By PR Extension Office

A summer concert series in a remote town of 900, a vibrant childcare center in an abandoned school and a tourism strategy to attract more visitors are some of the Montana-based stories that will be highlighted on September 27th as part of the statewide Reimagining Rural Virtual Gathering.

The leaders of these projects, all of whom are un-paid community volunteers, will share the lessons they learned in getting these important projects off the ground. Participants of Reimagining Rural can hear how they did it, what challenges they overcame and how these projects have improved the quality of life in these small, rural towns. Lessons for working in communities and developing leaders will be shared as well.

This session will echo speakers from last year’s Reimagining Rural, Becky McCray and Deb Brown, who encouraged community members to try new ideas as a way to deal with the changes we see in our small towns. “We need to be more open to new ideas,” McCray said. “Iowa State University studied 99 small towns over 20 years and found that the communities that survived the best were the ones that were open to new ideas. And it makes sense. If you are open to new ideas, you can deal with new challenges.”

This session is the second in the three-part series, Reimagining Rural. The series is a made possible by MSU Extension, the Burton K. Wheeler Center, Montana Community Foundation, First Interstate Bank Foundation and the WE and OP Edwards Foundation. The event is hosted locally by Powder River Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture and MSU Extension – Powder River.

Twenty-four communities across the state are participating in this year’s virtual gathering.

For more information on how you can join the idea friendly conversation, contact the Extension Office at 436-2424.