Lewistown, Montana – In the 30 some years that Tammy Eckhardt worked as a police officer and criminal investigator, it was essential to find solace from the disheartening aspects of her job. She did this by sitting quietly and quilting. And, through the long Montana winters, she was in good company.

Happy holidays! Thank you for helping us create vibrant, healthy and enduring rural communities in 2018, a year to be remembered. To reflect, here are some of our success stories that exhibit the dedication and perseverance of the people we serve.

In January, D. Nathan Cieszynski was teaching a course that he knew well and had offered so many times that there should have been few surprises. During his January workshop, however, a young man in the course gave him pause.

Zuni Indian Reservation, N.M. – Some three decades ago Darrell Tsabetsaye opened a convenience store called Major Market on the Zuni Indian Reservation on the Arizona-northern New Mexico border. Though such stores are fixtures on many street corners, Tsabetsaye’s was neither common nor convenient to establish.

I first saw the village of Kotlik from the window of a small bush plane after an hour’s flight from the “hub town” of Bethel, over the tundra of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in southwest Alaska.