Halsey Camp Finds Voices at Public Hearing for LB 281
KCNI/KBBN
2/17/2023
LINCOLN – At noon on Wednesday, the limestone of the state capital’s ground floor began to rustle. First, it was the echo of an unfamiliar shoe against the brick, out of step with the regular, regimented clicks of the heels of dispensed pages, then voices tickling the backdrop of closed oak doors bearing in austere gold the last names and titles of those who legislate behind them.
This was the public assembled for the public hearing on LB 281: the voices of executive directors, presidents, CEOs, and administrators belonging to the YMCA, FFA, cities, clubs, and other acronyms the state over; as they gathered outside Room 1523, an easy mistake would be thinking they belonged to a family reunion strayed from the path of the second floor’s building tour.
With anecdotes they forged a bridge over unfathomed time and distance, shared experiences like some kind of cat’s cradle hugging the fingers and at once bringing two hands together in the warmth of handshake, saying to one another in so many words with more confidence than surprise: “You’re here, too.”
The bill, first introduced to Nebraska’s Natural Resources Committee by Senators Mike Jacobson and Tom Brewer, would appropriate up to $30 million for the building or renovation of youth outdoor education facilities with a preference for those compromised by natural or manmade disaster, which for the 40-plus gathered, beat around the bush, or tree, of Halsey.
Brad Mellema, current director of the Grand Island Convention and Visitors Bureau and former Halsey 4-H Camp director, in one of the afternoon’s first of twenty testimonies all in favor of pushing the bill forward, joined the historic importance of the Halsey National Forest and the economic and ecological horsepower of the Nebraska Sandhills with a single poetic nail.
“The 4-H Camp is a unique place within a unique place within a unique place. The need is real for a place like this. It’s a shame it burned down, but to imagine what could be created for something new is not just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: it’s generational.”
Mellema’s remark would send 40 heads nodding, one of which did not belong to a president, a financial officer, or chairman of a board: it would belong to Thedford’s own Cay Ewoldt, a recently-returned fourth-generation family business owner, who in his unique position, could directly address the committee’s concerns about a continually-thinning labor force in central Nebraska should the camp be rebuilt and expanded.
“Thomas County was one of five Nebraska counties to experience population growth in the 2020 census. I believe others would like to come back to the area, but they just don’t have the means to do so like I did. Utilizing funds from LB 281 could provide that ability through new job creation.”
Ewoldt would cite additional revenue for area schools, economic growth for existing businesses, and opportunities for new businesses to sprout should the camp be revitalized, sentiments that echoed louder as more central Nebraskans spelled their names and named their homes.
Blaine, Thomas, Custer, Lincoln, and Dawson: one after the other, county names and places so familiar that for a time senators, instead of needling, would share stories of their own. And finally: Logan County, in the form of Delaney Rogers, Arnold High School junior.
“I could sit here and list camps and activities for days, but I was told I only have 3 to 4 minutes; the eastern side of the state has a lot of places to go to develop leaders, but the western side has Halsey. We cannot deprive our younger generations of the chance to learn and grow in the middle of a forest in the middle of the Great Grass Desert.”
Rogers, like most of her fellow supporters, was asked by the committee what the Halsey 4-H Camp might look like should it be rebuilt; while nobody could say, everyone in Room 1523, legislators included, had an inkling that it would probably look something like that.