Rural

In 2013, Citizens Memorial Hospital (CMH) in Bolivar, Missouri experienced an overwhelming shortage of quality healthcare professionals. Simultaneously, its partner Bolivar Technical College (BTC) had outgrown its facility and had twice as many applicants as it had space for students.

Aging infrastructure and technology were taking their toll on the Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital, now known as Hot Springs Health, in Thermopolis, Wyoming. However, with local demand and tourists on their way to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, patient levels were increasing. Community leaders and hospital officials needed to find a way to fund a hospital upgrade and expansion. If not, the hospital would have to shut down.

Having access to quality health care is often a problem for low-income patients who live in rural communities. Fortunately, there are medical facilities such as Sandhills Medical Foundation, Inc in Lugoff, South Carolina that work on a sliding fee scale, which means that all their patients, regardless of income level, can afford quality health care. However, this has also increased their number of patients over time, and it wasn’t long before they recognized that their Lugoff office was running out of space.

In December 2017, Steve Coetzee, President and CEO of the Fahrney-Keedy Memorial Home, realized many of the surrounding senior care facilities in Boonsboro, Maryland were closing and that his team would need to expand their facility to meet future demand. However, the home did not have the available funds to do so.

Richard Norman, 72, had long wanted to own a home, and move to a safer neighborhood. Unfortunately, he had been unable to get a loan from the bank. He wasn’t sure if his dream of homeownership would ever become a reality.

Gloria Gonzalez has humble beginnings in Mexico where, as a child, she lived in a home made by her grandmother out of river rocks and mud. The dream of living in a safe, sturdy home wouldn’t become reality until moving to the United States.

Sparrows Point, Md., is home to a sustainable greenhouse that is changing the way we grow produce in cities across America. Gotham Greens’ climate-controlled facility is supplying grocery stores throughout the region with fresh produce such as leafy greens and herbs while using a fraction of the natural resources required by traditional farming.