Celebrating business!
BROKEN BOW - The Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce held its annual banquet, Saturday, March 27. One of the main focuses of the evening was to celebrate the anniversaries of Chamber member businesses.
The heart and soul of a town and community are the businesses. If you don’t have businesses in the community, shoppers would not come to shop; if you don’t have shoppers, you also don’t have a community. It is an unending cycle where the left always needs the right.
The list of businesses that celebrated special years this year include 140 years: the American Red Cross. 95 years: Broken Bow Floral & Plant Studio, With a total of five different owners, this business has been in business at the same location for 95 years. The community can only continue to grow, when established businesses can be carried on by new owners to give shoppers the goods and services they have come to expect.
75 years: Tumbleweed Café, Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce, Grassland Vet Hospital, P.C., Broken Bow Elks Lodge and Arrow Seed. Arrow Seed is operated by the third and fourth generations of the Girardin family. The company has grown the size of its warehouse and retail store space along with
the number of employees. Another 75 year is BPOE #1688 Broken Bow Elks Lodge. This volunteer organization continues to be present in the community awarding scholarships and holding events for youth and veterans.
70 years: Berean Bible Church, KRVN/KNEB/ KTIC Nebraska Rural Radio Association, and Adams Land & Cattle (ALCC). In the second generation of Adams at the helm, ALCC is a major employer in Custer County, important not only for the employees they need for their operation but also the goods purchased from area farmers and ranchers.
60 years: Broken Bow Ministerial Association, Nebraska One Box Gun Club. 50 years: Mid Nebraska Individual Services and R.R. Simmons DDS.
45 years: Weathercraft Roofing. 35 years: Bow Family Furniture. 30 years: Custer Care Center and Custer County Foundation. 25 years: A2 Siding & Roofing, Borders Law Office and Casey’s General Store.
20 years: Custer Title & Abstract, Hairtique, Mid-Plains Community College, Orscheln Farm & Home, Reliable Earth Construction, Tropical Sno, Trotter’s Whoa & Go Downtown, and Bow Booterie all are 20 year veterans. It is owners like Dick and Jodene Taylor of Bow Booterie who open their doors every day and continue to provide new and exciting inventory to keep shoppers coming back year after year. That along with caring customer service helped them to make it to their 20th year.
15 years: Clang Financial, H & R Block, Seeko Storage & Rentals, Squier Septic Service and Taylor Heating & Cooling celebrated that mile stone.
10 years,: Apple Roofing, LLC, Bellevue University, Nebraskaland Chiropractic, Pearson Physical Therapy, RoofWorx, LLC.
5 years: Broken Bow Legends Neighborhood Grill, Comstock Festival Company Inc., Geared4Sports and Nebraskaland Hearing Center.
Celebrating the 5 year anniversary could be the most important. It is these businesses that had the dream to say “Yes” to start.
They put in the hours and still have many more hours to go, but they are on their way to the next milestone anniversary.
All anniversaries totaled a combined number of 1,635 years focusing on Broken Bow and Custer County.
The following awards were presented:
Citizen of the Year: Colleen Peterson.
Chamber Business of the Year: KCNI/KBBN.
Organization/Non-profit of the Year: Broken Bow Public Library.
Excellence in Customer Service - Individual: Kayla Kusek.
Excellence in Customer Service - Business: Grocery Kart.