Citizens Asked To Throw In Support

While local officials continue to seek out potential businesses to fill in the employment gap left by the changes at Cabela's, a unique campaign is underway, spearheaded by Sidney Mayor Joe Arterburn and his wife Cathy.

The Arterburns recently began a social media campaign asking area residents to write letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who announced recently the company is looking for additional locations for business expansion.

In a letter, Sidney residents are asked to tell Cook what they like about Sidney, what the area has to offers, and ask him to consider the area for its needs. The Arterburns ask that letters be sent to them, and they will put them in a format that will draw attention to the area and local support. The pair say they plan to also send the letters to other companies as well.

The letter reads:

Dear Friend,

As we all think about ways to build a new Sidney, we're sure you have seen the news about Apple looking for a second headquarters location. Although it may be a long shot getting Apple here, we would like to ask everyone to write a letter to the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, telling him why Sidney would be a great location for his new headquarters. We would like everyone to tell him what we love about living here, raising our families here, what Sidney has to offer in a two-hour radius or whatever you would like to share about our town.

This is from a news article:

The iPhone maker said it will spend $55 billion with domestic suppliers and manufacturers in 2018 and will create more than 20,000 new jobs through hiring at existing Apple campuses and a new one for technical support.

Apple already employs 84,000 people in all 50 states.

We would like you to write a letter and email it to us at [email protected]. We will print and mail them in specially colored envelopes all on the same day so they will stand out when they are received. We hope this will make a bigger impression on him.

If you have any suggestions, please include them in your email. Also, we would like the letters to look professional so please put them on a personal letterhead.

We would plan to also send these letters to other companies to spark interest in Sidney.

Thank you for helping in this effort. Please pass this on to all your friends and relatives and ask them to write letters too. We would like to receive all the letters by January 31st. We can have an impact if we all work together.

Best Regards, Joe & Cathy Arterburn