Patty Roper, one of three co-owners of Cumberland’s Fashions in downtown Geneva, poses with a display of merchandise and Nebraska Passport information June 18. Cumberland’s Fashions is one of 70 locations around the state participating in this year’s Nebraska Passport tourism promotion.
Patty Roper, one of three co-owners of Cumberland’s Fashions in downtown Geneva, poses with a display of merchandise and Nebraska Passport information June 18. Cumberland’s Fashions is one of 70 locations around the state participating in this year’s Nebraska Passport tourism promotion.
Patty Roper, one of three co-owners of Cumberland’s Fashions in downtown Geneva, poses with a display of merchandise and Nebraska Passport information June 18. Cumberland’s Fashions is one of 70 locations around the state participating in this year’s Nebraska Passport tourism promotion.
GENEVA — Since Geneva local business Cumberland’s Fashions was selected as a 2025 Nebraska Passport Program stop, the city of Geneva and Geneva Retail Group have composed a pamphlet of local attractions for Patty Roper, one of the three owners of the business, to hand out to Nebraska Passport visitors.
“I truly feel like some of these people will be back,” Roper said. “I’ve had some that have said they will be back next time they get close to here. So I feel like we’ve made relationships with people from lots of different communities other than Geneva because of the passport program.”
Being a part of the Nebraska Passport Program this summer has allowed Cumberland’s Fashions, a women’s and girls’ clothing store at 848 G St., to achieve its goal of providing high-quality customer service and supporting the local Geneva community.
“We are very customer-oriented. Customer service is very important to me as one of the owners, and it’s my job to make someone look nice, and it’s my job to bring people to our community, as well,” Roper said.
This year marks Cumberland’s Fashions’ 80th year in business as a third-generation store. The business was started in 1945 as a beauty shop by Roper’s grandmother, Pat Cumberland, who taught Roper to let customers know how much they are appreciated. The clothing store now sells both casual and more formal apparel as well as accessories in order to provide full outfits for customers.
“My best advertising is word of mouth, and so I want to make sure everyone that walks in the door, both Passporters and anyone else, knows that they are important, and then that it’s my job to make them happier when they leave than they were when they came in,” Roper said.
The Blue Bison restaurant in Hebron is a stop on the 2025 Nebraska Passport Program.
“My hope is that anybody who comes in here, whether they buy something or not, knows that I care about what they’re looking for. I care about what they need, what their needs are, and that I will help them, if at all possible. We are all about customer service at Cumberland.”
Including Cumberland’s fashions, five Tribland businesses have been selected for the 2025 edition of the Nebraska Passport Program, which runs each year from May 1 to Sept. 30.
The purpose of the Nebraska Passport Program, sponsored by the Nebraska Tourism Commission, is to highlight hidden gems in Nebraska to travelers, including stores, museums, restaurants and attractions.
The other four area businesses on this year’s list are Blue Bison, a restaurant in downtown Hebron; Hotel Garber, a newly opened hotel in Red Cloud; Bryant Books & Music, a book and music store in downtown Hastings; and The Cheese and Wine Shop, a specialty cheese and wine store also in Hastings.
Like Cumberland’s, the Blue Bison in Hebron is a multi-generational business. The family-run restaurant at 135 N. Fourth St. features artisan-style pizza, gourmet burgers and sandwiches, pastries, specialty coffees, and craft beer.
Nichole Bryant is pictured at Bryant Books & Music in downtown Hastings.
Also for sale inside the historic building, which once was Hebron’s Masonic Lodge and is included on the community’s new Walking History Tour, are items from the Good Intentions Boutique, which sells girls’ and women’s clothing. (The business is based in Byron and has a retail location there, as well.)
Also featured on the 2025 Passport is the Hotel Garber in Red Cloud, 346 N. Webster St. The hotel, across the street from the National Willa Cather Center, is available to all kinds of visitors to Red Cloud, including but not limited to those in town because of Willa Cather and her work’s historical connection to Red Cloud. The hotel opened this spring after a major renovation of the building.
Another literature-related establishment among the 70 Nebraska Passport locations is Bryant Books & Music, 625 W. Second St. in Hastings. Bryant carries “a unique selection of books, sheet music, vinyl records, and literary-themed gifts and musical accessories.”
