Sidney employee wins Cabela's highest community honor

Cabela’s Inc. network engineer Erik Fritzler received the company’s Community Hero Award on Thursday for his work leading a team that upgraded the Sidney Public Schools network over the summer.

Chosen by a committee that includes Cabela’s executive vice presidents and CEO, the Community Hero Award is given annually as the company’s highest honor for community outreach.

Fritzler and his team led a project that gave Sidney Public Schools $1.8 million in upgrades to its network infrastructure at a fraction of the cost through generous donations from Cabela’s and several of its partners.

Cabela’s donated about $250,000 in equipment, and Fritzler’s team of Cabela’s employees donated more than 1,800 hours of their personal time to the project. Cabela’s also partnered with Cisco, GTRI, Sunset Learning and Great Plains Communications to complete the project at a cost of just $143,000 to the school district. After the school board approved the $143,000 payment, installation took place July 20-27.