Roger Welsch &…; 401; Natalie Peetz

This program is funded in part by viewers like you, who are members of Nebraska's for public television. Joining Roger this evening is Natalie Peats of the Nebraska Land Foundation. Good evening and welcome. I once received this Dandy Award from the Nebraska Land Foundation. It hangs on my front room wall to this day. But somehow, in my excitement, I forgot something. I forgot to ask what the Nebraska Land Foundation is, what it does, who it is, where it's headed. I'm going to correct that mistake this evening because my guest is Natalie Peats, president elect of the Nebraska Land Foundation. Natalie, greetings. Thank you very much for coming by. It's my pleasure. What is the Nebraska Land Foundation? The Nebraska Land Foundation actually started back in 1962 under former Governor Frank Morrison.

And we have one mission. It's quite simple and it's to make Nebraska's good life even better. We're a foundation that is made up of 24 hardworking volunteers. We have one thing in common. We all of the state in Nebraska. Governor Mike Johans is our chairman and our current president is Lloyd Casner from Columbus, Nebraska. We have several events that we sponsor throughout the year, two in particular. I would like to highlight today. One is the annual statehood day dinner, which you just showed the plaque you received, I believe, in 1990. I was just a kid. You were just a kid. Absolutely. And what we do is we honor outstanding Nebraska's at that annual dinner. It's held in the Capitol Rotunda beautiful building to have this dinner. And this year, in February 26, the 2000, we will be honoring again for Nebraska's for the contributions they make to the state. Our top award is the Distinguished Nebraska Land Award. And this year's honoree are the Durham family. Chuck and

the late March Durham will be honored for that award. They're from Omaha. The contributions they have made both in personal time and financial contributions are just enormous. Our next award will go to former Governor Kay Orr. She'll receive the Wagon Master Award. The governor was the first elected woman governor in the state in Nebraska and the first ever elected Republican woman in the nation. Between that and the things she did as governor, we will be honoring her. Our third award will go to Ken Wirtman from Aurora, Nebraska. Most people know Ken. He is probably the most outstanding volunteer the state has had in terms of what he gives back to the community and what he's done for economic development as an ambassador to the state. And our final award is going to go to former First Lady Diane Nelson, who if anyone knew Diane before she became the First Lady, she was a great volunteer. And of course, one of the best achievements that the actual foundation participated in is the renovation of the

governor's mansion. And she just did a fabulous job with that effort. So we were going to honor her for that as well. It's always amazing to me that these names do just keep popping up. And it's not in the case of Kay Orr, for example. She and I differ almost completely in our political stances, but I love Kay Orr. And she's a dear friend of mine. Politics has nothing to do with it. We have one thing in common and that's Nebraska. We have a lot of things in common, but one of them is Nebraska. And we love Nebraska. And I know that while her political contributions were important, as you say is the first woman governor and all of that kind of thing in Nebraska, there are a lot of other things that she does. And these other people do too, whose names simply don't keep popping up. They're quiet about it. They don't get a lot of attention. But the time and energy and resources that they pour into Nebraska really makes them, I think, extraordinary Nebraska's. So often,

Nebraska's think they're being big Nebraska supporters. If they go to a football game, that is nothing to do with it. It really is this dedication that makes the point. We can agree more. And I had the honor of cheering the nomination committee this year. And when you look at the names that come forward, it's a very hard decision. Nebraska is just, I believe, very unique in the amount of time that people give back to the state. And that's really what the foundation is about. It's highlighting those people so that we can not only honor those great Nebraska's, but also teach our young people how important it is to do that public service to the state. And that's really the other role that I think the foundation plays. It is so important. Not only do we honor those Nebraska's, but we also concentrate on the youth. We work with the Secretary of State on the annual statehood birthday party held at the Capitol. A fourth graders from all over the state came to the Capitol last year and will again this year. It's gotten so large

