Greetings from Historic Red Cloud: Great Stories Grow Here!
Set amid brick-lined streets, charming homes, historic buildings, and the immense beauty of the prairie, Red Cloud offers a glimpse into a storied American past while maintaining a progressive vision for the future. Great stories start in Red Cloud--add your own chapter today!
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Heritage Tourism needs your help
The Red Cloud Community Fund (RCCF) believes that “good enough” is not good enough. We believe Red Cloud deserves the best, whether that be high quality childcare, great places to shop and eat, exceptional places to stay the night, or fun things to see and do. We believe that visitors to the community should have an exceptional experience and think of Red Cloud as a destination. We believe that everyone in Red Cloud deserves a high quality of life. That’s why we’re committed to investing in the future of our hometown. Great progress has been made in the community in recent years but we need your help now more than ever if we’re going to be able to sustain momentum.
That’s why this year we are asking for donations to our Heritage Tourism account. The bulk of the funding for Heritage Tourism comes from RCCF and that funding is running low. With your multiyear pledge, monthly automatic withdrawal from a checking or savings account or one time donation, you can help ensure that Heritage Tourism can continue to do great work in Red Cloud. You can set up whatever payment option you'd prefer by visiting the RCCF page on the Nebraska Community Foundation website. If you need further convincing, please just click on the document below to learn more about why Heritage Tourism = Economic Development for Red Cloud.
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Shopping Extravaganza creates holiday buzz throughout Red Cloud
The Red Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce's holds its annual Holiday Shopping Extravaganza on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. This year, due to excellent weather and the efforts of organizers Bridget Daehling and Stacy Rasser and local merchants, the event was one of the best ever. Thank you to all of the participating businesses and to the local community for showing your support. Thanks as well to the United Methodist Youth Group for organizing childcare and gift wrapping!
Shopping events like Black Friday and Small Business Saturday may have come and gone, but we encourage you to Shop Small year round. If you're not in Red Cloud, please contact the Chamber line at 402-746-4065 or visit Adam Vetter at Heritage Bank and purchase some Chamber bucks for yourself or a loved one this holiday season. Chamber bucks work just like cash at local businesses.
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E3 to Relaunch Business After Hours with Chamber of Commerce in 2023
Red Cloud is part of the initial cohort of the Energizing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (E3) program. Some of the goals of the program include getting local leaders more engaged with local entrepreneurs, connecting those entrepreneurs to state and regional resource networks, and expanding the resources available in the Red Cloud/Webster County and nearby areas.
In order to achieve those goals, the Red Cloud group is looking at the long-term feasibility of implementing loan and grant programs overseen by the USDA and the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, convincing the City and taxpayers to take advantage of economic development programs created by the Nebraska legislature, and hiring a small business liaison or "e-navigator" to provide consultation to local entrepreneurs and work alongside the Heritage Tourism Development Director to fill gaps that organization is not currently covering with local businesses.
In the short-term, E3 is working with the Red Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce to relaunch Business After Hours programs in Red Cloud. Meetings will take place at a local business and give that business an opportunity to make a small presentation and give a tour of their facility. These meetings will be for business owners and their employees only and will encourage open and honest discussion about challenges facing businesses in the local marketplace as well as opportunities/success stories. In short, businesses will be able to discuss what works and what's not working so well in a safe and confidential environment. The meetings will also feature presentations from resource providers in the region. The first of these meetings will take place on Wednesday, February 8th, 2023 and will feature presentations about loan programs and other financing options from the Nebraska Enterprise Fund and an opportunity to learn about how to get involved with marketing locally produced products through the Grow Nebraska organization. Additional meetings will take place on April 20th, July 13th, and Sept. 21st.
Other communities involved in E3 include Ord/Valley County, Holt County, Sidney/Cheyenne County, Ogallala/Keith County, and McCook. Red Cloud will host these communities in 2024.
Learn more about E3.
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Ely, Armstrong, and Frey named to Nebraska Six Man Coaches' Association's 2022 All State teams
Red Cloud's hopes at a state title were dashed by a defeat to eventual D-6 state champion Parkview Christian on a chilly November night during the quarterfinal round of the playoffs. However, the season was still a tremendous success. The Senior class leaves Red Cloud with 4 consecutive state playoff appearances and a 31-7 record (Red Cloud has made the playoffs 5 years in a row). Ben Ely and Caden Frey received 1st Team All-State honors while Brooks Armstrong made the 2nd team. Red Cloud is proud of its Warriors and eager for the Winter sports season to begin!
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Successful communities define rural swagger during Rural Prosperity Summit
During the recent Kansas Rural Prosperity Summit, Kansas Sampler Foundation Executive Director Marci Penner moderated a Rural Community Success Spotlight panel highlighting towns with swagger. Featured were panelists Luke Mahin, Courtland, Kansas; Paul Cloutier, Humboldt, Kansas; Jarrod McCartney, Red Cloud, Nebraska; and Tammy Bruckerhoff, Hermann, Missouri. Penner kicked off the panel discussion by asking the panelists why their successful towns have rural swagger.
“If you've got that swagger, I'm pretty sure that young people and everybody are going to want to be part of that,” Penner said, who noted that Beth Barlow coined the term for a Kansas Sampler Foundation event this summer in Humboldt.
Cloutier, a designer and entrepreneur who helped found the development organization A Bolder Humboldt, said swagger is a great word. “It sort of connotes this idea of action, of having confidence and hope and optimism. All of those words we don't really associate with rural communities anymore, as some of those things have been lost.” The New York Times featured Humboldt in a 2022 travel list earlier this year because of its efforts to revitalize the community.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE FROM THE HIGH PLAINS JOURNAL
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Red Cloud invited to submit Creative District Strategic Plan
The application for the Red Cloud Creative District was accepted by the Nebraska Arts Council in early November. A committee representing the potential district has been formed and features representatives from local cultural and economic development organizations as well as artists and creative youth. The committee will seek feedback from the community and will submit a strategic plan in the Spring of 2023. If the Strategic Plan is accepted, a $10,000 certification grant will be awarded to tackle an arts related project. Certification will also make the district eligible to apply for a $250,000 grant and eligible to apply for additional Creative Districts funding in the future.
The Nebraska Creative District Program utilizes the arts as an economic driver to support communities in Nebraska by telling their stories and elevating the value of the arts.
Creative Districts are designated cultural and economic areas where innovation flourishes and neighborhoods come together in the name of art. They provide significant economic impact by creating purposeful spaces like art galleries, theatres, and music venues, attracting employees and businesses. These are all assets and attributes that Nebraska — and every state — can effectively harness as it seeks to reinvigorate its economy.
LEARN MORE
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Great Plains Communications
Owner, Bike Alley Bicycles & The M Guest House
Red Cloud City Council
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