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Success Stories

A mother and three daughters pose around a dining room table. There are lace curtains and blue wall in the background and some dishes on the table in the foreground.

“This is Home” – A Family Finds Their Forever Home in Calais, Maine

One of the first rooms Heather Gagne and her daughters began redecorating in their new home is the dining room, shown in the top photo. They have been busy repainting and making other updates. Raising a family in coastal Machias, Maine may sound lovely, but for Heather Gagne recent years proved stressful. There were few housing options in the Downeast community, and Heather was glad to find a rental home to…
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Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 177 Stories
Photo: The rural town of Myrtle Point is responding to medical emergencies in its rugged service area more easily with a new four-wheel drive ambulance.

Removing Barriers to Emergency Medical Care in Remote Community

During a severe ice and snow storm along Interstate 5, the rural town of Myrtle Point struggled to transfer a patient to a larger hospital several hundred miles away using their aging, two-wheel drive ambulance. Nestled in the foothills of the Coastal Mountain Range in… [Read More]
Oregon
Community FacilitiesHealth Care
Sturgis' Public Works Department Photo

Cost Savings Gained Through Consolidation of Facilities into Singular Campus

The City of Sturgis’ Public Works Department conducted a study on their department with regards to management and facilities.  The report revealed many inefficiencies including over crowded conditions, duplication of equipment and administration. It was determined that cost… [Read More]
South Dakota
Community Facilities
Kili Radio Photo

Solar Array to Assist with Rural South Dakota Radio Station’s Electricity Needs

Lakota Communications, Inc.’s KILI Radio facility will construct a 20kW solar array that produces fifty percent of the facility’s electrical needs.  The radio station transmits across the 3,470 square-mile Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from a remote bluff in the tiny… [Read More]
South Dakota
Community Facilities
Photo: The volunteers that make up the Wheeler County Search and Rescue team now have the necessary equipment to safely conduct rescues and treat patients.

Help is On the Way: Equipping a Rural Search and Rescue Team

Wheeler County Search and Rescue, as with many rural emergency departments, has a limited budget and could not afford essential equipment. This entirely volunteer team borrowed supplies from the Sheriff’s Office, but most volunteers provided their equipment, and the medics even… [Read More]
Oregon
Community Facilities
The volunteer firefighters in Reedsport, Oregon, gather around their new fire pumper truck as it is delivered.

USDA Helps Rural Fire Department Replace Essential Equipment

For a small, volunteer fire department, the high cost of equipment can be a significant challenge. That was the case for the Reedsport Fire Department on the central Oregon coast. Their fire pumper truck was past its useful life and posed safety issues. Chief Tom Anderson could… [Read More]
Oregon
Community Facilities
WI_North_Lakes_Clinic

Fighting the Opioid Epidemic in Northern WI

According to the Department of Health Services, 827 people died in Wisconsin of opioid overdose deaths in 2016. From 2000 to 2016, the number of deaths in Wisconsin due to prescription opioids increased 600 percent, from 81 to 568 in 2016. The Lakes Community Health Center, Inc… [Read More]
Wisconsin
Community FacilitiesHealth CareMental Health

Quality, Affordable Health Care in Lytle, TX

Striving to meet the needs of medically underserved rural communities, Atascosa Health Center, Inc., sought out funding from USDA Rural Development to purchase and relocate to a much larger facility in Lytle, TX The new facility, which is approximately 8,500 square feet, has… [Read More]
Texas
Community FacilitiesHealth Care

Additional Success Stories