Series examines big role of volunteerism and nonprofits in rural life; story is a good example for other rural papers

Rappahannock County, Virginia
(Wikipedia map)

A nonprofit local news initiative in northern Virginia, the Foothills Forum, has produced with The Rappahannock News an excellent three-part series examining the outsized role nonprofits and volunteers play in rural Rappahannock County.

"Strange as it may sound, kindness can get complicated. That’s true especially in a community like Rappahannock, where many hope that if the bucolic views can survive, so can its rural soul. But that’s becoming more fanciful as the county goes through a demographic and economic transformation that has clearly made it older, but also has widened an income and culture gap," Randy Rieland reports for the News. "Which, in turn, can make doing good a touchy matter. There are insinuations that fancy fundraisers 'aren’t the Rappahannock way.' Concerns that 'Benevolent Fund' might sound 'too patronizing.' Worries that events can seem designed only for what’s been described as 'PLUs' — 'People Like Us.'"

Matthew Black, president of the Rappahannock Association for the Arts and Community, said there can be tension between longtime residents and newcomers. "There’s this uneasy alliance between people who have lived here a long time and folks who are coming in, people who have chosen this place," Black told Rieland. "They bring a lot of money. They generate taxes. They donate their time and energy. But how do you have that without attitudes starting to rub up against each other. Those are the fault lines."

"This is a story that could be done in any town or county in this country, regardles of migration patterns, and is an example to follow," said Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog.