RFI Student Serviceship 2016 | McCook

Andrew Ambriz Author

12/06/2016 Added

58 Plays

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RFI Student Serviceship 2016, McCook, Neb.

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[00:00:00.747](spirited music)
[00:00:09.549]So like Kirk said, I'm Andrew Ambriz.
[00:00:12.021]I was in McCook this summer for my role, serviceship.
[00:00:18.021]So this was kind of the graphic that I made
[00:00:21.141]in conjunction with my supervisor,
[00:00:22.855]that really mapped out everything
[00:00:24.913]that I was involved with over the summer.
[00:00:27.300]So on the outskirts of those four bubbles,
[00:00:29.870]you have the four entities that I worked very closely with.
[00:00:33.483]The chamber, EDC, Red Willow County Tourism,
[00:00:36.756]and Economic Development, where I was housed this summer.
[00:00:39.663]And inside the four bubbles
[00:00:41.367]are kind of the those four pillars
[00:00:43.710]of the projects that I worked on.
[00:00:45.738]So I was very heavily involved
[00:00:47.239]in the Marketing Hometown America initiative,
[00:00:49.098]that some of you may be aware of.
[00:00:52.493]The main project that was presented to me
[00:00:54.319]in the application was a business life cycle assessment.
[00:00:57.569]Community leadership development is where
[00:00:59.741]I was involved in the community
[00:01:01.192]outside of those assigned projects,
[00:01:03.233]and then a couple special projects that I undertook myself.
[00:01:06.462]So first off, Marketing Hometown America
[00:01:09.149]is a program that has been test run
[00:01:11.956]in communities in Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
[00:01:15.796]And it's all about identifying town assets
[00:01:17.562]for community development.
[00:01:22.062]It was just getting kicked off
[00:01:23.105]when I had gotten to McCook,
[00:01:24.472]so I was able to be involved from start to finish.
[00:01:27.402]Throughout four weeks we had six different teams
[00:01:29.921]that developed their own idea
[00:01:31.095]of what McCook was known for
[00:01:33.905]and what we had that was special and unique.
[00:01:36.845]From there we all came to the Action Forum at the end.
[00:01:40.562]And each one of these six action teams
[00:01:44.564]reported on what their group found to be most important.
[00:01:47.396]We had different dynamics, ranging from everyone,
[00:01:52.222]the usual suspects, as we like to call 'em,
[00:01:54.314]that were consistently involved in everything.
[00:01:56.580]So the top four results were
[00:01:58.945]a need for a new community website
[00:02:00.890]that was a true resource
[00:02:03.540]for residents, as well as non-residents.
[00:02:05.430]So people can go to this website and see
[00:02:08.062]this is everything McCook has.
[00:02:09.801]Or if I live in McCook and I need to know
[00:02:12.435]where I can buy furniture,
[00:02:14.510]I'm not gonna know that I can go to VK Electrics
[00:02:17.099]and I can get a La-Z-Boy sofa.
[00:02:19.658]So making sure that every resource
[00:02:22.276]that McCook has is available,
[00:02:24.916]and that people can really hop to these websites
[00:02:27.268]and see what McCook is and what they do.
[00:02:31.431]The next was this idea of vacant homesteading,
[00:02:34.898]headed up by Kerri Long.
[00:02:36.954]And what the idea is,
[00:02:38.802]is this idea of vacant homesteading, it's pretty cool.
[00:02:41.576]It's we try and find those vacant,
[00:02:44.442]foreclosed homes, the ones that are kind
[00:02:46.122]of an eyesore around the community.
[00:02:49.674]Plans aren't completely drawn for this
[00:02:50.942]because I did just get going
[00:02:52.367]in meeting a couple weeks ago.
[00:02:54.380]But if someone's interested in moving to McCook,
[00:02:57.368]they can find these vacant, foreclosed homes.
[00:02:59.471]And if they agree to foot the bill
[00:03:01.736]for renovation or building a new home,
[00:03:04.917]they get it cleared by the city
[00:03:05.864]and the city will say if you pay for these renovations
[00:03:09.128]and you make sure that this area
[00:03:11.816]looks better than when you found it,
[00:03:13.426]then the deed is yours once you pay for all the renovations.
[00:03:16.472]So trying to find a way that this would be possible
[00:03:20.158]for people, that they can pay for renovation,
[00:03:23.202]but they can't pay for land costs.
[00:03:26.141]The next one is a neighborhood trailer.
[00:03:28.133]It's an idea that's been incorporated in Columbus.
[00:03:30.498]And what it is it's just this resource,
[00:03:32.802]it's quite literally a trailer
[00:03:35.381]that has games, picnic tables, family activities,
[00:03:39.739]that can roam around McCook,
[00:03:41.189]and if you schedule your neighborhood down for a date,
[00:03:46.079]this neighborhood trailer shows up
[00:03:47.797]and it's a resource for basically a block party.
[00:03:51.480]And that's really to get
[00:03:52.968]people involved within neighborhoods
[00:03:54.949]'cause sometimes you don't always say hi
[00:03:56.869]to your neighbor in the morning,
[00:03:57.816]or you don't know the person three doors down.
[00:04:00.047]So it's a way to break the ice
[00:04:01.346]among the neighborhood members.
[00:04:03.365]And the last one was branding McCook.
[00:04:06.210]And it came at a really cool time
[00:04:08.075]because Carol Shlegel at County Tourism
[00:04:10.781]was actually developing a new brand for McCook.
[00:04:13.856]For a while it had been the Go To City
[00:04:16.217]in Southwest Nebraska and while that's absolutely true,
[00:04:19.590]it wasn't something that you could hang your hat on.
[00:04:21.785]And we know when someone shows up and says well,
[00:04:25.334]"I'm from McCook," there's got to be a tagline there.
[00:04:29.705]So what they came up
[00:04:31.306]and in conjunction with Maly Marketing
[00:04:33.106]was McCook, The Capital of the Buffalo Commons.
[00:04:35.513]And the story behind that was
[00:04:37.456]there were a couple of scholars from Rutgers
[00:04:39.112]that showed up in McCook and were kinda doing studies
[00:04:42.829]and came to the conclusion that McCook
[00:04:46.118]is better off disappearing
[00:04:47.293]and this land is gonna be turned over
[00:04:49.544]to the buffalo commons, you know, where buffalo should roam.
[00:04:53.131]You know, you guys should be dying,
[00:04:54.848]you guys should be outta here,
[00:04:55.747]and this should be nature's course.
[00:04:58.627]And instead, McCook kinda took that to heart
[00:05:01.103]and became very prideful.
[00:05:02.735]And they coined the term in spite of these Rutgers scholars.
[00:05:07.513]The next project I had was business life cycle assessment.
[00:05:09.817]And this was the main one that McCook was really
[00:05:11.878]concerned with and especially economic development.
[00:05:14.818]So a lotta times you get these things
[00:05:17.375]that are so classically McCook.
[00:05:19.138]And one in particular is Sehnert's Bakery.
[00:05:22.927]If you think about McCook, usually it's Sehnert's,
[00:05:26.427]or Mac's Drive-In, or the Coppermill.
[00:05:29.496]And what happens when these places aren't taken care of?
[00:05:33.915]When you're getting those businesses
[00:05:35.655]that don't know who they're gonna transition to.
[00:05:38.763]There's not someone in the family
[00:05:39.700]to take over this business,
[00:05:41.475]or I think I just wanna close up shop
[00:05:44.967]and I'll just sell the business.
[00:05:47.391]What do you do with that vacant space?
[00:05:49.719]How do you prepare for that
[00:05:50.559]if you're having those open lines of communication?
[00:05:53.441]So, what I did the very first week
[00:05:56.801]as kind of an introductory to the community
[00:06:00.881]really was I started right there on The Bricks,
[00:06:03.422]that main street in McCook, George Norris Avenue.
[00:06:06.099]And I walked up and down introducing myself
[00:06:09.291]to business owners, management,