that we actually now help sponsor another event held in Omaha at the Durham Western Heritage Museum. We're going to do two events there. The Capitol event and this year for the first time we will do one out in Western Nebraska, depending on the governor's schedule. It's a great time to, the kids come in, they compete in essay contests about Nebraska. We sponsor those essays and then we give out awards at the birthday party and at the state fair. And we let them know. It's important to know about Nebraska and what we're all about. I'm going to talk to you later about working perhaps taking away Nebraska citizenship from some people. But I don't think paying enough attention to what Nebraska really is. And one of those things is not being in the state Capitol. I'm amazed at how many people they're only exposure to the state. Yeah, it's been the fourth graders going in there. And I always think you ought to be able to go in. You can't have a Nebraska citizenship unless you're in there every least once every 20 years for pizza. You got to go visit the Capitol. I would agree. I wonder if the people on the foundation really understand how important

this kind of record is. The recognition is it's very easy for those of us who who live in the state to take all the rest of these people for granted. I mean, they're here and barrel friends gay or and you know, all the names you mentioned. They're friends of mine because Nebraska is a small state. One of the first experiences I had that taught me what Nebraska really is about and that we're such a small community. I was driving down Lincoln headed toward home and there was Frank Morrison walking across the street, J walking with his suspenders on and picking his teeth. He'd just eaten somewhere and I had an issue I wanted to talk to him about. So I stopped and I talked with him about it and he took some time to talk with me and then I got back in my car and I thought, you know, that's what Nebraska is really about. You know, you can stop the governor as he's sashing across the street and talk with him. But in situations like that, sometimes we forget to thank the people who are really involved. I was surprised by this award because I'm not sure I really deserved it, but I'm grateful for it.

I like to think that I do some things for Nebraska and I work hard at it and it really is neat, you know, when a group like yours does something like this. It's more than a passing gesture and I hope that the foundation understands that these awards really do mean a lot. In many cases, not in my case, because I work for postcards from Nebraska with CBS and something like this. I get paid, but a lot of people, their dedication and their contribution is strictly from the heart. I couldn't agree more and I appreciate having the opportunity to talk more about what the foundation is all about today to really get the word out. And help people understand what we really do do and the many people and families, the able family, the athlete family, we've honored the Scots in Omaha. Just all across the state, there are just so many hard

working people that really represent us well. And we will continue that work. We've been around for over 35 years now. In fact, Maxine Morrison still serves on our board. Frank pops in now and then to see what we're doing and make sure we're still in the right mode. And it's just a fabulous opportunity to promote Nebraska and we're always open to new ideas and expanding what it is we do. But I think primarily honoring folks and getting to our youth is the most important thing. If anything, I think you're going to have to add a bunch more awards because you got so many great people. It's got to be tough to choose. It really is. And we have actually talked about that and we have expanded a little bit. Not actually the banquet because you know, Nebraska's a little grumbly when you keep them too long. So we try to limit that to four honorees. But we also are doing some things outside the banquet area. We just started a new award this year, Rising Star Award. Actually our president, Lloyd Casner, came up with that. And we will look at individuals and organizations that are

promoting tourism in the state. We've got a Colonel Barney Oldfield Award, Communication Award that was announced for the first time to the Nebraska Land magazine this year at the governor's travel conference. So guys, we're just in here from the Nebraska Land magazine. They were breaking about this. They were very excited about it. But it's just another way to get the word out about all the great things that are happening in the state. And we're thrilled to do it. How did you wind up? This isn't really your job. No, it's not. Although it's a wonderful other past time that I do. I think probably the way I wound up, I'm not actually sure how I wound up on the Nebraska Land board, but it's probably through my previous experience of working for a former governor. And I have the pleasure of working in our beautiful capital building, anywhere is from three to four months out of the year lobbying. And so I'm a part of that beautiful atmosphere. And part of the process in the state and people who know me know that I love Nebraska. I'm very committed to what the state's about. And that's the kind of members that the foundation looks for when we have openings

on the board. What is your job? I am vice president of government affairs for the greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce that in quotes is lobbying. And I have a wonderful job. I get opportunities to work on fun projects, the latest is convention center arena to promote Nebraska. And it fits well with what I do. Yeah, I was going to say then really it's two sides of the same two sleeves from the same jacket, really because you're working on one hand for Omaha and the other hand for Nebraska. It's a lot of fun. My roots are back in Knox County, Nebraska, a farm girl grew up on the farm. And I've gotten to see all sides of Nebraska both from the rural and egg side, as well as what's going on in our major city and working in the capital city. So it's a lot of fun. Tourism. It wasn't the Nebraska land foundation, sort of the basis out of which the development of economic development and travel in tourism. Absolutely. And in 62, we really were the floor runner, the Nebraska land foundation, to the creation of the

