Mike McNerney joined the Riverside Town and Country Club Board in 2012, and since then he has been actively involved in many of the improvements the club has seen in recent years.

Blue Earth community members know Mike McNerney as a good neighbor with a great mind for planning events and fundraisers.

Now, he is also a recipient of the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce’s Community Service Award, which he will receive at the Chamber Awards Gala on Monday, Jan. 29.

McNerney, who is a member of the Chamber and the City Council, was quite shocked when several past award recipients attended the public comment segment of a Dec. 18 City Council meeting to announce that he would be joining their ranks.

Last year’s Community Service Award recipient, Chuck Hunt, explained that its recipients are traditionally selected by past recipients.

“Because of his hard work with the city, and with the Riverside Golf Course, and with the Giant Days Committee and a whole host of other things, the unanimous decision by our group of past recipients is Mike McNerney,” Hunt announced.

Later, McNerney admits, “I thought someone else on the council would be getting it. Not in my wildest dreams did I think it was me.”

Now that the news has sunk in, McNerney says he feels both humbled and honored to be recognized by the Chamber.

“You look at the list of previous recipients, and to be associated with that group of people is humbling,” he says. “But, I’m very honored. I’ve been in town close to 14 years, and I don’t feel I’ve done that much.”

McNerney moved back to Blue Earth 14 years ago, but he originally grew up in Jolly Green Giant territory and graduated from Blue Earth High School in 1985.

In fact, in an appropriate gesture of loyalty to the town, McNerney worked at Green Giant between the ages of 16 and 21, putting in 12 hours a day, six days a week at the Giant statue’s namesake.

Now, McNerney is a maintenance planner at Kerry Ingredients. However, his role in the Blue Earth community has expanded well beyond his day job over the past 14 years.

McNerney joined Riverside Town & Country Club in 2010, and he became a board member two years later. He was voted as president in 2014.

Throughout his tenure on the board, McNerney’s entrepreneurial spirit has emerged through a series of innovative ideas to keep the club updated and financially stable.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve always had a knack for putting an event together,” McNerney explains, adding, “Without my fellow neighbors and community members, it wouldn’t be possible. And, of course, my significant other, Gina (Zierke) – she keeps me even-keeled.”

McNerney applied his knack to the development of Riverpalooza, an annual fundraiser which has since helped finance many improvement projects at the club.

Thanks, in part, to funds raised by Riverpalooza, Riverside was recently able to install ADA-compliant bathrooms and a chairlift, and make many improvements to the interior of the club house.

Profits from Riverpalooza’s raffle sales have also allowed Riverside to make an annual $1,000 contribution to the Blue Earth Area School District’s Dollars for Scholars Program.

Meanwhile, a different event inspired McNerney to join the Blue Earth Eagles Aerie #4486 roughly seven years ago.

“The Chamber decided not to have a street dance, and the Eagles took over and threw it out at the Fairgrounds,” McNerney recalls. “I said I would love to be a part of the organization after that.”

As a member of the Eagles, McNerney soon became involved with another community staple: the annual Giant Days celebration, which the Eagles take part in each year.

McNerney explains that a few years ago, he, along with fellow Eagles Rick Scholtes and Dan Warner, was involved in an initiative to expand the activities offered at Giant Days, resulting in the extravaganza the community has come to know and enjoy.

Apart from providing the town with more fun and games over the celebratory weekend, McNerney says expanding the annual event has also resulted in more funds for the Eagles’ scholarship program, which is in part funded by profits the Eagles collect over the course of Giant Days.

“With Giant Days being where it’s at now, over the last three years we have averaged an extra six $500 scholarships locally,” McNerney shares.

As often as McNerney has made his mark on community-wide events, he also derives a lot of enjoyment out of organizing neighborhood events with the help of his fellow Oak Knoll Court residents.

“We have a tight crew,” McNerney says of his neighbors.

The close-knit neighborhood is known for throwing a huge bash every year – a block party called ‘Oak Knoll’ber Fest.’

The party was already a tradition by the time the pandemic began, but in 2020, COVID restrictions made such a large neighborhood gathering an impossibility.

However, McNerney was FaceTiming with some neighbors one day when they came up with an idea to bust their pandemic blues: a safely-distanced meat raffle.

“If people wanted to participate, they would sit out in their driveway,” McNerney explains. He would then mask up and drive around the neighborhood selling raffle tickets.

“I’d go to a neutral location, draw one, and put on Facebook messenger what the number was,” McNerney continues. Once the number was claimed, he would deliver that person’s winnings to their home.

“We were shocked with all the revenue,” he admits.

The neighborhood decided to save the funds for better times. Eventually, after COVID restrictions were lifted, the meat raffle’s profits were spent on a better-than-ever Oak Knoll’ber Fest, complete with live entertainment and a deejay, a potluck, games, bounce houses and more.

The Oak Knoll’ber Fest group uses the remaining meat raffle funds to send something to residents who have had a death in the family on behalf of the neighborhood.

“We want everybody to know we’re thinking of them,” McNerney reasons.

McNerney attributes his ‘good neighbor’ attitude to his upbringing in Blue Earth.

“We live in a small town, so we have to look out for each other,” he reasons. “If you can’t trust your neighbors, who’s going to be there for you?”

He brings the same attitude to City Council meetings.

“I think the council works well together,” he says. “We might not all be politically aligned, but we do agree that here, at a local level, we have to work together. There is no level below us.”

McNerney hopes to see Blue Earth’s youth consider civic involvement in the future.

“I would love to see the younger generation get more involved in civic organizations,” he says. “There’s a lot of personal gratification you can get out of it, plus you’re helping the community.”

He cherishes a few other aspirations for Blue Earth’s future, as well.

“It would be nice to see a rather large business move into town – something industrial,” McNerney says. ‘We need to keep the town growing.”

He observes that small town shrinkage is a real problem in rural Minnesota. However, he still hopes to see more people put down roots in Blue Earth.

“My favorite thing about Blue Earth – which brought me back – is the closeness,” McNerney concludes. “I think it’s a fun community. It’s very open, very welcoming. I just want to support it.”