argenbright, our mayor, who was
[00:02:15.180]going to be the co-lead on this with me was gone the week that they showed up. And we went through
[00:02:21.800]all the academy stuff. And then I was gone the week that they really got started on projects.
[00:02:27.520]And so they were pretty self-motivated and really kind of started digging into things. But we
[00:02:34.200]made them some quick introductions into the community. So they had some leads to go on.
[00:02:38.500]And they've just been working their tails off and coming up with new things. And we even got
[00:02:44.220]Connor to be a judge in the barbecue cook-off for the Chamber of Commerce. So that was a rough job.
[00:02:49.560]But he persevered through that. So anyway, I think I'll just let these guys kind of talk about
[00:02:56.560]what
[00:02:57.420]projects they've been working on, what kind of progress they've made, what they've learned.
[00:03:01.060]And then we'll just go from there. Or do you want to introduce
[00:03:05.120]JC and Chantel before we get into their report from these guys?
[00:03:09.940]Let's go with Connor and Victor right now. And we'll introduce JC and Chantel in just a bit.
[00:03:15.160]All right. I'm going to let you guys decide, Connor or Victor. And I think they're both
[00:03:20.920]sitting in the same room on different computers at Midplains Community College, where they've been
[00:03:27.320]out of since they got started in this. So we'll let them decide who wants to go first.
[00:03:32.760]I was nominated to go first. And as Mike was talking about earlier, the first project that
[00:03:39.380]I started on was trying to figure out how to create like a healthcare pipeline.
[00:03:42.620]And as I was doing research and looking into it, one thing I started figuring out was,
[00:03:48.260]you know, right now during COVID, it's really difficult to get in healthcare workers,
[00:03:52.260]especially in a rural community. You have other communities like North Platte, which,
[00:03:57.220]can give a $15,000 more signing bonus to nurses. So just from that comparison, it's just
[00:04:03.260]hard to get new nurses in at this point. And even for traveling nurses, it's a little bit
[00:04:07.980]more difficult. Plus the housing is a little bit off right now too. But one thing I'm kind
[00:04:15.180]of looking at right now is how do we get the high schoolers involved? They're taking a CNA class at
[00:04:20.160]MPCC and the community college has been working with the high school. I'm seeing if
[00:04:27.120]we can get the high school to work with maybe the hospital or long-term care facility here
[00:04:33.600]in Valentine to see if they're able to give credit in some way. It's been a little back
[00:04:38.760]and forth that that's going to be able to do it or not. But as I don't know if any of you guys know,
[00:04:43.840]the other two interns right now, Dr. Lindsay Hastings is also working on a program through
[00:04:50.940]the Rural Prosperity Nebraska and UNMC and trying to create a partnership between those
[00:04:57.020]two. And I have a meeting with her next week to talk about how Valentine might be able to get in
[00:05:02.060]on that program too to increase the number of health professionals we have here in Valentine
[00:05:07.040]through UNL, Rural Prosperity Nebraska, and UNMC. The other program I'm starting on or I have been
[00:05:16.440]working on is creating an entrepreneurial mentorship program here in Valentine.
[00:05:20.160]This is focused on creating a list of mentors here in town and identifying the needs of business
[00:05:26.920]in Valentine. Through doing that, I'm going to create a list for economic development of mentors
[00:05:33.020]who are willing to participate in this program. Through this list, they're able to, if they ever
[00:05:39.340]get a business coming into town that needs help or if there's a business in town that might be
[00:05:43.220]stuck or they want to grow, they can go to economic development and be like, here are my
[00:05:47.780]problems I'm having. Who would be someone I could reach out to to help me? We'd have this list in
[00:05:53.360]place for them to go out and get help through.
[00:05:56.820]A mentorship program that I would also be designing and then also implementing and kind
[00:06:02.320]of a training session here towards the end of my internship too. So that is another program I'm
[00:06:07.680]working on. I've also been taking photos for the tourism board and the new city website that
[00:06:13.960]they're making. So I've been taking a lot of landscapes and sunset photos after work because
[00:06:21.960]here in Ballantyne, I'm sure in Shatter and two, the sunsets are just incredible. So it's
[00:06:26.720]been a good summer so far. I'm looking forward to what else we got. We're almost like, are we
[00:06:31.800]halfway? Yeah. And we're pretty much halfway done now. Okay. Could you mute? Okay. Thank you.
[00:06:43.680]Sorry, we're figuring out the whole technology things here. But thank you for having
[00:06:56.620]us. And it looks like I have, actually, I was a TA for JC and Chantel. So it's really good to see
[00:07:02.160]you all. And so it's fun that we're all meeting here. And Connor was my TA in the class that I
[00:07:09.260]TA'd for JC and Chantel. So it's kind of like this chain, and we're all here. And so that's
[00:07:15.080]pretty fun. But so Mike already mentioned it, what we're doing. But I think, like you mentioned,
[00:07:22.480]that he introduced us to people in the community, and he did a really good,
[00:07:26.520]great job with that. And that's made our job a lot easier. Because unlike Lincoln, or any of the
[00:07:32.980]more bigger cities, email does not work as well as person to person contact in Valentine. And a
[00:07:40.420]lot of the projects that we have been able to achieve and work on have been a lot easier,
[00:07:46.520]because Mike was able to kind of like put us in contact with most of the people that we're
[00:07:52.040]going to be able to work with here. So that's been great. And
[00:07:56.420]so my project is specifically on daycare. And starting this, Mike did mention that I'm
[00:08:06.160]working with Sonia Coates, who's the Valentine's Children's and Family Coalition here,
[00:08:11.080]which just started. And she is new to the position. So she also hadn't really
[00:08:17.580]contacted a lot of the daycare providers here and didn't really know what was going on and whatnot.
[00:08:22.580]So I think the first thing that we were working on was understanding
[00:08:26.320]what does it mean to be licensed as a daycare providers and why not a lot of people kind of
[00:08:33.000]like working on license at the moment and how can we make being licensed and doing the step
[00:08:39.060]up to quality and whatnot more enticing for people that way they can move up there.
[00:08:43.680]So the first two, three weeks, what I did mostly was talk to a lot of the daycare providers here,
[00:08:52.140]both the licensed and the ones who are not licensed to kind of like figure out what's
[00:08:56.220]some of the challenges that they're facing are. And we kind of separated them in four groups. And
[00:09:05.680]the first one is just a general burnout that goes along with having a daycare because it's a full
[00:09:12.480]time gig. And it's just like a lot of work. And you have these kids, you know, kids can be a lot
[00:09:17.900]of work. The second one was just the trainings that are really hard to access, especially in a
[00:09:26.120]small community like here where you have to drive to a bigger community. And then the third one was
[00:09:32.780]just a lack of communication and not knowing what services are provided to daycare providers.
