By Heather Johnson-MPCC
The Keenan family, of North Platte, has been selected to receive the 2019 President’s Award from North Platte Community College. The Keenans will be recognized during NPCC’s Commencement Ceremony at 3 p.m. May 10.
“The Keenan family has supported numerous projects at NPCC, including generous gifts to the Health and Science Center and the McDonald-Belton Gymnasium renovation,” said Bonnie Kruse, the college’s director of institutional advancement. “Both gifts were significant in helping the NPCC Foundation reach its fundraising goals. Those gifts are just two of the many examples of the Keenan family’s extraordinary support of students, faculty and the academic mission of North Platte Community College.”
Kevin O’Connor, head coach for the NPCC men’s basketball team, said the Keenans were already supporting the team’s booster club when he became coach more than four decades ago.
“Their involvement goes back way before I was ever here,” O’Connor said. “Pat and Dan’s father, Jim Keenan, owned Coca-Cola Bottling Company at that time, and he was a Knights Cage Club donor. I have known Pat and Dan since we attended grade school together at St. Pat’s. They have been loyal supporters of the Cage Club for over 40 years. Just this spring, they continued the family tradition by donating $5,000 to the Cage Club as part of a Dunkin’ Donuts promotion.”
North Platte remains close to Dan’s heart even though he now lives in Florida. That’s part of why it’s so important to him to help support the college.
“I care a lot about North Platte, and the community college system is absolutely the best hope for the town to grow,” Dan said. “Even for North Platte to maintain itself, it needs a strong community college.”
The Keenans are behind two scholarships that support NPCC students. In 2008, the Keenan Family Scholarship was established to provide tuition assistance to NPCC students in nursing and other medical programs.
Most recently, the John and Mary Hunter Memorial Scholarship was created in memory of longtime Keenan family friends, John and Mary Hunter. The scholarship provides assistance to students in the NPCC building trades programs and students attending high school in North Platte who enroll in the NPCC Building Construction Career Academy.
“I really think that as a country and as a society we need more people with hands-on technical skills,” said Pat Keenan of why his family provides the latter scholarship. “I think that our four-year colleges do great things, but they are not the right fit for everyone. For every STEM graduate, we also need someone who can build the building or laboratory that houses the STEM jobs.”
He believes full potential cannot be achieved unless workers are trained for both the blue-collar and white-collar sectors.
“In our family’s hotel and Coca-Cola businesses, we appreciate and rely on people who can build and maintain things,” Pat said. “There are very good, unfilled jobs out there for people with hands-on technical skills, and the ability to excel in a career is just as good as many of the white collar opportunities. Our family is interested in getting kids into the applied technology fields earlier. Our society is hurting for those kinds of workers, and NPCC is in the position to provide them.”
The commencement ceremony is open to the public. It will be in the McDonald-Belton Building on NPCC’s South Campus.