The Community Partnership Program is a Nebraska Military Department program managed and administered by the Adjutant General, Nebraska National Guard.

Referred to as the CPP, this program allows the Nebraska National Guard to include the full Nebraska Military Department of the Nebraska Army National Guard, Nebraska Air National Guard, and Nebraska Emergency Management Agency to support the citizens of Nebraska by recognizing and developing enduring relationships within local communities and carrying out activities to build trust, sustain open lines of communication, and enhance overall readiness for emergency response.

As part of the CPP, today's leaders with the Nebraska National Guard and the local Grand Island and Hall community are spending the entire day engaging in various activities and conversations that honor veterans discussing emergency management best practices and brainstorming future collaborative opportunities to further develop a reliable and valued relationship through the CPP.

Additionally, the Nebraska National Guard is holding a guard for the day at the Nebraska National Guard's Army Aviation Support Facility number two, co-located with the Grand Island Airport.

Today's community partnership agreement between the Nebraska Military Department and the City of Grand Island will be signed by Major General Craig Strong, Adjutant General, Nebraska National Guard, and the Honorable Roger Steele, Mayor of Grand Island.

I am Colonel Spencer Hansen, the Director of Staff Air for the Nebraska National Guard.

At this time, I would like to invite Mayor Steele to the podium for his remarks.

Welcome, Mayor Steele.

Major General Strong and honored guest.

It is with great pride, the Grand Island can host the Nebraska National Guard.

Today we are forging a great partnership with the Guard that will strengthen collaborative emergency preparation for our city.

This morning, we had a moving wreath-laying ceremony at Veterans Park to honor veterans, past and present.

The ceremony reminded us all about the importance of veterans and of the Nebraska National Guard to Grand Island.

Those who have served and are serving in our armed forces are the foundation upon which our freedom rest.

And we can proudly call ourselves the land of the free and the home of the brave because of their service.

The signing ceremony that we will complete demonstrates the community pride that we have in partnering with the Nebraska National Guard.

Grand Island is proud to be a partner, and this partnership will open lines of communication and enhance our emergency preparedness.

It is also important to note that our Guard members serving in Nebraska and Grand Island receive support from their families and employers when they are called away from home to respond to conflicts elsewhere and to emergencies in the United States.

We appreciate the family members and the employers for their sacrifice and their contribution, just as we appreciate our active guard members.

Governor Pillan just ordered one hundred and fifty Nebraska National Guard soldiers and airmen to provide help with damage from Hurricane Milton in Florida.

I understand there was no trouble finding Guard members to volunteer.

And that is because the men and women who serve in our Guard stand in constant readiness to help people who are suffering from emergencies, whether in Nebraska or elsewhere.

My earliest memory of the Nebraska National Guard was from stories my grandfather told he was a rancher in the Nebraska sand hills.

And he talked about when the Great Blizzard of 1949 hit, and you mentioned this this morning, Major General Strong.

When that blizzard hit, the Nebraska National Guard loaded hay onto helicopters and drop the hay to herds of cattle in the sand hills that would have otherwise starved without the help of the Nebraska National Guard.

And of course, as recently as June 3rd, 1980, when Grand Island was devastated by tornadoes, the Nebraska National Guard came to our aid.

Our relationship with the Guard runs deep.

The service and sacrifice of the Nebraska National Guard for the health and safety of all of us is well known and appreciated beyond what words can describe.

I am simply thankful that we have this opportunity to express our profound appreciation to the Nebraska National Guard.

Major General Strong, thank you for choosing Grand Island to be your partner so that we are prepared for before an emergency strikes.

Thank you for bringing a proud contingent of Guard members to Grand Island.

This gives up gives us an opportunity to remember the many contributions of the Nebraska National Guard to our city and an opportunity to say thank you, which I do on behalf of my grateful city.

Thank you, Mayor Steele.

Our final speaker for today is Major General Craig Strong, the Adjutant General of Nebraska and Director of the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.

Good afternoon.

Senator Aguilar, representatives from the Governor's Office and from Senator Fisher's office, thank you for being here.

Mayor Steele, thank you for those amazing words.

Very, very touching and moving, and it really meant a lot.

As we all know too well, uh disasters can strike at any time, at any place, and often without little warning.

And when the disaster strikes, the citizens of our communities depend upon us, members of the local and the state emergency response teams to be ready and available to assist them in meeting their needs.

Our new Nebraska National Guard Community Partnership Program, which is administered by the Nebraska Military Department that includes both the Nebraska Army and Air National Guard and the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency aims to endure that when our citizens need us following an emergency or a natural disaster, that we are ready and able to respond as a collaborative emergency response team.

I always indicate, you know, we have to be adaptable to any event whenever it happens.

And there's three ingredients to that.

There's having a framework, which we have through our national emergency management system.

We have to have good communication lines, but above all, the secret sauce is the relationships.

And if we have all three of those clicking, uh there's no stopping us.

That the Nebraska Military Department has recognized Grand Island and has developed an enduring relationship in this community, while also setting the stage for us to plan and carry out activities designed to build and sustain trust because all relationships rest on a bedrock of trust.

We want to sustain those open lines of communication, build strength, and enhance the overall readiness of the emergency response across Nebraska and in this region.

My goal as the 34th Adjutant General for Nebraska is our collective goal of the Nebraska is the collective goal of the Nebraska Military Department is to use this community partnership program to help us build a network of relationships between the Nebraska National Guard and our local emergency communities and citizens that we have taken an oath to defend.

As they say, all disasters are local, but it's a team effort that responds.

One of the core tenets of emergency management is to develop relationships and trust that's because you just don't want to have uh wait for an emergency to strike before you first meet.

You know, the old trope of we don't want to be handing out business cards in the middle of a disaster.

And having these opportunities uh forego that requirement because we know each other, we understand each other and we trust each other.

Today, as Mayor Still and I signed the community partnership agreement, we are in essence making an important vow to continue to work together to find new ways to meet and to overcome any challenges that we both will face in enduring and enduring that we assuring you that we are ready and able to respond to our citizens who rely upon us, our fellow Nebraskans, when the needs arise.

Today, Grand Island becomes the third Nebraska community to sign a community partnership agreement with us.

It joins the cities of Oahu and Beatrice, both of which participated in similar events earlier this year.

We believe that the city of Grand Island and the Greater Hall County community are an excellent addition to what we hope will eventually become a statewide network of reliable and valued partnerships.

That's because Grand Island has a long has been has a long uh strong, sorry, strong uh history and a vital partner with the Nebraska National Guard, going all the way back to 1888, when the first independent militia unit was established here in Grand Island.

That unit, which was founded upon the enduring principle of neighbors helping neighbors, would evolve throughout the years.

Just a decade later, members of the Nebraska National Guard mobilized for service in the Spanish American War, which included residents of Grand Island.