[00:09:39.300]And then the other one is just a general kind of like an ability of the people in town to
[00:09:49.000]recognize them as professionals. So we are able with Sonia, we're able to
[00:09:56.020]have this dinner where a lot of the providers showed up. We had, I think, nine that are
[00:10:01.740]licensed and two that are thinking about becoming licensed. And we kind of like brainstormed some
[00:10:08.760]of the ideas and whatnot. And something that we're hoping to work on, which is going to be
[00:10:14.440]my next step, just trying to work on this. The first one, which is a bigger one, is to create
[00:10:20.560]a daycare provider organization. And this one will facilitate
[00:10:25.920]the trainings and licensing because I talked, someone who's been helping us a lot is Rachel
[00:10:32.000]Sissel. I really have no idea what her position is, but she works for something children related
[00:10:38.400]for the Nebraska department. And she said that if they could mobilize, they could send someone to
[00:10:44.460]our, to the Valentine community to provide us trainings. And that would help people move from
[00:10:49.280]step one of step up to quality to step two. Because at the moment, what it is,
[00:10:55.820]it's all virtual. And it's during times that they either have kids or it's like right six to nine
[00:11:03.020]at in the evening. And that's just, I mean, if you've been with kids all day, that just
[00:11:07.540]makes no sense why you would do that. So just like if they're organized, they can have someone
[00:11:12.420]do the trainings like on a day that works for them. And then NACRE providers would have an
[00:11:19.020]advocate in this space to kind of like explore the stuff that they need in the moment. And
[00:11:25.720]then the other thing is that they would, through the organizations, they would have access to the
[00:11:29.660]resources that they have. Because something that I want to work on is like creating a sheet that
[00:11:34.520]has all the different resources. Because one example is one of the daycare providers has been
[00:11:40.400]trying to find funds for a fence. And that's something that the Department of Human and Health
[00:11:49.720]Services can cover through the C4K grid, but she did not know about this. So just having like
[00:11:55.620]a list of stuff that can be covered and whatnot. And just through the organization, there's someone
[00:12:00.700]they can kind of like talk a little bit more about that. And they have the resources and
[00:12:07.780]they understand what they can get through grants and stuff. And then the other thing that we're
[00:12:12.860]working on is combating the provider burnout, or just like what would make being licensed and
[00:12:20.900]doing the step up to quality look more enticing than not being licensed.
[00:12:25.520]And this is where Mike and his office comes in, like what can they provide? And something
[00:12:30.400]we sat down and talked about is like applying for $250 bonus every year as a licensed acreage
[00:12:38.660]provider, just because when they take a vacation, they're not receiving money. And that's just
[00:12:43.860]something that they can do. And then a yearly allowance to replace toys and materials for $100,
[00:12:49.600]which I thought was not as much as I expected it to be. But they said that this is an amount that
[00:12:55.420]could work for them. And just over a recognition in town, and this could look like teacher
[00:13:00.560]appreciation type of thing, and maybe $20 in chamber bucks. And then another thing that we're
[00:13:07.620]thinking of just to make things a little bit easier with that burnout is that we're hoping
[00:13:14.060]that through MPCC, with a class that's starting this next fall, high school students can go through a program
[00:13:25.320]where they take early childhood education. And as part of getting their credits is helping out
[00:13:32.700]at each daycare for like two hours a week. And this is an idea that they were very excited about,
[00:13:37.500]just like having someone else be there, because it's really hard having to keep your attention
[00:13:43.180]on those kids. So two hours, it's just seemed like it was great. And then the high school
[00:13:47.440]students will also get their college credits, which is cheaper to get when you're in high
[00:13:52.240]school, and they can move on. And they can also figure out whether they want to be
[00:13:55.220]in the childcare system or not, just by doing that.
[00:13:59.660]And then future wise and whatnot, because one of the other classes that C4K grants requires
[00:14:08.500]like love and logic, and this would be also stationed at the MPCC. And then we're hoping
[00:14:14.940]that the person who would come to help with the trainings could also like every once in
[00:14:20.120]a year when they have to fill out the licensing stuff, they can help them go
[00:14:25.120]through the licensing stuff, because that's one of the other issues where you have all
[00:14:29.760]these documents. And I know myself filling out government kind of stuff is just like
[00:14:35.660]so hard, just having that person come and help them or just them doing it together as
[00:14:41.440]an organization and whatnot. It's easier when you have another person you can ask,
[00:14:46.240]what does this actually mean? What does the C4 whatever slash something mean? And
[00:14:51.060]then they can do it all together. So we're super excited.
[00:14:55.100]About that. And they all seem really excited about that. So Sonia and I
[00:15:00.300]will be working on a plan and then kind of like putting all those things together and
[00:15:05.100]putting it on a sheet and then taking it back to the daycare providers. We're hoping to meet in
[00:15:10.100]three to four weeks and see how they respond to that. And hopefully
[00:15:14.720]when the other intern who's coming after us is going to be here for two years,
[00:15:20.120]she's the intern is going to be through lead, which I'm not really sure what it's
[00:15:25.080]for, can kind of like step up and start to help
[00:15:30.040]make the organization and everything that might need. At this moment,
[00:15:34.640]one thing that we're very excited about is that there has been one of the daycare providers who is willing
[00:15:39.740]to start as the head, which is usually the hardest part, just finding someone who would be
[00:15:45.020]willing to be president or head. And then
[00:15:49.800]something that I just started right now this week is
[00:15:55.060]working on just trying to understand how we can make the hiring
[00:16:02.540]process for the businesses here easier, because we were at a meeting, the economic development
[00:16:11.960]meeting, and one of the, they had students from UNO who was trying to figure out some of the
[00:16:18.220]challenges within the economic development group here in Valentine, and one of the challenges to
[00:16:25.040]recognize was the lack of communications, at least when it came with the hiring and whatnot.
[00:16:30.380]So yesterday I was able to sit down with the Chamber of Commerce, we had some ideas, and now
[00:16:35.500]this week, this morning, I actually got into contact with some of the major businesses here,
[00:16:41.660]and we're planning dates to meet up and just try to get an idea from them, and maybe start thinking
[00:16:47.340]of ideas after that. So yeah, that's what Connor and I have been doing here. If you have any questions,
[00:16:55.020]but yeah, we're having a lot of fun.
[00:16:58.720]Let's open up for questions for Victor and Connor.
[00:17:05.880]Well, actually, so Chelsea, sorry if I missed introductions at the beginning.
[00:17:16.080]Mike, did you amend your plan to allow early childhood as your LB840?
[00:17:25.000]Yeah.
[00:17:25.440]Okay.
[00:17:26.760]I couldn't remember.
[00:17:28.660]Well, and one thing is our LB840 is you can grant or loan business or any business money.