[00:06:12.497]whoever was there that I could talk to.
[00:06:14.897]And it was just a hi, hello, this is who I am,
[00:06:18.593]this is what I'm doing.
[00:06:19.851]And really just tried to open the lines of communication,
[00:06:22.443]like hey, we're interested in where
[00:06:24.663]you're at in your business cycle.
[00:06:27.723]Are you just starting up?
[00:06:29.187]What resources can we provide you with?
[00:06:31.035]Are you competitive?
[00:06:32.919]Are you looking for ways to innovate?
[00:06:34.251]What resources can we provide you?
[00:06:36.267]And are you looking to transition outta your business,
[00:06:40.241]whether that be selling or succession to someone else.
[00:06:43.719]Community leadership development.
[00:06:46.011]These are all the things that I was able to be involved in
[00:06:48.100]and that really taught me about
[00:06:49.467]community infrastructure, how it works,
[00:06:52.549]what goes into building a community?
[00:06:55.650]The Community Foundation, very active
[00:06:58.004]and very successful in McCook.
[00:06:59.947]The Chamber of Commerce, you see there.
[00:07:01.950]The ribbon cuttings, there were, I think there were six
[00:07:04.663]over the eight weeks, nine weeks I was there.
[00:07:09.030]The Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival
[00:07:11.332]cannot go unannounced.
[00:07:13.438]It was probably one of the most fun things
[00:07:15.537]that I've done in a while.
[00:07:18.407]There on the left you can see
[00:07:19.713]everyone in the room is singing this old folk song
[00:07:23.359]that kicks off the Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival.
[00:07:26.279]And then up there, Walt Sehnert's addressing the room,
[00:07:28.743]telling one of his famous stories.
[00:07:32.033]The three radio stations,
[00:07:34.826]we developed a really good relationship with them.
[00:07:36.734]It's 105.3, the country radio stations.
[00:07:40.323]And up there is Josh Keenportz.
[00:07:42.506]He actually thought so highly of me,
[00:07:45.281]as to ask if I would judge the country music showdown,
[00:07:48.772]so I got to watch some local youth show their stuff
[00:07:52.887]singing and they all went on to, the winners all
[00:07:56.385]went on to the state fair and got to compete.
[00:07:57.860]So that was really cool to be a part of.
[00:08:00.539]And the last one was a Skatepark exhibition,
[00:08:04.270]like I was talking about earlier, to light up McCook.
[00:08:07.629]Bring lights to the Skatepark
[00:08:10.390]because after about eight o'clock
[00:08:12.807]on a Wednesday night, you can't really skate.
[00:08:15.508]We organized this event in conjunction
[00:08:16.719]with the Hear Nebraska and Good Living Tour.
[00:08:20.380]So there were concerts that night.
[00:08:21.927]There was a frisbee golf tournament going on.
[00:08:24.653]We had music the whole time.
[00:08:27.207]I wasn't able to be at this event.
[00:08:30.052]Did all the planning for it,
[00:08:30.990]but we actually came back on the fifth.
[00:08:34.708]I was there until August 5th
[00:08:37.780]and I didn't get to see the fruition of all this planning.
[00:08:40.215]But after talking with Kirk afterward,
[00:08:41.788]it turned into way more people than expected.
[00:08:46.023]We did plan this in about a week.
[00:08:48.882]I wish I had more room on this screen to put more people,
[00:08:52.733]but there were so many people instrumental
[00:08:54.993]to everything that I was able to accomplish this summer.
[00:08:58.574]And this is just a small, small chunk.
[00:09:00.881]And I can't say enough about
[00:09:03.019]each of the people on this list.
[00:09:05.947]And there were so many other experiences,
[00:09:08.405]but for the sake of everyone's time,
[00:09:10.883]I'll leave it there and if you ask the right question,
[00:09:12.945]I'd be happy to tell you.

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RFI Student Serviceship 2016 | McCook

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