Department of Economic Development and the Department of Tourism. It was all part of Governor Morrison's idea to really promote Nebraska. And so we spun that off. There's been other things like the North Platte event that have started as part of the foundation's work years ago. So that is, is that still part of your activity? Yes, sir. We have spun it off. I think the greatest compliment you can have as a foundation is to create wonderful ideas and opportunities and find another entity to carry them on. Oh, you bet. So that one is, and obviously they've done a great job, and it's been a wonderful event for North Platte and for the state. That's essentially what you do with your awards, too, is you're supporting the work of other people without having to do the work yourself, which is not to say that you wouldn't do the work if you had to, but it's a way of encouraging others to do the same kind of thing. But since those days, I can remember when I was a kid, the idea of tourists coming to Nebraska would have been considered an enormous joke, but tourism

has become a major industry in this state. Absolutely. It's our third major industry in this state and growing, and I believe it will only continue to grow with what Nebraska is all about and the wonderful things we have to tell people about here. And we need to do two things. We need to continue to convince our youth to stay here. It's critical for Nebraska's future growth, but we also are recruiting many new families to Nebraska, and that's exciting, and they're excited about it, and we have wonderful things to tell them about. I think the hardest people to convince, and this is I've known since I first started spending time looking at Nebraska myself, which I guess began by the time I was in my mid -20s, is to convince Nebraska's of what they have. Outside audiences are easy. I even see this on national television that I get letters from, not simply all over this country, but all over the world, because Sunday morning goes out on armed forces broadcasting all over the world, so I get letters from Mogadishu and from ships, let's say. It's easy to convince somebody from another part of this country about

what it is we have. They see the sky, and they're wondering what kind of lens filters we're using to get that blue, or to get that sunset. They see the towns where I walk away from my pickup truck without walking the door, and they wonder, you know, how can that be? It's hardest to convince Nebraska's that we don't have to become anything to attract tourists, to attract visitors, to attract admirers. We don't have to make anything goofy to invite people here, but what we have is amazingly attractive to other people in the world. And that's exactly why you were given the Trailblazer Award in 1990. You are a fabulous ambassador for the state, and what you said is exactly true, and I want to recruit you for a labor availability task first. Well, I've got a funeral ed yet. People are coming here for

ever new reasons. It's one of the things I love. They come here, I think, more and more, because of a new awareness of historical sites, the Oregon Trail. I think we're going to have an enormous boom coming up here in four years with Lewis and Clark. A lot of people are going to be interested in what Lewis and Clark saw, where they went. Carolt, his next project, before he died, was going to be a book on the Lewis and Clark Trail and what it looks like now. And I think a lot of people are going to be following that in the year 2004. So we're going to have a whole new set of people coming here to explore Nebraska's very rich past. But there are new things coming up all the time, too, that are surprises. I grew up in Nebraska. My courtship for four years was between Lincoln and North Black. I drove that all the time, so I knew Highway 30 at that time. There was no interstate very well. I used to go out to Wyoming every year to visit Ken in Eastern Wyoming.

Never saw the cranes. Never knew there were cranes. I was a grown man with children standing in a parking lot in Cozad. And someone said, the cranes have been flying. I said, I've always wondered about the cranes. What do they look like? And they said, listen. You hear the brewing of them. Since then, I can't think of anything else when they're flying. But the cranes and the geese and the wonderful flyaway filled with birds. And this has become a major drawing card for Nebraska. Even in a town like Danobrog where we're 30 miles from the plant. We're 50 miles from the major viewing areas around Carney. But people are coming there to stay because the hotels are packed. They're coming there to eat because you can see the prairie chickens when they're going on their way to see the cranes. So while bird watchers have always been kind of a joke like the idea of tourism was kind of a joke for a long time. The fact of the matter is no matter what you do in Nebraska, I've always said no matter what you do in Nebraska,