[00:17:35.020]So we're hoping that we can fall into some of that where they are a business.
[00:17:39.480]They have a tax ID number.
[00:17:40.920]So we should be able to work with that.
[00:17:43.420]One of the things also that we discussed at that meeting that Victor had brought up was about startups.
[00:17:48.980]I know that Andy, I think, down in McCook had done a grant where you could get somebody to start up.
[00:17:54.980]And they were saying, you know, if you could do a grant of like $1,500 would help somebody get the materials that they needed.
[00:18:00.920]And if they needed a fence or they needed playground equipment or toys or whatever to try to get licenses is the goal anyway.
[00:18:08.360]So we might do be able to figure out some way where we could grant them a certain amount of money for a startup and encourage them and then get them started on the right foot where they want to be licensed or they want to be certified in some way to make it all better.
[00:18:24.960]I guess.
[00:18:25.360]Well, and I am arguing more and more.
[00:18:28.700]I find myself arguing more and more is that, you know, the daycare is definitely tied to the workforce, you know, because they're like, well, it's only one person.
[00:18:35.980]I'm like, no, it's not.
[00:18:37.860]Yeah, that's one person running it.
[00:18:40.100]But depending on however many kids they have, that's that many people potentially times two, you know, so they are in the workforce.
[00:18:49.320]So anyway, which I know many of you already know that.
[00:18:54.940]Right. So they've these guys have done a great job and it hasn't been all work.
[00:18:59.540]I mean, we've let them out of the basement every once in a while to do some things.
[00:19:04.860]Brandon got Connor got to go to his first branding the other day, took him out there.
[00:19:11.860]Like I said, he got to be a judge in the barbecue cook off as well.
[00:19:15.540]Victor gets to do that job next time something comes around.
[00:19:18.880]So I said all these nasty jobs.
[00:19:20.460]Victor hasn't gotten one of those really yet.
[00:19:22.780]But I got to eat.
[00:19:24.920]I got food.
[00:19:25.580]So that's all that matters.
[00:19:27.460]Hey, Mike.
[00:19:30.700]Yeah.
[00:19:31.600]I don't know if you know this answer or if one of the interns do.
[00:19:35.720]Did you intentionally identify any needs in terms of space for kids?
[00:19:46.120]Or is Valentine lucky enough to have enough providers?
[00:19:49.380]Did you do some sort of surveying to determine number of providers you have and number of
[00:19:54.900]kids that have to look after?
[00:19:57.460]We did that prior almost two years ago when we first got it associated with the Nebraska
[00:20:05.820]Children and Families Coalition and then started our own Valentine Children and Families Coalition.
[00:20:11.440]And we had done a survey.
[00:20:13.200]I can't remember.
[00:20:15.180]We had a couple hundred returns on that.
[00:20:17.020]What age brackets and what times of day they needed daycare, what they were looking for
[00:20:23.920]in daycare.
[00:20:24.460]Did they want to be in daycare?
[00:20:24.880]Did they want state license?
[00:20:25.920]Did they want the step up to quality program?
[00:20:29.220]All of those kind of things.
[00:20:30.780]So we had done the survey work before they came.
[00:20:33.940]And then that's kind of what Sonia Coates, our director or coordinator for our Valentine
[00:20:38.880]Children and Families, Nebraska provided us with, I think it's $55,000 a year for five
[00:20:45.460]years to hire a person to handle those things.
[00:20:47.880]And of course, the first things were doing bylaws and getting your 501c3, all those kind
[00:20:54.640]of things.
[00:20:54.860]And then a couple months ago, I am on that board of directors, and I said, we really
[00:21:01.000]need, the reason we started this whole discussion was daycare, because it is directly, as Chelsea
[00:21:06.280]pointed out, directly related to workforce.
[00:21:08.900]So we know we need to get more daycares, more preschools, those kind of things.
[00:21:14.660]One of our first main steps was getting the school to accept pre-K into their program
[00:21:20.220]and start the Head Start and preschool programs in the school system.
[00:21:23.440]So that opens up a lot of opportunities.
[00:21:24.840]We also opened up some other area and providers.
[00:21:26.320]So we could use, I don't know, Victor, maybe you know how many more providers we could actually use.
[00:21:32.680]But I'm thinking anywhere from four to six providers would be easy.
[00:21:39.300]I mean, that would be what we would need easily.
[00:21:42.960]So, yeah, we have the survey data.
[00:21:45.760]We just launched a trailer yesterday.
[00:21:48.260]We didn't launch it, I guess.
[00:21:49.520]We accepted it.
[00:21:50.520]Because what I found out is through this, you guys need to check out the survey data.
[00:21:54.820]The Nebraska Children and Families Coalition, because we were associated with them.
[00:21:59.300]And now all of a sudden, we've got more money coming our way for projects and faster than
[00:22:04.980]we can figure out how to spend it sometimes.
[00:22:06.980]And we just took possession of a think, make, create trailer yesterday, which is like, I
[00:22:15.220]think it's a 20-foot enclosed trailer that is completely hands-on learning for children,
[00:22:23.000]like in an after-school program.
[00:22:24.600]Or you could take it to the park and set it up, or you could send it out to some organization
[00:22:28.880]that wanted to do it.
[00:22:29.840]And it comes completely stocked with science projects and engineering projects and things
[00:22:35.720]that they can imagine, and then they can go in and make it and stuff.
[00:22:38.280]And so Sonia is kind of putting all that together of how we're going to actually utilize that.
[00:22:44.660]So it's been kind of a whirlwind with that.
[00:22:48.580]We beat our head on the wall for a long time with daycare until finally we got a group
[00:22:54.380]of people that were really passionate about it.
[00:22:56.400]And now we can't keep up with it, it seems like.
[00:22:59.180]So Mike, the sources of the monies that are coming your way now, is that several or one
[00:23:10.340]big one?
[00:23:10.860]Or can you talk about that?
[00:23:12.200]The Nebraska Children and Families was the first one.
[00:23:16.280]And then there's, what's the Victor?
[00:23:19.220]C4K, is that what it is?
[00:23:24.160]Yeah, C4K, that's.
[00:23:25.720]That CARES money?
[00:23:29.180]That's through the Department of Health and Human Services.
[00:23:33.760]And there could have been some CARES money that came across,
[00:23:38.420]and that might have been why there seemed like there was such a pile
[00:23:40.760]of money sitting there to access, I'm not sure.
[00:23:42.720]Well, that's sort of been the case.
[00:23:45.720]I mean, a bunch of that money got poured into a variety of systems,
[00:23:50.660]and they're trying to push it out as fast as they can.
[00:23:53.940]Yeah.
[00:23:54.420]So the Nebraska Children and Families has been kind of our go-through
[00:23:57.920]organization.
