There’s a rumor going around eastern Nebraska that Sidney has become a ghost town. Community leaders like Sarah Sinnett and Melissa Norgard invite you to come have a look for yourself. While you’re there, grab a bite to eat at the new brewery followed by a scoop of scratch-made, all-natural ice cream next door. If you’re looking for something to do you might check out Elston House, a paint-your-own pottery shop, or Pedalers Corner, which carries some of the most sought-after bicycles within 150 miles.
These are just a few of the 111 new businesses that have opened in Cheyenne County since that fateful day in 2017 when Cabela’s announced it had been acquired by Bass Pro Shops, taking with it 2,000 jobs in a community of just over 6,000.
Naturally many left, but those who had grown to love the Sidney way of life simply refused. They found new jobs, and in many cases they started small businesses. “Everyone that’s here not only chose to stay here, they chose to fight,” said Sinnett, a Sidney-based NCF board member.
The truth is, Sidney has defied all odds, but it’s hardly the first time. The community has a long history of this pattern. First a military fort decommissioned. Then the railroad left. Next an Army depot. An energy boom ended with a crash. Each time it was assumed that the town would never survive.
“Every time it seems like we got stronger,” said Wendall Gaston, a longtime community member, former mayor, and councilperson.
Sidney’s work with NCF began shortly after the closure of Cabela’s. Two local moms, both practicing physical therapists, were working to build an inclusive playground that would benefit their patients and area children. NCF connected them with network peers that had pulled off similar feats. An anonymous donor also established the Sidney Community Donor-Advised Fund with NCF. They supported the project and granted $184,000 to help save essential childcare during the pandemic.
Then NCF kicked off Energizing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (E3), a three-year community-building experience designed to bolster rural economic development. Sidney was an obvious choice for the experiment and joined Valley County, Holt County, Keith County, and Red Cloud in extensive training, education, and peer learning opportunities.
For folks in Sidney, the connections between entrepreneurship, community development, and philanthropy are obvious. Residents had long been trying to get a community foundation off the ground as an avenue for community members to give back to their special place. Finally, in 2023, the Sidney And Greater Area Fund, “SAGA,” was born.
SAGA is only in its infancy, but already it has made a tangible impact with its support of local childcare, the park, youth philanthropy, and numerous nonprofit organizations. That impact is about to turn up to the tune of $1.25 million as volunteers work to exponentially grow their unrestricted endowment through a generous challenge from the Sidney Community Donor-Advised Fund.
SAGA’s chair Melissa Norgard fully understands the power that unrestricted endowment will have on her community.
“It is a savings account for Sidney and the Greater Area that will benefit my kids. Their kids. Their kids’ kids. And it will live on forever. It will be able to support really awesome, amazing, important projects to keep pushing this community and this area forward forever. Forever!”