you're in agriculture. But the fact of the matter is no matter what you do in Nebraska, you're connected even with the birds in the bird watchers and that arm of tourism. I agree. And we will only continue to see it grow. You know, I use the example I told neighbors up in Knox County this week and I took my four -year -old son back to the farm. And I said, you guys have something that's better than Disneyland here. He wrote on the combine, he wrote on the tractor, he got to pet the ducks. You know, it's wonderful. And truly, we see even from the Omaha Vantage world that I work in, we see young families moving here for that very reason. The history, the hard working ethic, just the wonderful family values that we have in the state that bring people here. We do need to do more to convince people that are here of all the great things we have in the state. And I feel fortunate I've had a taste of some of those, but there's wonderful things to do. And I still think your biggest task is going to be Nebraska. The most

frequent complaint I get about my work pieces on Sunday morning with CBS are from people in Omaha. So you're going to have to work in Omaha. Who say that by wearing overalls, I make Nebraska look rural. To which my standard response is, duh, you know, get out there and take a leg. We are rural. And there's nothing at all to be embarrassed about it. That's right. Well, and from Omaha's perspective, and I actually live in Lincoln, working Omaha, but we all have rural backgrounds. Most of us that work in Omaha either came from the farmer, have families who farm. So we're definitely working together toward the benefit of the whole state. And that's not to take anything away from Omaha. I would say I'm terrified with that. It suggests some kind of anticipation. I'm always surprised when after dealing with the parking problems in Danabrog, which is zero. You know, my friend Eric says that the rush hour in Danabrogs when the Lutheran church lets out on Sunday morning. And inevitably without thinking, I leave Danabrog and drive into Omaha. So I'll get there if I'm going to be for the evening. I'll try to rival between five and six.

And I, oh my God, I come over there. You're all these smoking cars piled up. And I think, oh my gosh, so I'm scared about driving in Omaha, parking in Omaha and all of those problems. But the fact of the matter is, there are resources in Omaha, which make it a crucial part of the state, even for those of us who live in towns like Danabrog. I love the symphony. I love Omaha Opera. Omaha, I've worked with them a good deal with health frances, the director there, the museums, the wonderful places to eat. So Omaha is another face of Nebraska. But it's one that the people outside of Omaha need to understand, just the people within Omaha need to understand the rest of the state. So I hope that that's one of the directions of the Nebraska and Foundation, too, is to remind everybody in the state that we really are just different facets of the same diamond. Absolutely. And, of course, our membership on the board reflects members from as far west as

Sydney to East to Omaha. And so we really bring together among the 24 of us differing views. But, again, toward the same goal of promoting Nebraska as a whole. And I think we do that with our honorees. Where does your funding come from? We do not do a lot of fundraising. We actually do make some money off of our annual banquet when we honor Nebraska's. But our main mission is not, has not been in fundraising. We have some wonderful folks that, like Colonel Barney Oldfield, who actually do provide money to the Foundation. But we are full -time volunteers and we do not have a full -time paid executive director. So it's truly the spirit of what Nebraska is about. And we promote, the governor is very helpful. He's our best volunteer out there to promote the state. And that's been your history, hasn't it? It's not just this governor. This is the way it's been for a long time. One of the other aspects that we're working on this year, and I brought you a copy, is if you

ask 90 % of Nebraska's what the state song is, they would probably tell you the Cornhusker fight song. And that's not true. It's actually the song of beautiful Nebraska. And again, we're trying to remind people of the history of the state. And I brought you a copy of the music that we are going to be distributing through the Nebraska Music Educators Association. It'll be in all school libraries. And copies can be obtained through the Secretary of State's office. And we hope to have more kids singing this little jingle and make people aware of it. I was first made aware of the state song by Governor Thone, who handed me a cassette tape when I was a kid. So we started talking about it. And we said, you know, nobody knows who wrote the song Jim Fries, who we were actually going to also recognize at our banquet, wrote the song. He was a Russian immigrant back in, I believe, 1960. And he wrote it and it took until about 1967 before the legislature actually gave in and said that it would be the state song.