[00:23:58.580]Rachel Sissel, who is in, is it Chapel?
[00:24:01.720]She's out west somewhere.
[00:24:04.040]She's our person.
[00:24:05.740]Lou Ellen.
[00:24:06.260]Lou Ellen.
[00:24:07.480]She's kind of our contact person on this, and I think she works for,
[00:24:12.600]it's hard to keep track of all the initials of who's with what.
[00:24:16.900]But I know Jenny's with UNL.
[00:24:19.900]I know that much.
[00:24:20.860]But anyway, yeah, it's been,
[00:24:23.720]really interesting to see what happens on that.
[00:24:26.520]And the healthcare workers front that Connor's been working on,
[00:24:30.280]you know, that is a hard one to crack because workforce is short,
[00:24:36.700]no matter where you go, what you do.
[00:24:38.460]And that particular one, agency, traveling, nursing position,
[00:24:45.980]those kinds of things have taken a hold with most of the nurses,
[00:24:50.480]not most of them, but a lot of them going, well, I could
[00:24:53.500]go to work in a small rural community and make $30 an hour
[00:24:56.420]or I can go on the road and I can make $60 or $80 an hour,
[00:25:00.920]work through an agency.
[00:25:03.100]And it's good for them and it will probably at some point
[00:25:08.400]flip back to where that's not quite so available.
[00:25:10.700]But it's bad for our long-term care industry,
[00:25:14.440]our healthcare industry locally, because the CEO at the hospital
[00:25:18.380]had told me if he doesn't offer $125 an hour for an agency staff,
[00:25:22.620]they won't even talk to him.
[00:25:23.280]And I'm not sure what the percentage is of what the agency gets.
[00:25:28.460]But so now all your budgets are going up.
[00:25:31.640]You know, if there's some CARES money out there somewhere,
[00:25:36.600]that would be where to throw some CARES money,
[00:25:39.000]is figuring out how to keep these small healthcare operations functional
[00:25:43.320]until we get through all the rest of the pandemic wind down.
[00:25:46.540]So, Mike, I've got a couple of questions for the interns,
[00:25:53.060]unless somebody else has something to ask.
[00:25:56.720]My questions for the interns are these.
[00:26:01.760]What, in your first four weeks or whatever,
[00:26:07.560]confirmed what you thought you already knew?
[00:26:10.820]And the other question is, what really surprised you?
[00:26:22.840]Silence.
[00:26:26.400]Are you referring to...
[00:26:28.960]We're fighting over who's going first.
[00:26:30.440]Are you referring to just kind of the community aspect
[00:26:35.700]of living in a rural community,
[00:26:38.340]or what's different from what we thought was going to be the same?
[00:26:43.080]Yeah, it's a broadly structured question.
[00:26:48.020]So what about living in a rural community,
[00:26:52.620]or you can include the kind of effort you're putting in,
[00:26:58.500]the work you're doing, whatever makes sense to you.
[00:27:00.740]Okay.
[00:27:01.980]I would say just being in a rural community,
[00:27:06.680]it is a nice break from being in Lincoln.
[00:27:10.720]I know going to UNL for the last four years,
[00:27:13.340]you're just being in a very high competitive and stressful environment,
[00:27:17.180]and moving out to a rural community, it's a little bit slower pace of life,
[00:27:20.240]and people actually want to have genuine conversations,
[00:27:22.520]with you, and Lincoln, it seems like if you go to a professor,
[00:27:25.740]to talk about like a test,
[00:27:27.460]they want to get you in and out the door as quick as possible,
[00:27:29.820]or if you want to go talk to someone at like a business,
[00:27:33.480]they want to get you in and out the door as fast as possible,
[00:27:35.980]but being in a rural community,
[00:27:37.360]I genuinely people want to take time to understand who you are,
[00:27:40.880]why you're here, what sort of work you're doing,
[00:27:43.900]and the conversations I just love having,
[00:27:47.620]and getting that opportunity to just meet new people,
[00:27:50.860]and have a good,
[00:27:52.420]genuine conversation and figure out what about Valentine makes it different
[00:27:57.560]than Nebraska.
[00:27:58.360]And I'd have to say the people is one thing and how they want to actually
[00:28:02.740]build a community and our community oriented is one thing I find very cool.
[00:28:08.760]Great. Thank you.
[00:28:11.260]You want to mute? Okay, perfect. For me,
[00:28:17.220]I something that I was like, because your first question was what I,
[00:28:21.120]what confirmed,
[00:28:22.320]what you already knew and what surprised me.
[00:28:26.000]So what confirmed was the community aspect of it all.
[00:28:29.600]I was expecting that community was going to be a lot more important than it is
[00:28:34.780]in the bigger city. So, and Valentine community is very close.
[00:28:40.200]People know each other. And when you go to a meeting,
[00:28:43.480]it's more of a familiar type of thing.
[00:28:47.520]It's less just structured where it's like, Oh, let's talk about these things.
[00:28:51.700]It's more,
[00:28:52.220]like they also have this community aspect because they know each other and
[00:28:55.880]they know their children and they know their neighbors.
[00:28:58.540]And it's a lot of fun. What that surprised me was, so I,
[00:29:03.300]I think Lincoln is small.
[00:29:06.720]Like I grew up in cities that were bigger than Lincoln.
[00:29:09.500]So in my head, Lincoln is small. So I've never been,
[00:29:13.860]and the whole idea of what change means for a smaller community is something
[00:29:18.200]that I have kind of like the first time,
[00:29:22.120]ever experienced that was here.
[00:29:24.080]So it's just how much bigger the idea of anything to change here is here in
[00:29:30.560]Valentine. Cause in cities they're like, okay, let's build this.
[00:29:33.280]And everyone is on board right away. You know,
[00:29:35.180]there's a couple of people who are just like, ah, I don't know.
[00:29:37.760]But it's, there's really very little thought.
[00:29:40.680]And most people don't even care about the change. They're just like,
[00:29:43.460]I'm too busy. I have other stuff going on in my life,
[00:29:45.900]but you're so involved with their local community.
[00:29:49.100]That change is much more of the bigger thing and people are,
[00:29:52.100]are more interested about knowing that particular change. So that surprised me.
[00:29:56.200]All right. Thank you. Thank you so much.
[00:29:59.100]Victor, Connor,
[00:30:00.260]I wanted to follow up on that because I know you talked about that earlier
[00:30:03.540]about, you know,
[00:30:04.460]email doesn't work as well as face-to-face communication in a small
[00:30:09.150]community. Did you find, I guess, a difference between maybe a tendency in a community like
[00:30:17.650]Lincoln that people have their heads down in a mobile phone versus engaging?
