As the sun rose over Main Street, my heart gleamed with pride. The morning light caught on the rows of American flags lining our townbright stripes and quiet reverence waving in the Sandhills breeze. It felt like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting, except this isn’t a painting. It’s real. It’s Cherry County, Nebraska. It’s home.

The 2025 4-H year wrapped up on October 19, with the annual Achievement Celebration at the White Elephant Hall in Cody. After enjoying some yard games and a potluck meal with over 80 people in attendance, special awards were presented and top achievements for the year were highlighted.

After having an exceptional regular season, Cherry County’s Garrett Shadbolt will be making his fourth appearance at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, NV, in early December. Shadbolt is seventh among the 15 bareback riding qualifiers with earnings of $168,261 and says it was his best regular season.

Imagine being wrapped up in a home made quilt by local youth! These veterans were given the gift of red, white, and blue...some army green, or cammo. But all of them were made with love and given as a token of thanks and gratitude for their brave service.

Craig Beman had never doodled, drawn, or dabbled in paint before turning 46. But that turned out to be a big year for new beginnings for the former entrepreneur. A little over a month after he and his wife, Peggy, decided to begin a full-time ministry, he picked up a pencil and started sketching. When his wife saw the sophisticated results of his novice efforts, she encouraged him to nurture what they both immediately recognized as his God-given talent.

Once upon a time, in the Sandhills of Nebraska, there were three hunters from a distant land….O.K., it was probably Oklahoma or Texas, but I digress. The hunters had traveled hours to get to God’s Country. The trio had arrived to address their need for adventure. The annual pilgrimage to hunt the wily Nebraska 30-point buck had commenced. In order to begin this adventure, the hunters had to purchase their ammunition from the local gun store. They visited with the shop owner, made their ammo purchase, snagged the obligatory Snickers bars and off to harvest their ginormous buck. By mid-morning, the hunters were back at the gun store to purchase more ammo. The shop owner just had to know... “Whatcha’ doing back here so soon? That was a lot of ammo you must have shot up.”