I’m a sucker for a small-town success story. I’m also reading anything written by Cindy Lange-Kubick. And when it’s a small-town success story written by CLK that also involves delicious looking pastries? Inject it right into my veins, please.
That’s the sweet, sweet situation we’re dealing with on this Thanksgiving week. It’s the story of Lindsey Oelling, a mental health therapist who had what seems like a fairly unlikely dream…she wanted to open an old-timey pastry shop in her free time, and she wanted to do it in a town of 500 people.
Now Paper Moon Pastries is reality, so much so that the line sometimes stretches around the block. It comes with an incredible backstory tinged with both heartbreak and hope. And oh my good Lord the kolache photos from our talented freelance photographer Eric Gregory…they widen this guy’s eyes, and quicken his pulse.
Things FFP is thankful for: I used to have a lot of fun doing an annual “Things I’m thankful for” column at The World-Herald, and I mean…why not an FFP version right here, right?
So, this year at FFP, we’re thankful for the teachers who introduced to us this wondrous thing we call journalism, the professors who molded us, the reporters and editors who showed us the ropes, the giants of this business we have learned something from.
There’s always a lot of talk about the various ways in which this line of work stinks. And in many ways it does! There’s not enough talk about the ways in which it is the best job in the entire world. For those reasons, we are thankful.
We’re thankful for the future. FFP is poised for more growth very soon. We’re working to plug the hole left by two decades that saw half of all journalism jobs disappear in Nebraska. And, increasingly and in our own special ways, we are building something new — and it’s gonna get better in 2023.
We are so, so thankful to the donors making this new reality possible. It couldn’t happen without you.
We’re going for 250 new donors during our year-end fundraising drive. It’s a wildly audacious goal.
And yet, it’s only Nov. 23, and as of this morning we have 145 new donors just this month. Dozens more of you who donated in 2021 have re-upped for 2022. Thank you to each and every one of you.
If you haven’t given yet, and want to, here’s where you can.
We’re thankful for our amazing reporting staff — Yanqi, Natalia and Sara. They are three of the most bada$$ reporters you could ever hope to assemble in a tiny office. We’re thankful for a motley band of freelance writers and photographers who have brought you wondrous journalism almost every week since our inception.
We’re thankful for our designer Hanscom Park Studio, and our development consultant (aka the adult in the room) Mr. Shane Pekny of VGA, and to every Nebraska newspaper, radio station and TV station across this state that publishes our stories every week.
Mostly, we’re thankful to you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading. Thank you for giving Flatwater Free Press your valuable time and attention. It means so very much to us.
And before I forget: Thanks to our sponsor! This week it’s Ho-Chunk, Inc., the economic development arm of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and, quite frankly, an incredible story in its own right. We are committed to telling Native stories like this and this and this and this, and Ho-Chunk is committed to FFP. Thank you for that.
That’s it from me this week. May your turkeys be moist, your pies delicious and your midnight leftovers plentiful.
Sincerely,
—Matthew Hansen, Executive Editor
Here’s what we’re into this week: News from around Nebraska
Every week we like to share great Nebraska journalism, no matter who made it. Here’s what caught our eye this week:
- Reporters keep asking, and Gov. Pete Ricketts keeps not answering. (And probably answering by not answering.) Is he the next U.S. senator from Nebraska? Here’s Nebraska Examiner’s Paul Hammel on the case.
- Douglas County and donors spent a serious chunk of change — $27 mil or so — on a new juvenile detention center in Omaha. Now, The World-Herald’s Chris Burbach writes…there’s legitimate fear that it will be too small when it opens.
- The Reader’s Bridget Fogarty had a super interesting story this week on how a group of Mayan Nebraskans is bringing that culture’s farming practices to modern-day rural Nebraska. Here it is, in El Perico.
- And finally, the Journal Star’s vaunted storyteller Peter Salter wrote a story about a goat on the loose. It’s a perfect way to slide into a long holiday weekend.