[00:30:23.770]Yeah, for sure. I think one thing I think about when you talk about like change and stuff like
[00:30:32.550]that is Edward Abbey once said, if you want to figure out how to control an entire population,
[00:30:36.990]you move them everyone into a city. Because once you're in a city, it's more of a mom mentality.
[00:30:42.210]It's just like, okay, if this person tells me I'm going to do that, then I'm not going to try
[00:30:46.490]to fight it because there's way too much like, you know, stuff going on in my life already. But
[00:30:51.130]in a small community, you actually get that opportunity to have a genuine conversation.
[00:30:55.230]And, you know, an email is okay in a big city. But here, if you want to have a good conversation,
[00:31:01.510]you're going to go see someone in person. And just having that type of relationship and how
[00:31:06.850]you do business in a small town is so much cooler. And I enjoy it more than being in Lincoln.
[00:31:12.490]And also gives more people time to share their ideas and stuff too,
[00:31:17.550]which I think leads to the change being a little bit harder at times.
[00:31:20.810]Yeah, no, I have to agree with Connor. And I don't know if it's because just growing up in
[00:31:31.070]cities and whatnot, I am much more of a private person, which it's I,
[00:31:36.710]found is mostly because I lived in cities where people are just like, removing all the time and
[00:31:42.670]just doing their own thing, which is why when they meet up, they have a tendency to look down
[00:31:46.910]on their phone. And I too, kind of like, I do that if I'm in a city, but right here, it's really hard
[00:31:54.950]to do because you sit down and people just start talking about themselves, or they'll ask you
[00:31:59.590]questions about yourself. And we're like, wow, okay, this is different. But yeah, it is very different. And it's
[00:32:06.570]really good to observe and whatnot. And just what he was talking about, the
[00:32:11.890]mom mentality, you're unlikely to follow that just because there's that space where you can start
[00:32:17.970]talking about who you are, and the people also have a chance to talk about who they are. Yeah.
[00:32:22.530]That's great. Thank you.
[00:32:24.030]Awesome, awesome stuff. And boy, if we keep it like this, you know, you guys are all going to want to move to the
[00:32:30.610]small towns. And you know, I don't know if that's a bad thing. That's awesome.
[00:32:36.430]Let's move forward. We've used about half of our time. So I wanted to introduce J.C. Hafer and Chantel Schultz.
[00:32:42.590]We're both in Chadron today. Dawes County and the Northwest Panhandle is working under a
[00:32:50.330]grant that Milan got us into to really identify ways to enhance our tourism, which is a key
[00:33:00.450]part of our economic development in the North Panhandle. So we have given them a couple of chores.
[00:33:06.290]And they've had a couple of things because the school had asked them to do a few things,
[00:33:12.170]and we needed to do that in June. So they were working on some mental health resources for
[00:33:18.050]parents of school children and a couple other pieces that were coming along. But just recently,
[00:33:24.150]Daisy and Chantel really turned to what does quantifying the tourism in the North Panhandle.
[00:33:31.370]So I'm going to let them take it away and just tell you what their experiences have been.
[00:33:36.150]Yeah. So thanks for the intro, Jenny. I'm JC Hafer and this is Chantel.
[00:33:43.050]But first of all, on the mental health side, we just want to say that our third intern,
[00:33:48.730]Hannah, has really been heading that up. So we can't really take the credit for that. She's been
[00:33:52.670]she's a psychology major and that's a passion of hers. So we're very lucky to have her eyes and
[00:33:58.270]ears and opinions about those projects. But as far as the things I've been leading up are first
[00:34:06.010]off, I've just been helping the public school with their Cardinal Facility Fund. So basically
[00:34:10.590]businesses in the community are partnering with them to invest in updating their school
[00:34:18.130]facilities. And in turn, they get their business logos showcased across the screen at
[00:34:24.190]community events and ball games and things like that. So it's kind of a win-win for people. And
[00:34:29.670]I know that as a local business showing that you are supporting the public
[00:34:35.870]school and out supporting the community is instrumental in getting people to support you back.
[00:34:40.330]So that's been cool to help our superintendent with. And then on top of that, I've been
[00:34:45.810]helping Carrie Remp at Discover Northwest Nebraska develop an app for Shadron
[00:34:50.790]and Dawes County, as well as Northwest Nebraska. So essentially we're modeling
[00:34:55.890]it after the apps that Grand Island and Columbus already have and utilize.
[00:35:00.290]And so right now I'm in the middle of plugging in all of our data. So everything from
[00:35:05.730]city maps to restaurants, to hotels, to all of our tourist attractions, we're putting it all in
[00:35:11.670]one place so that locals and people visiting our area can just go to one resource and find
[00:35:17.150]everything that they need. Nice job.
[00:35:21.110]As JC said, I'm Chantel. So this summer, besides the mental health stuff, I'm also working with
[00:35:30.050]Jenny and Carrie and with Deb, and we're doing a tourism survey data collecting.
[00:35:35.590]Experiment, I guess, this summer. So this is going to be kind of the first
[00:35:41.350]option. They really want to figure out if the economic side of things are really what the state
[00:35:49.350]has implemented for Dawes County. So we went through and we created a survey with about 11
[00:35:55.610]questions, and then I actually was able to order the business cards yesterday,
[00:36:00.830]and then I went around to all the businesses to see if they would like to help
[00:36:05.450]introduce the survey, but then also encourage the tourists to do it. So I think I got every
[00:36:14.770]business talked to yesterday, except for two, because nobody was in the office.
[00:36:18.850]So that's how that is going. I think this is going to be really awesome today. I'll head
[00:36:24.650]down to Crawford to get some stuff handed out down there, but with fur trade coming up,
[00:36:28.850]this is going to be one of the major tourist attractions out here in Dawes County, besides
[00:36:35.310]all of the amazing parks that we have out here. So I think this would be a really good opportunity
[00:36:40.270]to get that lifted off. But besides that, at the beginning of the summer, we were trying to come
[00:36:46.290]up with maybe a project that we wanted to do on our own. And so I came up with the tourism
[00:36:51.590]podcasting. So with that project, I really just wanted to make it a really personal and cultural
[00:36:58.910]object for tourists to be able to watch and get a little bit of history by listening to someone's
[00:37:05.170]voice instead of reading paragraph after paragraph. Or sometimes when you want to
[00:37:09.930]really know more history about things, sometimes the websites don't have everything. So I think
[00:37:15.250]JC has been partnering with me. She's been doing a lot of the history. And I think between both
[00:37:19.750]of us and just getting out in the community and really talking to people, we've gathered a lot
[00:37:24.410]of extra history information that I think even some of the locals didn't even know.
