These days, Red Cloud’s most distinctive asset—being the childhood home of Willa Cather and the setting for many of her novels—is celebrated community-wide. Nearly 1,000 residents and thousands of tourists alike delight in visits to the National Willa Cather Center, the opera house, and the many historic places associated with the author that dot the community. This wasn’t always the case.
Certainly, Cather connoisseurs have always visited the town, but Red Cloud Community Fund (RCCF) added value by helping everyone envision what was possible. First, a multi-year commitment (from a coalition of local funders) was made to fully underwrite a Heritage Tourism Development Director. Jarrod McCartney, a Red Cloud High School alumnus, has served his hometown for nine years. Today, Red Cloud is flourishing. Since 2015, the town has welcomed many new businesses and nearly 20 downtown building and tourism improvement projects. City sales tax receipts have increased. Among the new downtown amenities are a wine bar, coffee shops, more restaurants, and renovation of several second-story residential units. Bed and breakfasts offer tourists a place to stay overnight and extend their visits by another day. And soon the community will celebrate the opening of Hotel Garber, a historic downtown building renovated into a 26-room boutique hotel and event space.
Heritage tourism may bring people to the community temporarily, but local leaders knew they needed something to attract new long-term residents and retain those already living in town—particularly young families. They arrived at a plan to bring high-quality early childhood education to Red Cloud. After considerable fundraising and countless meetings with stakeholders, including knitting clubs, the VFW, and the Farm Bureau, the community celebrated the opening of The Valley Child Development Center in 2018.
Through it all, RCCF has invested in people. Scholarships for nontraditional students, for example, allow the Fund to support residents looking to expand their skillsets. And now, RCCF is working with Webster County Community Hospital and its foundation to raise funds to keep the local nursing home operating after its near closure earlier this year. This effort allows lifetime community members to remain in their hometown surrounded by family and friends who love them.
Ashley Olson, Executive Director of the Willa Cather Foundation and RCCF advisory committee member, put it this way: “Red Cloud residents really understand that we, as the people who live and work here every day, have to be willing to support it charitably in order to build and sustain a place that people want to live and work and visit.”
A challenge from two alumni inspired confidence that the community could achieve its lofty goals. Frank and Shirley Sibert issued the $100,000 fundraising call in 2001, inspiring volunteers to raise $100,000 of their own, ultimately netting $200,000 for a burgeoning unrestricted endowment. RCCF’s assets continue to grow, with its $2.3 million unrestricted endowment giving volunteers more than $100,000 in annual payout to use toward unleashing the community’s dreams.
