Bison Alumni Newsletter
The Bison Alumni Newsletter is a non-profit project produced by volunteer McCook High School alumni. It was started with help and support from the alumni, the McCook School System and the Industrial Development Corporation in 1992. Many McCook businesses support the newsletter financially with the ads they place in the newsletter.
The Bison Alumni Newsletter became an “Affiliated” fund of the McCook Community Foundation Fund in 2005. Becoming a part of MCF was a wonderful move for the newsletter. It has allowed all donor gifts to the newsletter and classes to be tax deductible. The newsletter staff believes we are seeing increased donations because of this benefit to donors. The bookkeeping benefits are excellent and very much appreciated by the staff. Because MCF is affiliated by the Nebraska Community Foundation, their staff sends receipts and 1099's to newsletter donors as needed.
The newsletter is a bi-annual newsletter published in March (Spring) and October (Fall) and sent to past students, graduates, and staff of MHS and other interested people. It has been published twice a year since December of 1992 and the latest issue was mailed to over 7,300 people. The newsletter is also available on their website.
The main goals of the newsletter are to:
- Maintain "current" addresses for classes--making reunion planning much easier.
- Inform alumni as to what is going on in McCook and the area.
- Bring more people home for reunions and encourage support of alumni projects.
- Encourage alumni to move home, bring new businesses to McCook, retire here, and/or help seek resources that could be utilized in our area.
Each newsletter features 'Remember When' articles, news of alumni, the school and community; class reunion information, announcements, lost alumni, gifts given, marriages, deaths, etc. The newsletter is mailed at class request and every class pays their own cost. It is mailed to alumni from the 1920’s through the classes of the 2000’s.
Volunteers gather for about three hours at the McCook Junior High to assemble, fold, tape, label, and bundle the newsletter. The Jr. High Student Council members set up and start the assembly line and many stay for the entire evening, working with alumni of all ages. Eighty to ninety people come to help. It takes two pickups loads to get the newsletters to the post office. A great time is had at the “Folding Party” where alumni members reminisce and visit while putting the newsletter together.
Projects supported by the Alumni:
Trophy cases at the High School
“Prairie Bull”, bronze sculpture at the High Plains Museum on Norris Ave.
McCook High School “Wall of Fame”
Bison 2000 Reunion
Bison 2010 Reunion