This blog post is from Whitney Kimball Coe, Coordinator of the National Rural Assembly.
The Daily Yonder doesn’t shy away from drama. I love that.
As a community theater nerd, it was gratifying to me that the Daily Yonder was on hand at the 2018 National Rural Assembly in Durham, North Carolina, to capture some of the most newsworthy and dramatic moments, like David Toland waving an empty pickle jar from the main stage.
Toland, CEO of Thrive Allen County in Kansas, waved the large glass jar, “otherwise known as a rural healthcare financing system,” to illustrate that rural folks throw nickels in a pickle jar “to pay for healthcare when one of our neighbors gets cancer, has a farm accident, or is in a car wreck.”
The fragile laughter in the room confirmed the drama of the moment. The donation jar shows that we try hard to take care of each other in small towns and rural communities. But that pickle jar also reminds us that we’ve got a long way to go to create a healthcare system that is fair and accessible for all of us.
On this National Rural Health Day, we shine a spotlight on the 60 million people who live in small towns, rural and frontier communities across the country. And we remember their efforts to work together for a stronger, healthier future.
For more than 10 years, the Rural Assembly has relied upon the Daily Yonder to tell the story true about rural health and everything else, too. From pickle jars to politics to national polls on rural health and well-being.
Combining drama, data, and diverse voices to shape a portrait of modern life in rural America, the Daily Yonder is making us smarter, more compassionate, and better advocates for our neighbors and our nation.
I hope you’ll join me in giving to the Daily Yonder pickle jar this year.
Whitney Kimball Coe, Coordinator of the National Rural Assembly
