Prairie Loft

Prairie Loft brings people together through ideas and experiences that they cannot find anywhere else. Farm-based experiential education means muddy hands and a-ha moments. It means chasing butterflies and calling cows, sharing stories and planting seeds.

Community encouragement for the work we do feeds our passion for Prairie Loft’s mission. We are grounded in history and heritage as we teach and inspire future generations in ways that are inclusive, active, and meaningful.

We are proud to work with the Hastings Community Foundation staff, board, and donors who help us plant the seeds for amazing programs for all ages. Since 2008, HCF has provided grants and donor advised gifts for our capital improvements and our growing education program. Encouragement from the Hastings Community Foundation has provided us with the means to expand popular education programs and try new ideas that are building a place to teach and inspire for generations to come.

“We love this place! It’s an amazing resource for kids to interact with agriculture in a hands-on way.”
-Parent of 3 young kids

“You can play in the mud! You can go on walks! I love Prairie Loft!! It is the best place ever.”
-Prairie Loft kid, age 6

Hearts & Hands Against Hunger

Imagine dozens of volunteers from youth groups, churches, clubs and individuals willing to don a shower cap, join an assembly line and spend a few hours packaging soy, rice. vegetables and vitamin/mineral casseroles. Their mission? To assemble highly nutritious, life-saving meals for starving and malnourished children and their families in developing countries and the United States. Since their founding, they have packed more than 3 millions meals!

How did the Hastings Community Foundation help?

The Hastings Community Foundation grant we received made it possible for us to purchase much needed tables and shelving that helped us expand our operation so we could increase the number of meals packaged.  Thanks to the Hastings Community Foundation we are now able to provide meals for even more hungry and starving people.

– Jeanne Hastings, Program Coordinator

Visit To The Museum

The Hastings Museum and the Hastings Community Foundation have worked together since 2002 to provide a quality educational experience for the children of migrant workers in South Central Nebraska.  Through Head Start’s summer school program, students take part in classroom activities and focus on reading and math.  The funding from the Community Foundation makes it possible for these kids to visit the J.M. McDonald Planetarium, experience a film in the Super Screen Theatre, and view all of the museum’s exhibits as part of their 6-week program.

As the numbers of migrant workers began to decrease in recent years, the program evolved to include all summer school students in Adams County, along with the young men at the Hastings Regional Center.  Over the past 15 years we have presented this program to 2,425 migrant children and 1,608 local students for a total of 4,033 kids!

Many have said that their visit to the Hastings Museum was the highlight of their summer!
– Rebecca Matticks, Director, Hastings Museum

Honouring Loved Ones

When Marilynn Sachtleben’s family wanted to do something to honor her, there could not have been a more appropriate choice than installing a colorful bench in Libs Park, situated at the edge of the Splash Pad. The board members and staff of the Hastings Community Foundation wanted to be part of showing Marilynn how much she meant to all of us, too. Marilynn had served as a board member for many years and prior to joining the board, she worked part-time in the Foundation’s office.  Establishing a fund that would incorporate donor memberships was her vision, thus, the Key Society Fund was “born.”   The Foundation set out to find projects and solicited the Key Society members to submit their ideas. Marilynn passed away in 2009, after a long bout with cancer.  Summer afternoons that bench is usually occupied by parents or grandparents watching the kids play in the water. We have Marilynn to thank for that and for so many other things.

“IN MEMORY OF MARILYNN JANE SACHTLEBEN 1938 – 2009”

1ST LT. KEVIN GASPERS SCHOLARSHIP

1st Lt. Kevin Gaspers

The Hastings Community Foundation is honored when a family asks us to help remember a loved one by establishing a special fund in their memory. This was especially the case when John and Pam Gaspers wanted to establish a scholarship in their son Kevin’s name.

1st Lt. Gaspers was killed in the line of duty in Iraq in 2007. He had just turned 26. Kevin grew up in Hastings, graduating from St. Cecilia High School in 2000, and UNL in 2005 (ROTC). He was awarded numerous service medals including the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

The 1st Lt. Kevin Gaspers Scholarship is awarded annually to three students, one each from Hastings High School, St. Cecilia High School, and Adams Central High School. It is one of 14 scholarships currently administered by the HCF.

When Kevin died, we received memorial money from the community of Hastings and other communities.  We did not feel this money was for our own use and therefore created the 1st. Lt. Kevin Gaspers Memorial Scholarship Fund.  Mike Walenz, Foundation President at the time, told us about the Hastings Community Foundation and how they handled scholarships, etc.  John and I knew that they could help us with creating this scholarship and direct it towards the purpose that we intended.  We have been very happy with the Foundation and how well they have handled Kevin’s memory.

Pam and John Gaspers

 “IN LOVING MEMORY OF KEVIN”