The store also has a website on which it sells books, audiobooks, e-books, sheet music, and book credit gift cards.
In addition, Bryant plays host to book club events where featured new books are discussed.
Michael Consbruck is pictured at The Cheese and Wine Shop in downtown Hastings.
Although the Nebraska Passport Program is available to people from all over Nebraska and beyond, owner Nichole Bryant has enjoyed how the Passport has helped people in Hastings hear about her store.
“I love having everyone recognize as people will say, ‘Oh, you’re on the Passport this year; I didn’t realize we had a bookstore.’ Or ‘Congratulations on getting the Passport.’ I think it’s even just letting our community know that we’re here since even at two years, we’re new, people still say ‘I had no idea this was here,’ ” Bryant said.
Bryant also appreciates that the Nebraska Passport Program connects the bookstore to people from all over Nebraska and beyond who might not have a local bookstore in their area.
“If they don’t have a local bookshop that they love to shop at, and they fall in love with this store while they’re here, they can shop with us all the time. They can shop online. They can call us and order over the phone,” Bryant said.
Bryant has noticed many people who stop at the bookstore also stop and support surrounding establishments while in Hastings.
“We always send them to our neighbors and tell them what’s open, and The Cheese and Wine is the other stop. So, I mean, what a better combination: books and wine,” Bryant said.
The second Hastings business included on the list, The Cheese and Wine Shop, is another fairly new establishment. It’s located three doors away from Bryant Books & Music.
Michael Consbruck, owner of the year-old business, is grateful for the awareness being a part of the Nebraska Passport Program brings to his store.
“I would have to spend all kinds of money to do all the kinds of different advertisement and different programs to have this kind of an awareness put in front of people,” Consbruck said. “So from an awareness campaign standpoint, it’s quite nice and quite successful.”
The shop carries specialty cheeses and wines, as well as specialty food for people with specific dietary needs, such as all-natural products with no added sugar or additional preservatives and chemicals.
The Potter-Wright Building (left) is shown in the process of becoming the new 27-room Hotel Garber in Red Cloud a year ago. The hotel now is open.
“I like to say we have something for everyone,” Consbruck said. “We’ve got something for everyone, and we’ve got something for every budget. So whether you’re in here just to find cheese, if you’re a cheese lover, you’re going to find stuff from all around the world, including Nebraska. If you are somebody who is in here looking for a specific type of wine, we’ve got varieties here that you wouldn’t find anywhere else in the state of Nebraska, and that’s just because I’m an absolute wine enthusiast.”
Consbruck has kind words to say about the organization of the Nebraska Passport Program in general.
“It’s just really neat that the Nebraska Passport has such a wide reach, not only of Nebraska folks, but people around the country, and it’s popular to the point now where ever year, people look forward to doing this. So I give them a lot of credit for putting this together and the way they’ve operated.”
Each year, Visit Nebraska selects 70 stops to be included in the Nebraska Passport Program. Each stop is placed in one of four categories. This year, the categories include Activitate Yourself, America’s Artland, Colorific, and Culture Cluster.
Interested patrons can request a passport or download the Nebraska Passport app, NE Passport 2025, anytime between May 1 and Sept. 30. Booklets are free for all participants and are available at all 70 listed stops. Physical booklets also can be requested online nebraskapassport.com/request, though they should be expected to take around two weeks to arrive.
Participants can get a Passport stamp, either in their physical booklet or digitally, at each location they visit, even if they don’t purchase anything. Participants can collect stamps in both their booklet and the app to be submitted for prizes; however, each participant receives only one stamp to be submitted for prizes per stop.
Participants then submit their stamps before Oct. 7 to receive prizes based on the number of stamps they collect through the program.
Prizes are not the only positive that comes out of the program, however.
Roper, at Cumberland’s in Geneva, said her favorite part of the Nebraska Passport Program is getting to connect with the people who come into her store.
“I try to make sure they know that I genuinely care, and I genuinely want to know. I love talking to people, and I feel that they can feel that genuineness — that it’s not just a put-on. That I do care about their stories and their reasons for being a part of the Passport, where they’re from, why they decided to do it. I try to make sure they know that I genuinely am interested in their stories. Then, I feel that if they can feel that connection initially, it will hopefully make them think about us again at a later date and come back and see us.”
