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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: 878 Stories
People standing in front of a fire truck in a field.

SW Ohio City Breaks Ground on New Fire Station

The City of Loveland, Ohio, gathered on a sun-drenched autumn morning to celebrate the groundbreaking for its new fire station. Local leaders and community partners, led by Loveland Mayor Kathy Bailey, donned helmets of Fire Station 63 and took ceremonial shovels in hand to… [Read More]
Ohio
Community FacilitiesFirst Responders
Larry Geraldson, Army veteran with his wife and first house built with Rural Development loan.

Full Circle: One Veteran's Journey from Rural Development Loan Recipient to Advocate

Of the 4.6 million veterans living in rural areas, one is Rural Development of Louisiana's Area Office Director and Army veteran Larry D. Geraldson. Larry served his country for over 21 years in both active and reserve military service, including three combat tours of duty in… [Read More]
Louisiana
Homeownership
Midwestern Meat Locker staff show off their new jackets in 2022.

Veteran-owned Meat Processor Expands Thanks to Intermediary Relending Program

There’s no doubt about it – feeding a large family can be expensive. When U.S. Army Veteran Ryan Dennis and his family realized how much beef they were consuming each year, they knew they needed to get creative.“We were going through two and a half cattle per year. We thought we… [Read More]
South Dakota
Small Business
Trey with his daughter looking at coffee grounds

Veteran Finds Unexpected Inspiration, Leads to New Business

Inspiration can strike at the most unlikely times. For Trey Hendrickson, it struck when he was returning from deployment in Afghanistan. He had, what he recalls as ‘the best cup of coffee’ he’d ever had. It was a taste of home. U.S. Marine… [Read More]
South Dakota
BusinessEconomic DevelopmentRMAP
file

Energy Grant Adds Flavor to America’s Salads and Sandwiches

Mucci Farms is a large greenhouse with 75 acres of growing space not far from the shores of Lake Erie in Huron, Ohio, and provides the ideal growing environment for the nearly 12 million units of tomatoes and cucumbers it produces annually. “We are farmers at heart… [Read More]
Ohio
EnergyREAP
Christa Shute of NEK Broadband, left, talks with Jenille Smith of CVFiber at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, VT, during a meeting with VT Senator Peter Welch and USDA Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres-Small

NEK Broadband Builds High-Speed Internet Access for Rural Residents

For people living in rural communities, the crucial need for connection to the online community can often be a hit-or-miss proposition. Modern goods and services of the information age have proven an essential part of everyday life for those who live in areas where a doctor’s… [Read More]
Vermont and New Hampshire
Community Connect
A vacant lot in Downtown Rutland, VT, turned into an art exhibit

The Innovative Inspiration Behind Rutland’s Evolving Makeover

What makes a place what it is? Not just any place, but a good place? Somewhere people recognize, think about, talk about, hope for, travel through, travel to, work in, and live in? If cornered into summing it up with one sentence, community development guru Lisa Glover… [Read More]
Vermont and New Hampshire
Community Facilities
Two men stand next to a green sign that says Plateau

Rural Development Grant Helps ReConnect Rural New Mexicans

Over seventy-five years ago, a group of rural New Mexicans banded together to create Eastern New Mexico Rural Telephone Cooperative. The group wanted to provide telephone service to rural eastern New Mexico. The cooperative is now known as Plateau. Its cooperative area covers 25… [Read More]
New Mexico
BroadbandCooperativesHigh Speed InternetInfrastructure

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