Goodbye

Today is the official end to Ord Sunshine Pumping.  We’ve growds all up and are now blogging from our new website:  www.ordnebraska.com/blog

Join us there for continued conversation about what’s going on in the greatest little town around.  I want to thank all of you for your readership and support as we moved this effort along.  60,000 pageviews in a little over a year, it’s been more than fun!!!

Big money in wildlife watching

Bald eagle at Calamus Reservoir, photo by Aaron Price

There’s big money in wildlife watching. Just look at the figures: over the past 20 years, participation in wildlife watching, particularly bird watching, has increased nationally by more than 266%. Conservative estimates put the value to the US economy alone at over $40 billion dollars. During the same time, national participation rates in both hunting and fishing continue to decline.

Jim Mallman of Watchable Wildlife Inc. will be hosting several workshops to share insights about how entrepreneurs, outfitters, individuals, businesses and municipalities can build nature-based or wildlife tourism programs. Workshops will be held in Red Cloud on May 18, Ord on May 19 and Ogallala on May 20. These workshops are especially suitable for current Nebraska outfitters looking to diversify their non-game season by building wildlife encounter experiences.

Workshops begin at 8:30am and run through 4:00pm with lunch and refreshments provided. The cost for early-bird registration is $25 if participants sign-up before May 11. The cost for late registrants is $40. For more information, including registration forms, visit the Nebraska Development Network Central Region website at www.ndncr.com or contact Sharon or Jodi at (308) 995-3190.

Ord Alumni Weekend

The Ord Alumni Committee has details out about the July 4th Alumni weekend festivities.  This brochure can give you the skinny; expect events, tours, a banquet and area lodging information on the form.  See you July 4th weekend!

Monthly Chamber Board Meeting

Reminder:  Today is the Ord Area Chamber’s monthly Board meeting (noon, Chamber offices 1514 K Street). An agenda can be downloaded here. We hope you can join us!

Ord High School Groundbreaking

Ord High School

We have word that Ord Public Schools will be celebrating the groundbreaking of the high school renovation and new gym project this April 21st at 11am. For you non-Ord viewers, this is the result of a hard fought bond campaign last November.

You’re invited to celebrate this momentous occasion with us – see you at the school!

Winding down

Alas, the day of reckoning is upon us!  No, not the end of the Mayan calendar, but the end of Ord Sunshine Pumpers and a new beginning.  This week marks the launch of the new www.ordnebraska.com website.  I expect the finishing touches to take a a couple days, but soon we’ll be blogging from http://www.ordnebraska.com/blog.

It’s been an awesome ride – regular readers here have seen some amazing things transpire over the past year and a half and I’m super excited to see where the future takes us.  We may have a couple items posted here and there, along with our formal goodbye, but that about does it for Sunshine Pumping.  Stay tuned, and farewell!

Ord Little League

The Loup Valley Jaycees are helping with Little League baseball this year and asked that we help distribute sign-up forms and rules.  Behold!  Each age group is listed below and the forms are downloadable for your little slugger.

T-ball sign-up sheet (.pdf)

Coach pitch sign-up sheet (.pdf)

Little League Pee Wees sign-up sheet (.pdf)
Pee Wee 2010 Rules (.pdf)

Pony baseball sign-up sheet (.pdf)
Pony 2010 rules (.pdf)