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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 their 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: 769 Stories

Partnerships Continue to Help Rural Communities in the Garden State

The Borough of Paulsboro is an industrial town located along the Delaware River in Gloucester County.  With a population of 6,097 and limited resources, the Borough decided to replace their existing 80+ year old water storage tank based on the high cost of the necessary… [Read More]
Water

Patience and Faith Pay Off for First-Time Homeowners

For the past nine years, Ernest & Janette Sanchez, along with their six children, were living in a small home that they shared with their in-laws. Having to live with three other families in a four-bedroom home, their living condition were extremely overcrowded to say the… [Read More]
Homeownership
[From left to right] Grottoes Volunteer Fire Department board members Jeff Morris, Captain CJ Chandler and Assistant Chief Chandler Hardy pictured in front of fire protection equipment purchased with the help of a $50,000 USDA Rural Development grant.

Pride in a department, pride in a community

Nostalgia filled the Grottoes Volunteer Fire Department (GVFD) training room recently as four lifetime members reminisced about how far the department has come in 94 years. The department’s history - stemming back to 1922 even before its incorporation in 1948 - shows that it’s… [Read More]
Community FacilitiesRural Development

Primos Pasos First Steps

Primeros Pasos, Inc. was founded by a grass roots group of caring citizens who saw a need for a high-quality education and child learning center.  The group opened a center in 1997 in a rental property.  In 2007, Primeros Pasos purchased a parcel of land (on Savannah… [Read More]
Community Facilities
The Moons receive the keys to their new home

Purchasing a Home with a Historical Past

Justin and Krista Moon knew they wanted more children and that the home they rented was already jam packed. While looking at houses they found a craftsman home built in 1930 that had a piece of history with it.  A well known architect had designed and lived in the… [Read More]
Homeownership
Photo: USDA Rural Business and Cooperatives Administrator Lillian Salerno and Three Rivers Energy employee Erik Chaffer.

Resuscitated biorefinery breathes new life into Ohio town

Erik Chaffer considers himself an optimist. Still, he found himself feeling pretty low as he watched the Great Recession knock the legs out from under the rural Ohio ethanol plant he helped manage. “Everything was pretty good until July 2008. It was just a ‘perfect storm’ type… [Read More]
Renewable Energy
Picture of Cedar Creek Apartments

Revitalizing Affordable Housing in Jackson Hole

Built in 1983, the Brandychase Apartments were showing their age. The low-income housing complex had served the resort community of Jackson Hole for over thirty years and provided affordable living for seniors and other low-income families. Facing the need for a significant… [Read More]
HousingMulti-Family

Rural Battery Manufacturer Gets Boost from USDA Business Program

Small business owners face countless challenges when it comes to finding success in the global marketplace – and for those in rural areas, the challenges are often more pronounced. For more than 30 years, Superior Battery has been manufacturing a wide range of batteries from… [Read More]
Business

Rural Creamery Supplies Urban Texans with Wholesome Fare

The Miller Family Farm has been in operation for three generations in the rural Crawford/McGregor area of McLennan County, just west of Waco, Texas. Grandpa Miller began milking cows during World War II and the tradition continues to this day through his grandson, Craig Miller,… [Read More]
Business

Rural Development helps Virginia’s Eastern Shore plan for the future

As director of planning for Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission, Curtis Smith hoped the last week in October would be the start of a data-driven process to develop innovative ideas for economic development on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The outcome more… [Read More]
Stronger Economies Together

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