Kimball steps up to Stuff the Bus

Many times throughout each year the Kimball community is called on to give to a worthy cause. Whether it be Shop with a Cop or Pay it Forward, residents reach down into their hearts and give selflessly to help those of the community who are less fortunate. And the community certainly did not fail to, once again, show support for their fellow residents by donating supplies to the Stuff the Bus campaign at Wolf Auto.

The program, which was given a boost from Wolf Auto this year by setting up a bus for donations at each of their Nebraska locations, is geared towards helping kids who may not have the funding to arrive on the first day of school with the necessary supplies by taking in donations ranging from pencils and notebooks to crayons and glue bottles which are then given to the local school districts.

JaCee Pilkington, who has served this past year as Miss Nebraska and works in business development for Wolf Auto, states that the Kimball community set itself apart in the sheer volume of support that it has shown the program, placing it among one of the top locations for the program.

"I think we had one of the best responses from Kimball out of all of our locations. We were really happy with it," Pilkington said.

Though Kimball is seen as a small community within the Nebraska Panhandle, the effort of its residents and pouring out of donations was enough to even pull ahead of cities twice its size such as Sidney where the program failed to catch on as quickly in its first year with Wolf's involvement, leading Wolf representatives to use monetary donations to buy supplies for Sidney Public Schools.

"I think that it has to do with probably being one of the first years. We're just hoping that more and more people come out and more people support it [each year]," Pilkington said.

Along with monetary donations and donated school supplies, Wolf Auto also donated $10 to the cause for each test drive taken at their facilities participating in the program.

"That's the reason we donated the $60 in Sidney, because we had six test drives that came in for that. The monetary donations that we had [in Kimball] we spent on school supplies so we had about $90 that we spent here. Those were pure monetary donations that came in plus all the school supplies that people donated," Pilkington said.

Although some might see $90 as a small sum at first glance, Pilkington points out that, when it comes to school supplies, it goes a long way to help get necessary materials for local children.

"You can buy a lot at Walmart for $90. That's all I've got to say. When you've got crayons at 25 cents apiece, that means you can buy a lot of crayons and folders and notebooks and everything. We've got a whole big tub and then we've got at least four or six school bus seats full of supplies," Pilkington said.

According to Pilkington, Wolf's involvement stems from a reworking of the business across the board, creating a focus on being involved and finding ways to help out the communities in which they are located.

"Wolf has kind of done a whole rebranding starting about the beginning of this year that's called 'Small Town Strong'. It's a continual effort for our local areas that we're in to give back to them and to support those areas that we have locations in. Our store has been [in Kimball] 19 years. For us to be able to give back to the community that supported us for 19 years, I think that we had a really good turnout and we were really, really happy with it. Hopefully, we'll be able to continue it for years to come," Pilkington said.

For Pilkington, the program was also a way to continue to serve and help out local communities and support certain initiatives in a similar capacity as she did in her term as Miss Nebraska.

"Over the course of that year, I learned a lot about different avenues to involve the community and ways you can give back and the ways that people really respond to businesses giving back," Pilkington said. "The year as Miss Nebraska teaches you a lot just about who you are and what you enjoy and what you don't enjoy and I think that through that I learned a lot about myself. Really, I think social marketing, giving and foundations is in my blood now. It's kind of hard after a year of doing it to give any of that up," Pilkington said.

Kimball Public Schools Superintendent Marshall Lewis also shared in Pilkington's and Wolf Auto's excitement of the success of the Stuff the Bus program in Kimball, stating that it's an honor to be part of such a giving community.

"I'm really excited. I was really happy when my Director of Transportation, Greg Fossand, gave me a call and said, 'Hey, is this something we're able to do?' And really without much thinking about it we decided to put our bus out there. [We] put our Longhorn bus out here in front of everybody. And I love the partnership we've got going with the community and Wolf Auto. That kind of thing is a community builder," Lewis said. "It gets you excited about the community. People really stepped up and they saw the need and responded. It's really exciting to be a part of that community that's stepping up and stuffing the bus."