Just so you know, yes, there are 25-plus nonprofits in the Queen City. Now I would name them all but then, I would be in big trouble if one was forgotten.

From stage productions to musical presentations, historic locations, museums, (I think we are famously fortunate to have six museums in town) plus an array of performance arts institutions. Together, they help to put our sweet, southern town on the map.

What have they in common, you might ask, because it does seem a large number for a 35,000 population City?

It is really easy to answer,

The nonprofit organizations of Meridian are dedicated to teaching and performance, plus display Meridian’s history with a flare of the arts. Art is a teaching tool. Creativity is their game plan.

Just today I talked to a lady traveling and she was passing through Meridian. She and her husband actually are spending four or five days. She was pleasantly shocked to see all of the art represented here. Then she talked about Mississippi’s contributions in the field of art from literary to music and performance arts, visual arts as well.

She is writing a book about the history of Highway 11, which was the main thoroughfare for travelers from the early 1900s until interstate seized, it seems, all of the transportation byways.

It was fun talking to her. I suspect we are the same age and we reminisced about traveling with our families along two-lane highways and staying over in small mom- and pop style motels.

Yes, those were the good-ole-days.

She asked me to share stories about Highway 11 history as is meanders from Laurel and into Alabama.

I remembered the Key Brothers who saved the Meridian Airport from closing in the 1930s. The two plus their mechanic devised the first refueling, in mid-air, technique. Then they zoomed into the airways located near and around the Meridian Airport.

As people and reporters from around America and indeed, from other countries, arrived to watch their antics, the two brothers, veterans of WWI and as well born and raised in nearby Kemper County, showed their stuff.

The meridian Air Guard Refueling Unit, I am told, continues to utilize a few of those 1935 techniques in the present day air-to-air refueling practices.

Yes, today Meridianites are found gazing into the sky, not for the Key Brothers, but for the KC-135s which loom big in the horizon.

What does the Key Brothers story have to do with local nonprofit organizations, you might ask?

Well, I will tell you.

As my visitor from Washington State commented today. Remember she said she was shocked about the amount of creativity found in the State, especially the arts.

In my way of thinking, the Key Brothers and A. D. Hunter, their mechanic, were creative artists and they had an idea. Together they designed a spill-proof nozzle, and the rest is history.

So again, what do our large numbers of nonprofit organizations really do? In short, it is all about creativity.

Anne McKee is a Mississippi-inspired storyteller. She is Executive Director of the Meridian Railroad Museum. See her website: www.annemckeestoryteller.com.