YLK CLASS #32 APRIL SESSION

Youth Leadership Kearney Class #32 had a fast-paced day experiencing a wide variety of career opportunities around Kearney. To start the day, we met at the Buckle Headquarters where Tyler Clay talked to us about how the Buckle started. It started as a men’s clothing store in 1948 named Mills Clothing in Kearney, founded by David Hirschfeld and Ivan Mills. Now, the Buckle. operates in forty-two states with 440 stores and there are more opening in the next few weeks. We got a full tour of the building, starting with the women's buying department where they strategically buy clothing from other retailers for inspiration.

Heading back to the conference room, we had a speaker panel set up for us with various business leaders throughout Kearney. Dynae Pofahl from Premier Health & Wellness explained to us what their business started as and how it has grown throughout the years. Joe Bennet, the local owner and franchisee of the Jimmy John's locations in the Tri-Cities, explained how one business can expand and become so much more. An Allo Communication representative, Joshua Young, explained the day-to-day life of one of their workers and how they benefit the community by bringing quick internet around the city. Tim Craig, who started Penny Coffee Roasters in Downtown Kearney, explained the gradual pace he and his family has made to bring their coffee business to where it is today. It comes to show that not everything comes at once, but we need to be patient with ourselves and others. Brenda Jochum then continued our lessons about our strengths. This was our second time meeting with her which helped us to figure out how we can use our strengths in our daily lives. We got paired into groups with our similar career interests and compared how similar our strengths were. It was incredibly cool to see how much they aligned!

After meeting with Brenda at the Buckle, we headed to Cash-WA Distributing Company. Trevor Alkire and Chad Henning gave us a tour of the manufacturing center. It is a top-20 nationwide broadline foodservice distributor, based in the Midwest, that provides food products, supplies, and equipment to restaurants, schools, and healthcare facilities across 11 states. The company operates three distribution centers in Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota with 20,000+ SKUs and stores, offering services like specialty nutritional products, kitchen design, and 24/7 online ordering. It was founded in 1934, focusing on high-volume, efficient food service delivery. We got to explore the -10 degree freezers and practice driving a semi-truck in their simulator. This was a fan favorite!

Our last visit of the day was to the Cottonwood Vet Clinic. Nicole Harvey showed us all of the ins and outs of the retreat and the clinic. There are two separate buildings. The first one was their retreat, where owners can bring their pets for a day or to board them for an extended stay. The workers get to play with the dogs and get them all caught up on all of their medications. At the clinic, they showed us the rooms where they diagnose the animals and do operations as needed. They can operate on almost every kind of pet (including snakes and turtles). Concluding our day around Kearney, we learned about a wide variety of business leaders and their everyday work life. There are so many ways to be involved in the Kearney community and these were just a few!