Stamford newsletter has served community for decades, run entirely by volunteers

STAMFORD, Neb. (KOLN) - A weekly community newsletter has kept Stamford residents informed for nearly 60 years, operating entirely on volunteer labor since its founding in 1967.

The Stamford Newsletter was launched by the local chamber of commerce after the town’s newspaper ceased publication. A schoolteacher’s wife volunteered to lead the effort in its early days, when news was collected, typed, and printed on a mimeograph machine at the school.

The newsletter has evolved over the years, moving from a borrowed school mimeograph to a chamber-owned machine and eventually to modern copy equipment. Submissions can now be sent by phone call, text, or email.

Each week, a volunteer types and prints the newsletter. On Monday mornings, a group of volunteers assembles at the newsletter’s home inside Stamford’s old post office building — collating pages, stapling them, stuffing envelopes, addressing them, and applying postage before mailing.

The newsletter currently reaches about 140 subscribers, with recipients spread across the United States.

Susan Bose, who spoke about the publication, said the volunteer effort is what makes it possible. “It wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for the volunteers,” Bose said. “No one asks for any pay.”

Bose said the Monday assembly sessions also serve a social function, with volunteers spending the afternoon playing cards after completing their work. The group even has a regular canine visitor — a dog that accompanies one volunteer on Monday mornings.

The newsletter covers local happenings including the annual “Pork Days” event, a chamber-sponsored Halloween party, an Easter egg hunt, a soup supper, and Christmas events featuring Santa Claus. “If it wasn’t for the newsletter, people wouldn’t know all that was going on,” Bose said.

Last October, the newsletter’s volunteer team received a Group Volunteer Service Award from Serve Nebraska, presented by the governor.

“It was fun to have somebody really recognize what we’re doing in our small town,” Bose said. “We love our community, and that’s why we do what we do.”

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