A Legacy of Service: Veterans and Child Care Group Unite for Community Benefit

During the 2022 legislative session, a group of lawmakers led by former Senator John Stinner worked closely with First Five Nebraska and Nebraska Children and Families Foundation’s Communities for Kids (C4K) initiative to secure American Rescue Plan funding for a project that was badly needed: LB1014, meant to increase the capacity of quality child care across the state, with an emphasis on giving some of the child care deserts that plague rural areas a nice big drink.

The community of Thedford, population 211, lives inside one of the 11 Nebraska counties that were classified as a child care desert when they began partnering with the C4K initiative in 2023. The entirety of the county had no licensed child care at all, and residents were worried their town was dying. They applied for American Rescue Plan/LB1014 funding, and as soon as they got their notice of award, got right to work. It was an uphill battle at first. “Nobody wanted to work with us,” said Thedford C4K Core Team member and Thomas County Treasurer Andrea Thomas. “One person told me, ‘Your kids are your responsibility.’ Another said, ‘Why don’t you just stay home?’”

But they weren’t an easily discouraged bunch. “They remained motivated no matter what obstacle was thrown in their way,” said Katrina Hurley, who coordinated the ARP/1014 project for C4K. And there were a lot of obstacles. The Thedford team first set their sights on the town’s closed-down bar, making plans to renovate it with their grant money, but those plans quickly fell through. Building from scratch was not an option with only $135,000 to work with, so they found themselves back at the drawing board.

It was Thomas who thought of asking fellow Thedford C4K Core Team member and USDA NRCS Resource Conservationist JuliAnna Hinton, a U.S. Army active-duty veteran, to talk with her constituents at the American Legion Post 230 and American Legion Auxiliary Ladies to see what they would think about turning the building they shared into a multi-purpose space for the whole community. At the time, both groups used the building as a place to hold monthly meetings, pancake feeds, and funerals, but did not have the funding they needed to make much-needed repairs, and did not utilize the space the rest of the time. It took a little convincing, but once the Legion and the Auxiliary understood what a child care program could do for their town, both votes to pass the motion were unanimous.

With the funding and support secured (and the guns safely re-located to the local sheriff’s office), it was time to find a contractor to get the work done. Thedford is hours away from most major construction companies, so local contractors are few and far between, and stay plenty busy. Hinton’s own husband, Kyle, has a contracting business, and the Thedford C4K Core Team set their sights on him to take the job. “He had a full waiting list,” admits Hinton, “but he was having to take work off, or I was, because there was nobody to stay with our kids. I told him if he did this, he’d be able to work full time again.”

Hinton said they were lucky that her husband’s other clients were gracious as he worked to complete the project, noting that they all seemed to understand how important it was for their community. In just a few months, Kyle Hinton worked hard to completely refresh and update the building with the aid of other local trades, giving it more functionality and reliability. It was designed as a flexible open-concept space so that it could easily adapt between Legion and Auxiliary meetings, child care, and rental space for the entire community. “That was important to us,” said fellow C4K Core Team member and 4-H Extension Assistant Shaniya Albertus, “we wanted to make it clear that the child care wasn’t just taking over this building.”

While the space was under construction, the Thedford C4K Core Team never stopped working on moving the project forward–Thomas’ own mother even agreed to come out of retirement to act as director—and they’re now planning a partnership with the Child Care Aware of America program, which helps cover child care costs specifically for veterans. “The Thedford team is really advocating for those local veterans who served both their country and their community with this project,” said Hurley.

And the connection doesn’t stop there. As part of their efforts to continuously loop their community into what is going on with the child care, the Thedford team created a float in the town’s Independence Day parade this past July, making patriotic signs that showed the special connection between the veterans and the child care, and what the C4K group was trying to do for the town. “They are passing on the importance of supporting and honoring those who supported and honored all of us,” said Melissa Polinoski, C4K Technical Assistant for the Thedford team, “and that partnership between the youngest community members and the oldest community members, that’s where the heart of the story is.”

Sandhills Area Childcare received its license on July 29th, 2024, and was able to open its doors for the first time on August 12th, with a capacity of 24 that eradicated Thedford’s child care gap number and the town’s status as a child care desert in one fell swoop. “We’ve had our obstacles, and there were times when we weren’t sure it was going to happen, but it is so needed,” said Hinton. “And I think we got through to so many people in the community that we have to have this. If we want to keep people in the community, we want to keep our town going, if we want to keep our schools going, we need to have this.”

That’s no exaggeration. Albertus praised her fellow C4K Core Team members for the hard work they put in, noting how high the stakes were for her personally. “If it wasn’t for them, and the work that they’ve done, this wouldn’t be here, and I would have to quit my job to take care of my kids,” she said.

The partnerships and efforts that the Thedford team created to drive their plans forward is what C4K is all about, and the initiative will be telling this story for many years. “It was downtown revitalization, it was connecting with partners, utilizing shared space,” said Polinoski, “and it was engaging community members, young and old.” Now that the Thedford program is open, the team has begun decorating, and the memorabilia and flags are starting to come back up on the walls. “They thought it was important for the kids to see them, and learn about them, and what they mean,” said Polinoski. Indeed, this historic investment in a rural town shows exactly what can happen with a little money, a lot of elbow grease, and a hefty dose of collaboration

Learn more about Communities for Kids at www.communitiesforkids.org

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