Adding a second loop to a three column Twentyten Child theme

I’ve build a three column twenty-ten child theme using instructions found in plenty of other places online.

It’s configured as one main column then the two sidebars, primary and secondary.

I’d like to make the second column on my index page a list of featured stories. I understand how I can use a second loop to do this, but I’m struggling to make this work in a sidebar widget. Presumably there’s an easier way of doing this, can you help?