Students, families, friends pitch in to make better school facilities possible

The full complement of teachers and students will start their first full year in the new McCook Elementary School next month.

It was a good, $6 million investment, and the taxpayers should be proud of their vote in the future. They didn't have to vote for it, of course -- they had turned down the project twice before.

But walk around McCook, and you'll find evidence of even more personal commitment to the future. Most of the buildings on the McCook Community College campus were built with private endowments. And, right there on the college campus, a new building housing locker rooms for visiting high school football teams, storage, ADA restrooms and concessions, was built with private funding.

Thanks to boosters and other supporters, local football fans can be especially proud to host visiting teams at Weiland Field.

Now, those same sorts of boosters and supporters are well on their way to construction a facility to enhance their specialty of sport, McCook High School wrestling.

Organizers are hoping a new 60 x 87-foot, metal fame building will be ready in time for the 2006-07 wrestling season.

Coordinated by wrestling dad and City Councilman Jim Kenny, as well as Coach Nick Umscheid, Colt Hosick and Bob Chalupa, the group has received $5,000 from the Bison Booster Club among many other private donations, but still needs $25,000 to $35,000 toward the project, which will cost up to $80,000.

Moving the wrestlers and their warm environmental requirements into their own building has the added bonus of freeing up an area of the school's southwest wing for two more classrooms -- another break for local taxpayers.

And that same, "take-the-bull-by-the-horns" attitude is by no means confined to this community.

A similar story is unfolding in Curtis, where some of the students themselves are donating seed money to enhance the educational experience at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture.

Members of the state's only collegiate chapter of FFA recently donated $2,000 to the University of Nebraska Foundation's fundraising project, toward new student housing.

Raised through dances, sponsorships and a ranch rodeo, the money will go toward a new NCTA dorm housing 144 students.

And the housing is certainly needed. Not only is the college on the grow, but the two current dorms were built in the 1920s, back when younger students attended what was then a high school known as the Nebraska School of Agriculture.

The University of Nebraska Foundation hopes to raise $1.5 million toward construction of new apartment-style dormitory housing, which will help the college continue to grow as it helps students prepare for careers in agriculture.

Come to think of it, we shouldn't be surprised that students, parents, teachers and friends of the Golden Plains are quick to pitch in and go above and beyond when they see a need and want to help.