So I'll have to knit. I'm not a real big booster of the Nebraska State song. I think, Natalie, what you need to do for a super -annuated hippies like me is to have ZZ talk put out. Knowing of hippies like yourself, we actually are working on. There are several different renditions of this song. So you will probably see more on that as well. It's proud to be still as nice and young. I don't know. I don't know if we'll go that far. But a former Anna Reach, if Davis, has offered to do a little work on this song. So we're going to see what happens. We're going to be excited about it. The Beach Boys are our friends of mine and one of them is. And I got to sing good vibrations with them. Maybe we could work on a beach. We can try it. And now we can get down to my really serious proposal about restricting citizenship in Nebraska, which is what I would really like to see. For years, one of the things that happened to the

DED that I think was a major blessing for it. And that was Peg Briggs, who I absolutely adore. Wonderful. And when she took over at the DED, I went and I talked because I had had a war going on with a DED for a long time, that they had these slick ads in magazines that said, thick pinewood forests, crystal clear streams, white sand beaches. And then the line that I thought was hilarious was Discover the Difference in Nebraska. Yes, we've got white sand beaches. I don't have a half mile of Riverfrontage on the Loop River. And it's beautiful, white sand, clear river. It's almost drinkable there. There are forests in Nebraska. But that's not what Nebraska is about. I said, you know, really Nebraska is almost the bad things in some way. You know, that's what we celebrate. We love it when the farmers can get together and say, you know, wet enough for you, dry enough for you, hot enough for you. And I said, we should issue warnings

when people come into the state on the interstate saying, frankly, we don't think you're going to make it. So we want you to sign this waiver that, you know, that you're perfect. You're going into Nebraska on your own. We are not responsible. Then when they go out, they get a certificate of accomplishment. You know, they crossed the Great American Desert. And pigs sort of went along with that. And a lot of the things that we did in the tape, for example, crossing the state we had that. And I would like to see some requirements before Nebraska's citizenship because I think it's just far too easy to claim that you're a citizen in Nebraska. I think you ought to play one hole at the Mullen sand hills golf course. I am not a golfer, but I think you ought to be required at least to see that magnificent facility and see what somebody has done out there. It is magnificent. I think that you ought to be required to drive highway two through the sand hills. You should, maybe you get special merit if you've seen a tornado, but you should at least live through one blizzard. People who run off

to Arizona for the winter or who go north for the summer should not, I think, be allowed to have their citizenship. So you think you can do that for me now? Well, we will take that under advisement. And I may ask you to come to the board and make this presentation. We're always looking for new things. And this would be fun. I think you should be required to talk with one farmer about the weather. You should hear one tall tail at some point. You know, none of the easy stuff, none of the normal tourist stops. You ought to at least dip your toes once in the plat river, which is another project of mine that maybe you folks can take up. The original name of the plat, meaning the same thing, of course, was the Nebraska River. So I think when it crosses the boundary from Wyoming and Colorado into Nebraska, the name should change to the Nebraska River. You need to talk to the governor about that one. I'd be glad to do that. Have you got some new directions you're headed in? Really, one of the things I feel strongly about is President -elect. Is that we really need to concentrate on a few things and be very good at them. So I don't see

any major new directions other than the awards that we continue to come up with that actually help us make the good life better and highlight the state. But I think continuing to look at all the people that do make great contributions is the most important thing that we do at our annual banquet. What can Nebraska's do to support your work? Well, hopefully they'll participate in our banquet. We have, it's an invitation event, but surely if someone is interested, we get a lot of new faces every year depending on who we honor. But clearly, we'd love to have them be a part of that. If they've never attended a dinner in the Capitol, it's a rare event. And it's just a once in a lifetime opportunity. So I would encourage them to do that and they can find out more about the foundation by writing. We have a P .O. Box 944, 964 in Lincoln, Nebraska 6809. They can write. They can contact the Secretary of State's office to learn more about what we do. We have a brochure we publish about interesting facts about Nebraska that we put out and we make it available at all the tourism

spots in the state. We love to have nominations. Well, terrific, Natalie. Thank you very much. I appreciate you being here this evening. Thank you. It's from the Nebraska Land Foundation. And I thank her for being here. And I thank you for being here, too. I hope you'll join me here again next week. And I introduce you to another remarkable person from this fascinating place called Nebraska. Thank you.

Thank you.