[00:37:29.430]So we've got a bunch of videos recorded. And then we're also kind of just doing a little
[00:37:35.030]fun podcast that kind of gives a play by play of how our week's gone and just everything
[00:37:40.010]that we've been introduced to. So that's been a really good opportunity for us to understand
[00:37:46.510]how to get information out in a new technological way. But that those videos will be up on
[00:37:53.290]the Discover Northwest Nebraska website and on the YouTube channel. So we've been super
[00:37:58.190]busy with a bunch of other projects. And I know Carrie's been pretty busy. So we haven't
[00:38:02.050]been able to get that uploaded yet. But hopefully in the next two weeks, we'll be able to get
[00:38:04.890]that uploaded. But I think besides that, I think that covers almost all of the tourism
[00:38:11.490]side out here. Yeah. And it's just awful. They had to go on hikes to get this data and
[00:38:18.730]take pictures for research. It was just terrible. We made them go out and tick infested woods
[00:38:24.670]and oh my goodness. So we've been, we've been going on lots of hikes and going to places
[00:38:31.330]like Fort Robinson and Museum of the Fur Trade and the
[00:38:34.750]Marie Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center. And in our hours, we like to call that tourism
[00:38:40.330]research, but we truly are data collecting to see, you know, what the experience is like
[00:38:46.350]for the tourists, but then also how we can relate that back to them in an engaging way
[00:38:50.750]to get more people to come here. The very first thing I would say that we learned this
[00:38:55.550]summer was when people say, oh, there's nothing to do in Shenandoah County. And we say, no,
[00:39:00.370]no, that's not true. Yeah.
[00:39:04.110]But then also, as far as our podcast goes, we for sure could not do that without Shadron
[00:39:09.370]Public Schools because they've been generous enough to let us use all of their podcast
[00:39:13.110]equipment. And their principal, Jerry Mack, was awesome enough to help us learn how to
[00:39:17.830]do that. And Victor was our TA for leadership and diversity. And I'm actually TAing for
[00:39:24.590]Dr. Fagan for that class this fall. So we're just keeping it on going. But yeah. Do we
[00:39:30.570]have anything else? I'm graduating, so I won't be TAing.
[00:39:33.470]But we actually took that class together. But because it was on Zoom, we never had a
[00:39:38.270]chance to meet each other until this program. So that's been kind of cool.
[00:39:42.350]And a couple of things I would add. I think the girls are being a little bit -- not blowing
[00:39:51.070]their own horn quite enough. A couple of great ideas that came directly from them as it relates
[00:39:57.390]to how do we get people to take this survey? You know, information is only as good as the data that
[00:40:03.230]you gather. And I think one of the most interesting parts of that whole process was
[00:40:08.430]the opportunity to visit with one of the members of our task force that's on this USDA grant,
[00:40:15.230]was to try to push that out to more people. And to that end, we were able to purchase some
[00:40:22.350]geofencing through the local radio station. And the reason I'm aware of that is because
[00:40:27.870]I just got a copy of the quote "ads" that will pop up on your phone and your device
[00:40:32.990]once we launch this thing. And it's the first time that I've been involved with that level
[00:40:38.190]of technology on a survey. So I'm really curious to see how all that works. And I'm curious to know,
[00:40:43.710]Chantel, if you guys were able to pull together a QR code. Is that what's on the on the cards?
[00:40:51.310]Yes. So I think that too, to be able to scan that,
[00:40:57.630]take you right to the survey, have all those businesses helping out. Because
[00:41:02.750]truly what we're attempting to do is figure out the information that more of our hospitality
[00:41:08.830]businesses need to know from those people who we're trying to be hospitable to. So in order to
[00:41:14.990]be able to capture that data, know who you're talking to, know where they where they access
[00:41:21.950]the information. That's kind of the kind of boring stuff to some people. But that's what we need
[00:41:28.030]to take to the State Department of Economic Development, as well as
[00:41:32.510]including the tourism folks, because it is the number one industry in Dallas County,
[00:41:37.470]second only to agriculture. So it's really important and I appreciate the interns'
[00:41:44.270]energy and enthusiasm on moving forward on things that
[00:41:50.110]I don't know that I would have had the expertise to even ask the questions about. So
[00:41:54.670]I wanted to give them a shout out for bringing that level of new information to us
[00:42:02.270]and I had no idea that the high school had that kind of capacity in terms of podcasting equipment
[00:42:08.830]and that sort of thing so good to know as well. I learn something every day from these girls.
[00:42:13.230]Well thank you Deb. But yes to answer your question Mr. Wall I think for me something that
[00:42:21.790]didn't surprise me was definitely kind of piggybacking off the other two interns is the
[00:42:25.870]community coming from a really small community in McCool Junction. That's just something that happens.
[00:42:32.030]Everyone knows everyone. You know you're never on your phone. It's always a great time when you're
[00:42:36.350]in town. But it's definitely bigger district size and even population size up here. But still the
[00:42:44.550]unity that community has made to build with me individually. And I know JC I think can speak a
[00:42:49.850]little bit about that too. But they've just really taken the time to get to know us. And I know we've
[00:42:54.230]gotten to several of the restaurants several times to eat or several times to eat. And now
[00:42:58.230]you know we're familiar faces. So I think that's been an amazing.
[00:43:02.010]opportunity and experience for us. But I think in a joking matter something that surprised me
[00:43:07.510]was how much Shadron is under an umbrella. Like we've been here yeah for four weeks and we've
[00:43:12.730]seen how many storms come in. And they hit above Shadron, below Shadron, to the east and to the
[00:43:18.430]west. And finally last week we finally got a pretty decent rain. But also kind of going off
[00:43:25.030]of what JC said with you know there's nothing to do in Dawes County. Which is an absolute lie but
[00:43:31.470]it kind of surprised me at how many locals still don't even know what there is to do. And I think
[00:43:37.230]coming out to this internship I wasn't really for sure what I wanted to what I was going to do and
[00:43:43.990]what all I was going to gain. But now I have a really strong passion for advocating tourism but
[00:43:49.770]also advocating agriculture with that. So it's been a really great opportunity to see how can I
[00:43:55.450]connect with the locals besides the tourists to educate them on what there is to do out here.
[00:44:00.930]And how age-friendly everything really truly is. So that was something that really surprised me.
[00:44:06.970]JC, Chantel, I'm sorry, do you have a sense of your podcast audience and have you promoted it
[00:44:13.730]in some way to grow your audience? So as of right now, I think we have like six videos.
[00:44:21.710]And as I said earlier, we haven't been able to get that uploaded to the YouTube page yet.
[00:44:26.730]But the history podcasts are going to have pictures on it.
[00:44:30.390]And we're going to be posting them on the chamber Facebook page when that finally gets up and going.
[00:44:36.330]And then our fun little podcast, we're going to have our own YouTube channel.
