Mogens Bay with Heartland of America Park in the background and Omaha skyline
A special thank you to Mogens Bay for the interview. Pubic Private Partnerships have been a great interest area of mine for some time. It was wonderful to hear his speech earlier and to do the interview.
Please tell me more about the public private partnership.
Well, often, when you need to get stuff done, people have to get together. As you know, the city owned all this land. We didn’t have to acquire any lands. We knew there was a fantastic philanthropic community in Omaha. So public is the city, private is philanthropy and when we get together, good things happen.
You said that it was very special to work with Omaha in this capacity and enumerated some of that in your speech. Can you tell us a little more please?
We worked with the mayor’s office. We worked with the City Council and we worked with MECA, which became our partner from the very beginning. They were going to manage the Park and they were very much involved in getting the Park built and overseeing that. Then, of course, we had lots of contractors and subcontractors. I would say that the City is the public part of the partnership and philanthropy, whether it is foundations or companies or individuals, is the private part.
Coming here to Omaha…what helped you along the journey to work on this project?
Bob Daugherty, who was the founder of Valmont, he’s the one that brought me to Omaha. He was my mentor when it came to getting involved in community stuff – nonprofits – making sure that we make a difference.
He established a very significant foundation on his death and that foundation was investing about $40 million dollars in our community. So, people that have benefited from living here are committed to giving back – Daugherty is a good example of that. That’s how we learn. We learn from Peter Kiewit. We learn from Walter Scott and there are more examples.
This is not just something that happens now, but it happens so that we have more money available now because these foundations are becoming very, very big. The spirit [of] getting together to make things happen in Omaha, no, it’s not new.
What do you recommend for people or companies that want to become more involved?
Get their employees involved with nonprofits with anything that they have a passion for. Don’t just go out and place a board member. No. Some may have a have a passion for economic development. Some have a passion for social services. It doesn’t matter. Just commit some of your time. As a matter of fact, when I look at the current situation and the future of Omaha, our problem is not going to be money. It’s going to be leadership. People stepping up to do things.
It’s another home run for the College World Series with tasty offerings by Chef Alec Woockman of Levy Foods!
Chef Alec Woockman with his CWS Food Creations
Here’s the College World Series Food Tasting 2023 at Charles Schwab Field Omaha line up:
The Home Plate-Meatball Slider
The Home Plate-Meatball Slider was a favorite of many in the room. It comes with four sliders, with fried ravioli, marinara, mozzarella, pesto, garlic fries with a generous dusting of Parmesan cheese. Each slider has one ridiculously large fluffy meatball, somehow momentarily contained by a bun. If you are not careful, you will … drop the…ball.
Bada Bing Burger
The Bada Bing Burger has the burger, of course it’s from Omaha Steaks, and is topped with fried mozzarella sticks, lettuce, pesto aioli, banana peppers and marinara sauce on a brioche bun. Bada Bing Bada Boom Bada Yum.
Out of the Pork Fries
Just as the pun in the name says, these Out of the Pork Fries were out-of-the-park good. This was one of my favorites. Fries with queso blanco, cowboy-candied jalapenos, amazing smoked barbecue pork with a perfect condiment complement of sweet barbecue sauce.
Grilled Reuben Sausages
The Grilled Reuben Sausages were another of my favorite samples to try. A tasty sausage from local store, Stoysich, a Swiss cheese melted into thousand island dressing for the Reuben and some sauerkraut that doesn’t over power the sausage in a marbled bun makes this one another hit.
The Home Plate- BBQ Platter
The Home Plate- BBQ Platter has a “triple” meaty offering including rib tips packed with flavor beyond its size, smoked chicken and sliced brisket with a special barbecue sauce. Accompanying them are sweet cornbread, baked beans, coleslaw and tater tots.
Midwest Taco Salad
The Midwest Taco Salad has the usual favorites with meat, black beans, pepper and finally shredded cheese. The twist, maybe just for me, was the colorful-crispy ribbons of tortillas on top of the salad.
Chicken Tepanyaki Noodle Salad
The Chicken Tepanyaki Noodle Salad was a surprise dish with its succulent chicken, snow peas, julienne carrots and noodles dusted with a liberal amount of sesame seeds.
Next up something special from a shop in Bellevue,Nebraska. It was Chef Alec’s favorite and also mine.
Scorcher Sticks are fried mozarrella sticks with a kick. The kick comes from Nebraska’s own Volcanic Peppers store in Bellevue. While, I did not find them hot, many people will. I did find then super tasty and will be sure to grab some at the game.
When you get to the game, let us know which were your favorites and why!
OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Amy Hornocker at the College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
Thank you to Amy for the interview for this Omaha event.
Amy Hornocker, CWS Inc, Executive Director
Please tell me how you came to be here.
I grew up over in Des Moines. I went to school at Iowa State in Ames. I played sports in high school. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had an advisor that was kind of like we have a sports management program. So I worked in the football office there, and then, I actually came over here in 2005 and did my internship under Katherine and Carol here and then, stayed in touch when I graduated. And then, Katherine’s husband, Dan, started the Omaha Sports Commission. So, I came over and worked for him and was with the Sports Commission for 10 years. Had the chance to do three Swim Trials and about 30 other really cool sporting events, so and then, in 2017, they had a staff vacancy here, and they called me and I was just like at a point where I was ready to try basically what we always say “coming back home.” I came you back here and did the Marketing Committee outreach and then, had the opportunity to interview for this, the executive director position when Kathryn announced she was retiring.
What are some of your favorite things about the College World Series and about Omaha?
