Category: Blog

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Kohl Children’s Museum

Image of Joe Ricketts at Kohl Childrens Museum Awards Gala

I was recently honored to be recognized by the Kohl Children’s Museum for my work with Opportunity Education making quality education accessible to children living in poverty.  The museum hosted a wonderful gala at which I received their 2017 Power of Play Award.

I don’t believe you lift people out of poverty with handouts; you do it by breaking the cycle of poverty and specifically by providing people with educational opportunities. Those opportunities lead to good jobs.  Good jobs lead to stable families.  And stable families raise children who can do even better than their parents.  This is the very reason I started the Opportunity Education and built NGL Academies in California, Nebraska and Tanzania.

Thank you to the Kohl Children’s Museum for the award and, more importantly, for giving me the chance to hopefully inspire others to use the power of education to help people living in poverty have an opportunity for a better life.

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Andrew Jackson Higgins Memorial

Image of Columbus Chamber of Commerce Award reciepients

Saturday, May 27, 2017, my wife, Marlene, was honored by the Columbus Chamber of Commerce for her support of the Utah Beach Higgins Memorial located at the Utah Beach Museum in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, France.  The memorial has been placed in the spot where a gap was blown open by U.S. Army Rangers on the morning of June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day.  This memorial includes statues of WWII soldiers, a replica of the Higgins Boat and Columbus Nebraska’s very own Andrew Jackson Higgins.

Mr. Higgins was born in Columbus, Nebraska, attended schools in Omaha and served in the Nebraska National Guard before relocating to New Orleans where he founded Higgins Industries.  His vision and creation of a shallow-draft ship, the Higgins Boat, changed the course of history.  The vessels were used to transport men and equipment safely to beaches during amphibious landings.  General Dwight D. Eisenhower called Higgins, “The man who won the war for us.”  He went on to say, “If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), we never could have landed over an open beach.  The whole strategy of the war would have been different.”

Our sincerest thanks to the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and it is our honor to remember our veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

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A Special Day for Me at Ave Maria School of Law

Image of person holding white scroll

Recently, I was proud to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Ave Maria School of Law in Florida. I’m grateful to Tom Monaghan, Jeff Randolph, and Kevin Cieply for including me in this special day for the graduates and their families.

As a Catholic, and someone for whom having a spiritual relationship with God is deeply important, I have great respect for Ave Maria’s focus on teaching high legal, ethical, and moral standards that integrate the Catholic intellectual tradition. I believe firmly that the Catholic value system, and the Judeo-Christian value system of which it is a part, provide the bedrock on which sound ethical and moral judgments rest. This has never been more important than today, when the pace of life is fast and the challenges complex.

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Flight of the Sandhill Cranes

Image of Joe Ricketts and family

During a recent weekend in March, Marlene and I took our grandkids to witness one of nature’s miracles:  the annual migration of the Sandhill Cranes.

Each spring over a half million of these majestic birds pause on a narrow stretch of Nebraska’s Platte River to replenish themselves during their seasonal migration.  The sight and sounds of this many cranes is, well, indescribable.

The Sandhill Cranes come from Mexico, Texas, and New Mexico, breaking their trip in Nebraska on their way to Canada, Alaska and Siberia. (That’s right, Siberia.)  It’s an epic journey of thousands of miles that these amazing birds make each year.

While the simple spectacle of all these cranes is fascinating enough, our experience was made richer still by the insights shared with us by Chuck Cooper and Sandra Douglas of the Crane Trust.

And, while they are not endangered today, conserving the natural habitats needed for the Sandhill Cranes is among the many issues my family and I consider when thinking about where The Ricketts Conservation Foundation should focus its attention.