[00:44:40.530]And then we'll probably post that on our private Facebook pages. But as of right now,
[00:44:46.410]we really just want to get it out to every age. And that's why we really want to push on social
[00:44:51.410]media, because we know people are not going to know that they're there just on the YouTube
[00:44:55.750]channel or on the website, because that's not a place that everybody looks when they come
[00:44:59.850]out here. So yeah, we don't have a logo or anything like that, but we're definitely going
[00:45:06.010]to be pushing it on social media. But we are working under the umbrella of the Discover
[00:45:11.770]Northwest Nebraska website and organization. Carrie Remp at the chamber office is also the
[00:45:18.150]director for tourism for Northwest Nebraska. So being able to put those on that website gives
[00:45:24.830]us a huge audience base already, as well as having access to the chamber Facebook.
[00:45:29.310]Um, and then on top of that, I would just say that there's something to do for all ages at all
[00:45:39.010]of our different tourist attractions here in the area. You know, like, for example, we were at the
[00:45:44.890]Marie Sandoz Center last week, and they have things to do for kids as well as things to do
[00:45:50.330]for people in their 90s. And I think when you speak about a small town, the family atmosphere
[00:45:58.770]is so ingrained into people here that they truly want to make it fun for everyone. And they want
[00:46:04.730]to be able to make it engaging and different each time so that people want to come back to
[00:46:10.230]the museum for a third time or something like that. And, you know, I grew up in a town of 100
[00:46:17.730]people. So coming to Chatham with 6,000 people, it would have been a little different for me had
[00:46:24.690]I not been able to go to Lincoln to college for three years. But
[00:46:28.230]I think it truly, what I appreciate the most about this community is how open-minded and
[00:46:35.330]supportive it is, especially on the mental health and wellness front. You know, we have the
[00:46:41.810]privilege of having that AWARE grant that supports most of our mental health projects here. And the
[00:46:47.710]quality of the school system and to the degree that they're able to provide those resources for
[00:46:53.250]those kids has been truly awesome for me to see. Because I know that growing up in a town
[00:46:57.690]of 100 people in the middle of the Sandhills, you don't talk about mental health and wellness. And
[00:47:02.970]you just assume that if you work hard enough, everything is going to be fine. And that's not
[00:47:08.010]true. So I would encourage all of you to go home to whatever community you're in the summer as well
[00:47:14.410]as your native community and just really inspire people to think of mental health as just as
[00:47:19.610]important as physical health.
[00:47:21.690]On that point, I was just going to add that I have a colleague in the School of Communication here at UNO,
[00:47:27.150]Roma Subramanian, who did her PhD at Missouri, but it's originally from India.
[00:47:32.030]But they have a work group with UNMC, the medical center, focused on mental health.
[00:47:38.530]So there are some resources going down the road if you need them.
[00:47:43.330]Okay, cool. Thank you. We'll definitely have to check those out.
[00:47:46.170]But yeah, I feel like we've also done a pretty good job at bringing in mental health in our videos too.
[00:47:52.810]I think it's been really good for us because through this journey, I mean,
[00:47:56.610]we all came from Lincoln, we all came off of COVID, everything was online, it still is.
[00:48:02.290]And I know the motivation for us, it was a new community, new projects, that was the motivation.
[00:48:08.210]But after a while, that's going to die down once everything isn't so brand new anymore.
[00:48:12.530]And so I really think the journey that Jacey and I've been able to take is how to actually,
[00:48:17.410]besides just talking about promoting mental health, how can we actually do it for ourselves
[00:48:21.970]to better increase our motivation? And I'm out here and I think it's worked really well.
[00:48:26.610]For us so far. So I'm proud of us for keeping that up. But yeah, we when we talk about tourism
[00:48:33.790]in our community, we like to do a mental health minute on our podcast and just talk about how
[00:48:38.750]exercising, but also getting in nature are two of the most proven ways to relieve stress,
[00:48:44.770]anxiety, and depression. So that's crucial just to tell people about and encourage them
[00:48:49.870]and help people understand that they're not alone. And I would also just say that because
[00:48:56.230]COVID is ending, people want to travel and people want to get outside and they want to
[00:49:01.170]experience the things that they've been yearning for the past year and a half. So I think our
[00:49:07.050]tourism director, Carrie Rempen, mentioned that our tourism and lodging dollars here in Dawes
[00:49:14.450]County have been record-breaking all year so far. So that's been super cool to see because that
[00:49:20.510]dictates what the chamber in Northwest Nebraska is able to do, I'm pretty sure.
[00:49:25.850]Yeah. And I also think another good point to say off of that with COVID ending is with everyone
[00:49:31.510]wanting to travel, I really think everyone's going to want to see how COVID has affected the
[00:49:37.650]towns and how well the community has been able to only better themselves from that. And so I
[00:49:43.550]really think this tourism project for us just being able to advocate for the county is going
[00:49:48.950]to better increase more people having a better time out here because they're going to see all
[00:49:53.330]the new improvements. They got the
[00:49:55.470]Discover Northwest website up and running during COVID. So people that haven't visited that for a
[00:50:00.610]while, they're going to be like, wow, it's a whole new website. And then just with all the different
[00:50:04.790]history, I think it's going to be a really good experience for the tourists, but also for the
[00:50:10.090]community members to see how impacted COVID might have been on the community, but how they have a
[00:50:16.050]better mindset for the future.
[00:50:18.050]A question I would have for you is, so this year for the first time in a long time, Carrie
[00:50:25.090]hosted a little business gathering that really helped get our frontline folks to know that
[00:50:33.230]there's a lot of things to do so that we don't have the answer about there's nothing to do here.
[00:50:38.630]How would you propose going forward that we really try to change that attitude with locals?
[00:50:44.150]That's a great question.
[00:50:48.670]I would say
[00:50:54.710]that honestly the app in the survey is going to be
[00:51:00.790]super helpful on that aspect.
[00:51:03.610]We are also looking at getting the QR code for that survey on
[00:51:09.510]your receipt at several businesses so that way when locals are
[00:51:14.610]interacting here in town they'll be like oh what's this I haven't heard about this project and then they
[00:51:19.390]can do their little part of answering those 10 or 11 questions just to
[00:51:24.330]get more involved and help us really gauge what the locals are accessing
[00:51:28.790]and on top of that tourism may not create a ton of jobs
[00:51:34.410]here but it creates a ton of business so whether or not the locals are participating
[00:51:39.330]in the tourism attractions that we have it still directly affects their livelihoods
[00:51:44.530]so I think helping local people understand how important tourism truly is in this
[00:51:49.450]community because that's something I didn't even know Jenny that tourism is the second industry
[00:51:53.950]here right after agriculture so that's that's awesome and definitely a selling point that I
[00:51:58.370]think we can use and Victor made an awesome point that we can link our podcast to a rural
[00:52:05.210]property in Nebraska to get that out there too so thanks for that Victor but yeah that's a good
[00:52:10.110]point Jenny thank you for bringing that up because that reminded me of something I was talking with a
[00:52:14.070]couple local business owners yesterday when I was talking to them about the survey opportunity and
[00:52:21.090]they said they thought it would be really cool.