Okay, so basically, Omaha feels like home to me now, even though it was you know, it’s not where I’m from. It’s so similar, but everybody’s just .. the amount of support that we get for this event and the amount of people that come out and it’s kind of like what it means to the city and what the city aims to. It’s like it’s so cool to see and so some of my favorite parts about what I get to do here is like less about baseball and more about our what we do in the community with our grant program. We’ve given over $5 million to local baseball and softball fields and projects in the Greater Omaha community.
And then we have this Readers Become Leaders initiative with the NCAA that we work with Omaha Public Schools for third grade reading, once you can’t read a third grade, by the time you’re in fourth grade, you’re behind.
Is that a pivotal age group then?
Yeah, so that’s what the studies show is that if they are lacking by fourth grade, then they never catch up again. And so we do kick offs in the schools. We contribute a bunch of books to each kid and then incentives to read … and then they submit book reports. We had one girl I think she I think I’d have to the look 55 reports she did. She’s the winner. She’s the winner. So 15 of them with their parents will come to the one of the games. We have like five teachers that are from the winning classrooms. So that one’s fun. It’s so fun to go to the kickoffs and see them get excited about like their books and reading and it’s just a little way we can help there.
That’s something with a really great ripple effect.
Yeah, because you know, this one, we want to leave a legacy here. It’s great because the community pours their heart into it.
We put a donation program together this year for the first time with tickets that we’re we’re kind of testing this year. So when you go in to your mobile ticket account, you can transfer, sell, or donate. Like, if you can’t use your tickets or if you just want to donate, and we’re working with three organizations this year to see how it goes.
Vet Tix [https://www.vettix.org], which is a nationwide organization, so you can sign up. I think it’s first responders and military members and then you can sign up for access to these tickets. Then they go into the communities these events and find these people and it’s really turnkey. So we don’t really have to do much with that. And then we’re working with Boys Town and Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands. So because I feel like everybody from every corner of the city should get to enjoy it. So we’re going to try and build on that donation as we move forward. So that is really cool.
I think we already have seen some come through for Vet Tix and with Boys Town. It’s hard to find groups that can take a large quantity that like the last minute and be able to provide transportation, that kind of stuff. Those are some things we’ve got to kind of figure out but those are like some of my favorite things about the events and event and then obviously this time here when I look at the teams here.
We have our intern starting there’s some of my favorites because they change the dynamic of the office and we will have eight more getting here Monday. That will just work the two weeks and they come from all over the country. And so they apply and go through interviews and they they all become friends kind of it’s kind of fun to see them and help navigate this career path.
Did you ever think you’d be executive director..
No. [laughter] No, I’ve always been a behind the scenes person, like operations, and so I never thought that I would be here back here. Because I, you know, my first series, it was 1998 when I came with my high school baseball team. I was a manager.
I did not know that.
I was the manager of my high school team. In Iowa, we play summer baseball. So we were playing in a tournament in Sioux City. We came down here, well to Rosenblatt and did that the GA [General Admission] sat in the grass waiting to get in, and then, it just stuck with me. So, then, I did the internship so I never thought.. no…[laughter] .. I would be here.
Our leadership was and is phenomenal that the our board of directors that had the vision to bring this where it is today. There’s not another national championship that … They have some semi-permanent sites Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma, FCS football in Frisco, but nobody has an organization like this. The NCAA still runs those. They just have like kind of a semi-permanent city.
So they’ve really been smart and how they put this forward and then and how they’ve… during the COVID year, were able to keep us on staff, and then to see the vision of you know of moving it forward and letting me run with a creative and marketing person that we badly needed. There’s a hole that we didn’t have here. So, he’s got two social media interns that are doing cool things.
Is that something different or new you’ve been working on?
Yes, so we did not. So I was in a marketing role. And then we had another staff member and that wasn’t really our background and so we really were intentional about when Kathryn left to kind of restructured that that’s really the hole that was missing-was to promote this event year round and do it in these cool ways. I’m amazed all like, watch over these guys shoulders, because watching them put videos together and the hard work. They are crawling all over. They had the [National Champion] trophy at the zoo. So it’s really fun to watch it.
They took it to the zoo and it got to go in with the penguins and giraffes. Then they took it to the Gene Leahy Mall. And like Ryan was crawling around and so yeah, they took that roll. They’ve been taking around the city. Taking pictures everywhere. I think they went to Blackstone yesterday.
Thank you.
CWS Omaha, Inc., Building Exterior with Signage
College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
808 N 13th St.
Omaha, NE 68102
(402) 554-4422 https://cwsomaha.com
Dundee *Day* Street Festival (8am – 3pm)
8:00am – 11:00am Pancake Breakfast
8:00am – 3:00pm Retail Vendors and Community Groups
8:30am – 9:30am Dundee Dash 5k Run, presented by Dundee Pediatrics
10:00am – 10:45am Free Barre Class from The Barre Code (at The Sunks)
10:00am – 3:00pm Local Food Vendors
10:00am – 3:00pm Dundee Pediatrics Kids Village and Bounce Houses
10:30am – 11:45am Annual Dundee Day Parade
12:00pm – 12:45pm Free Yoga Class from Lotus House of Yoga (at The Sunks)
12:00pm – 12:45pm BAND – Omaha Street Percussion – 50th & Underwood
1:15pm – 2:00pm BAND – School of Rock
2:30pm – 3:15pm BAND – Musical Kids
Dundee *Night* Beer Garden (4pm – 12pm)**
4:00pm – 12:00pm Local Food and Drink Vendors and Lawn Games
4:00pm The Festertones
4:45pm Acoustic Set – Trevor Aden
5:15pm Peach Truck
6:15pm Acoustic Set – Lonesome Creek
6:45pm Linoma Mashers
7:45pm Acoustic Set – Dave Berman
8:15pm Rhythm Collective
9:45pm Acoustic Set – John Fino
10:15pm Satchel Grande
