Thursday banquet marks milestone for McCook Community Foundation

Thursday night will be remembered as a difference maker in McCook’s history.

Thanks to the generosity of Lemoine and Geri Anderson, Don and Alice Harpst and a growing number of Founders, the McCook Community Foundation be-stowed more than $20,000 in gifts to community causes.

And, as a result of a challenge made by the Harpsts, the annual gift amount will rise higher in years to come.

The highlight of the night was the presentation of the McCook Community Found-ation’s prestigious Benefac-tor Award to the Andersons. They were honored for making the largest gift in foundation history.

The contribution -- which totaled $346,431 in the first year of the endowment -- will be used to make annual gifts to worthy community projects. Using the first year’s interest from the Andersons’ endowment, the foundation presented a $13,000 award to the HomeTown Competi-tiveness Youth Task Force.

The funds will be used to provide entrepreneurship training for a teacher in the McCook Public Schools. The gift also will aid the newest 4-H curriculum, Entrepreneur Ship Investigation. The term “entrepreneur” is being used increasingly to describe hometown business pursuits inspired by the HomeTown Competitiveness program.

The HomeTown Competi-tiveness initiative, made possible by a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, has been embraced by the McCook Community Foun-dation and the McCook Economic Development Corp. The four “pillars” of the HTC program are building leadership, engaging young people, supporting entrepreneurship and fostering local philanthropy.

McCook’s active role in community building will rise to even greater heights in the future because of the Harpsts’ challenge. The Harpsts have challenged the community supporters to contribute $75,000 to the McCook Community Found-ation by Dec. 31, 2007. If the community does so, the Harpsts will donate an additional $25,000 to the foundation. The challenge is off to a running start, with Ron and Doris Friehe kicking off the campaign with a gift Thursday night.

In honor of their extensive benevolence, the Harpsts were honored Thursday night with the McCook Community Foundation’s Legacy Award.

Already, the Harpsts are awarding three annual gifts through the foundation. The gifts, which this year amounted to $1,200 each, were presented to Cambridge Memorial Hospital, Hillcrest Nursing Home and Hidden View Assisted Living and the McCook Leadership Insti-tute.

Accepting the awards on behalf of the organizations were Keith Klocke, Peggy Rogers and Bill Burton.

The Anderson and Harpst gifts were among a series of awards and honors an-nounced at the 2007 Founders Celebration. Other recognition included:

McCook Community Foundation Awards

* Teammates Mentoring Program, $500; Southwest Nebraska Community Theater Association for the Missoula Children’s Theater, $500; McCook Public Schools for the AmeriTowne Project, $1,000; the Family Resource Center, $1,000; McCook Economic Development Corp. for McCook promotion in the Bison Alumni Newsletter and the Nebraska Rural Living website, $1,000.

Russell Park Recognition

* The foundation paid special recognition to Marty Russell and other members of the Russell family. In honor of their father, Carson Russell, the Russells donated the money and developed the plans for Russell Park, located on the east water tower property on East Fifth Street. The park includes a full basketball court, a playground with assorted equipment, a horseshoe pit and several picnic tables.

The Jewell Family

* Robert and Elaine Jewell traveled to McCook from California to accept the foundation’s thanks for donating their golf course lot to the McCook Community Foundation. The lot was later sold to Jim and Connie Gohl for $30,000, with the funds used to set up an endowment for the benefit of the community. Using interest from the gift, the Jewells presented this year’s $1,500 award to the Tri-Edge Coalition.

The Bernard and Nelda Haag Scholarship

* The second Bernard and Nelda Haag Scholarship was presented to Dylan Ruppert, 2007 graduate of McCook High School who is now attending Colby Community College. Dylan was accompanied by his parents, David and Darla Ruppert. He received a $1,000 scholarship. Following completion of his college studies, Dylan plans to come back to the family’s Rocking Heart Stock ranch north of McCook.

Kathryn Wall’s

Endowed Gifts

* Doug Skiles appeared on behalf of Kathryn Wall, a retired teacher from McCook who was among the first Nebraskans to establish a Charitable Gift Annuity. Pleased with the result of the endowed gift she established a year ago, Kathryn made provisions for another charitable gift this year.

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Stan Goodwin, chairman of the McCook Community Foundation, served as master of ceremonies. Doug Skiles, treasurer, gave the invocation and Susan Harris Broomfield, the chairman-elect, assisted with award presentations.

Jim Gustafson, the planned giving director for the Nebraska Community Foundation, brought greetings from the state foundation. It was Gustafson, along with the chairman of the Nebraska Community Foundation, Mark Graff of McCook, who had instrumental roles in the Andersons’ endowment gift.

Others taking part in Thursday night’s Founders Celebration were Cheri Beckenhauer, and Kay Flaska, leaders of the decorating committee; Floyd Hershberger, the McCook Community Foundation founder; Gary Ginther, designer of the Benefactor Award; and Gene Weedin, Kathy Haas, Linda Davis, Kathy Latta, Rex Nelson, Pam Hanson, Bill Burton and Ron Friehe, who accepted awards on behalf of their organizations.

Also recognized was the McCook Community Foundation board, which consists of Goodwin, Broomfield, Harpst, Graff, Skiles, Beckenhauer, Flaska, Latta and Gene Morris, and the foundation’s executive director, Denise Ringenberg.

The Andersons were the third recipients of the McCook Community Foundation’s Benefactor Award. Previous honorees were Eleanor and the late John T. Harris and Allen Strunk.

Mary Jo and Mark Serbousek served as photographers for the 2007 Foundation Celebration. Their pictures will be featured on a full page in the Gazette’s Oct. 20-21 Weekend Edition.