[00:52:23.570]Besides just getting the tourists involved if we got the locals involved and somehow we brought in
[00:52:29.570]like a prize or something since you know for the summer or maybe for this whole year and so
[00:52:35.190]besides having the tourists take it but have the locals take it and then they can be entered to do
[00:52:42.130]something but find a way to get both the locals and tourists involved and you know I think this
[00:52:49.050]process was pretty easy creating the survey on my end so I think
[00:52:53.190]it would it could be beneficial to create maybe a local survey and then have that as an option
[00:53:00.950]if that was something that we wanted to do but I was honestly just about to say that because I
[00:53:08.210]took the survey the other day and I considered myself a local for the summer I guess so
[00:53:14.470]but it is definitely worded and targeted towards someone just passing through so we may want
[00:53:22.810]to revamp that or create a second version for people who are residents here. And that's what
[00:53:28.150]I was just going to suggest from past surveys that we've conducted down here in Box Butte County so
[00:53:33.130]I'm just south of you girls is that you know if there's something in it for them
[00:53:39.110]they are more likely to take the time to take it.
[00:53:52.430]Business station or you know something something like that you know a quick coupon but then yeah
[00:53:58.550]definitely if you're going to do another round for your locals you know 50 bucks in chamber box
[00:54:03.810]or something like that you get that increased participation from from that audience that you
[00:54:11.330]that you want so. Exactly yeah. I really agree Chelsea.
[00:54:15.470]And one thing I might mention Dave Feddersen from the radio station just
[00:54:22.050]stuck his head in here and said he was trying to access the QR code and it took him to a login
[00:54:27.690]page of some sort. We need to make sure that takes him directly to the survey. I don't know what
[00:54:34.850]what he's referring to but they're they're looking to visit with you guys to get that
[00:54:39.210]sort of ironed out because he wants to include it with with other
[00:54:44.170]codes and other things that they have and he's also talked about having something available
[00:54:51.670]for them to utilize right there at the restaurant so I don't think that's too far out of the realm
[00:54:57.250]of possibilities that if you take the survey you could get something and I I may have been
[00:55:03.330]chatting with him when you were going over some details but didn't we talk about a
[00:55:07.510]Amazon card or a $25 gift card of some sort kind of as a
[00:55:13.450]a carrot that we were going to put out there for people to take the survey
[00:55:17.970]did that not materialize
[00:55:21.290]I'm sorry could you repeat that we had a message pop up
[00:55:24.070]I may have missed your comment but I thought we had already determined that there would be
[00:55:30.890]some sort of prize available at some point for people who took the survey
[00:55:34.990]yes you talk about that yes okay that's certainly a um you need to figure out how to advertise that
[00:55:42.890]but the QR QR code thing is pretty critical so you you need to circle back around with either Dave or
[00:55:50.910]Erin and I think they've got a call in to you I have one more question for you girls have you
[00:55:57.230]been down to Box Butte Reservoir that is named after my county but lies in your county
[00:56:02.410]no I drive past every time I you know leave but we haven't been there yet okay yeah we'll
[00:56:10.330]definitely have to put that on the bucket list I think we've about been to we've almost been to
[00:56:15.750]every major tourist attraction um if not three times already
[00:56:20.530]yeah um our our other supervisor Terry Haynes who's um kind of leads up our ESU and our aware
[00:56:28.310]grant component she says that we've done more tourism in the past four weeks than most locals
[00:56:33.710]do in a lifetime so we're really trying to get out there and get the full experience
[00:56:38.390]and um yeah I think it's just been awesome to really have the full experience and get
[00:56:46.590]paid for an entire day of you know going to Toadstool
[00:56:50.150]Park with Jenny's husband or going to Fort Robinson and really just getting to have that
[00:56:56.290]experience so that we can give personal testimony to people who might want to do it is awesome and
[00:57:01.610]one thing I'll also say about encouraging local business owners to take part in the
[00:57:07.390]in the survey and help them understand why it impacts them is I heard a statistic one time that
[00:57:14.050]in a rural community for every dollar you spend it returns to the community seven times over
[00:57:19.770]in support and just ways that they either pay their bills or support other businesses or it
[00:57:26.470]goes in taxpayer dollars so really just uniting our community on that front is going to be
[00:57:33.310]instrumental as well so I have a request of all of you you two girls and the guys in Valentine
[00:57:42.510]um you've probably done a little bit of this but um people still
[00:57:49.390]read newspapers and especially stories like you can tell social media is great but I'm an old
[00:57:56.410]newspaper guy and uh so um try to get into the newspaper a couple times at least while you're
[00:58:05.310]doing your internships Carrie of course can help you in Shadron because of her background and I
[00:58:12.110]assume Mike could help in Valentine and then um share those clippings with Dr. Fagan
[00:58:19.010]we've actually we've had Connor and Victor have been on the radio twice once was early
[00:58:28.270]to try to introduce them to the community so people would know who they were when they were
[00:58:32.170]running down main street with their rural fellow shirt and then because the administrator at the
[00:58:36.730]mid plains campus was gone last week she sent them to do the program for her so they stepped
[00:58:42.410]in and read off the sheets and the highlights and stuff so so they've been on there a couple
[00:58:47.550]of different times but
[00:58:48.630]i would like before we go and i know we've only got a minute left but part of this whole
[00:58:53.130]rural fellows experience is not just working in the community but getting to know the community
[00:58:59.050]and the culture part of it as well so we may not have time today but i'd like maybe them
[00:59:06.090]to share at some point what they're finding out about their community sounds like jc and
[00:59:11.830]chantel have been the the tourists of dawes county and stuff here and i know
[00:59:18.250]our guys have got out gotten out and done a lot of different things too so
[00:59:21.550]they're really diving into the communities and i think that's great yep that's wonderful
[00:59:27.690]we recently did an interview going into a newspaper jenny do you know when that'll be
[00:59:34.550]published it should be um just the beginning of this next week um so yeah we did with one
[00:59:41.370]of our unl communications folks um so we've got to get our picture ready to go and that's
[00:59:47.870]all we need good
[00:59:49.810]well folks it's um time is uh up for this session we will try and have another two
[01:00:00.290]communities that maybe we don't see normally on this session in two weeks i'm looking forward to
[01:00:05.970]it thanks jenny thank you all for volunteering to to do this this has been very fun see you in
[01:00:14.410]two weeks bye
[01:00:16.590]- Bye.

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Rural Fellows 2021 - Valentine and Chadron

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