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Do you “get” rural?
April 7th, 2009 by Mike Knutson
Many of my high school and college friends who have moved away from South Dakota don’t “get” why I love South Dakota, let alone why I love rural South Dakota. This became painfully obvious recently as several “why would you still live there” comments appeared on the Facebook pages of friends in my network.
Most of the comments were made in fun, and came in response to our complaints from resident South Dakotans concerning recent late spring snow storms. As I reflect on the comments, however, I can’t help but think these out-of-state friends really don’t understand what those of us who live in South Dakota love about this place. In a way, it saddens me, but then again, what’s a guy going to do to change their minds?
Taking a proactive approach, the Kansas Sampler Foundation created a blog “to help people understand or ‘get’ rural Kansas.” It introduces readers to people and places around rural Kansas, providing a glimpse into the daily life of the state’s rural residents.
It is hard to imagine that we need a blog to help people understand what’s special about rural places. On the other hand, what a great way to share stories that never make the cut via traditional media outlets.
Discovering the blog also caused me to wonder if other efforts like that of the Kansas Sampler Foundation blog exist. If you are aware of any, please share.
Tags: Facebook, Get Rural, Kansas, South Dakota, web 2.0
Posted in Rural | Comments (
6 )
April 9th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Mike,
This is such a neat idea. Not only are they helping others to understand, but I would imagine that the practice of finding the special pieces of rural living is a good practice for those already living in rural places. Sometimes I forget how lucky we are. Thanks to the Kansas Sampler Foundation for helping remind me!
Lindsey
April 13th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
HI Mike
The Kansas Sampler blog has been an eye opener about our local communities in SD. I grew up in Deuel county and attended some of the meetings with Design SD there, but now wish I had seen this blog before then as it opened up ideas on many resources and items that would have been of interest
at that time. Please send me any other info such as this or put it in your blogs as I read them all the time.
Loren Budahl
Madison,SD 57042
April 14th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Loren
I was interested to see your post. Would be great if you could comment on some of the “ideas” that came to your mind about Deuel as you looked at the Sampler info. Good to have you in the conversation.
Jim Beddow
April 15th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Jim
Will post some ideas soon! Keep up the good work. I think Brianna Hoffman did a very good job in Deuel county.
Loren Budahl
April 21st, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Jim and Mike
Would contact have to be made with the Kansas Sampler group to see if we in SD can use and modify their Rural Cultural Elements to fit our needs here in SD? One of the things I was going to propose was for each county (in my case meaning Deuel county) to have a select group of volunteers use the assessment to gather info for their towns and county as a whole. Then compile a overall profile showcasing attractions that would bring visitors and new residents to the area.
I believe that at least 100 people would have to be active in each county in order to get a good presentable profile. They should be representable of each community in the county.
After this is completed, then it has to be put into attractive promotions for young and old alike.
Some ideas on this could be as follows:
1. Attractive brochures which describe the reasons someone would want to visit or move to the area. If these volunteers would agree to mail 5 or 10 to friends and family that they feel would have an interest. That would amount to between 500 and a 1000 contacts made in a short amount of time.
2. Blogs could be started by relatively few ( 10 or 15 ) individuals promoting people, places, history of, recreation and events in the area. This also, could be started rather quickly.
3.Websites could be developed , but will take more time and planning. However, many businesses and local governments, already have the sites and might be persuaded to help the promotion of the area. This could be presented to them on the basis of a direct benefit to them. Also, would it be possible to convince the State of SD website to provide links for interested people to contact local areas?
4. Word of mouth can reach farther and faster than most realize. I was in Minneapolis over the weekend visiting someone who was born in Gary,SD, so I brought up what was happening with the old Blind school. They already knew a lot about it via other friends and relatives scattered around Minnesota and South Dakota.
If everyone ( young and old) can get in a mindset of being proud of their home area and will talk it up, it might be surprising what could be accomplished. I read your later blog about Gen Y and certainly believe in the power they have to promote ,if they will.
Loren Budahl
April 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Loren,
Good stuff! We’ve been thinking about simlar stuff. We’ll get back to you with more in the future.