Small Town Idaho Vitality
I’ve always had a fascination with road trips. The kind of road trips I’m referring to does not involve any one of our country’s busy four-lane freeways. Freeways serve the purpose of getting you from point A to point B as expeditiously as possible, and for that they’re quite effective, regardless of how straight and boring they are.
I’m talking about the road trips taken almost exclusively on two-lane blacktop that take you around and through some of the country’s most beautiful and peaceful small communities. I’m talking about the kind of trips where it’s all about the journey and little to do with a destination.
These small towns are in most cases a true depiction of what America was and is now.
Unfortunately many of these small rural communities, some bypassed in favor of the newer inter-states, have suffered the ravages of time and struggling economies. So many of America’s small towns, the picture of growth and prosperity in the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, are now filled with crumbling buildings and empty storefronts.
Northbound travelers on our segment of Highway 95 through Midvale, Cambridge, Council, and New Meadows might likely wonder how these small towns still appear so vibrant and inviting, especially when one considers the near extinction of the logging industry in the region. The sawmills that employed and supported so many workers and their families in Midvale, Cambridge, Council, McCall, Riggins, Cascade, Horseshoe Bend, and Emmett disappeared over twenty five years ago. Support industries like the railroad branches are also gone, or are inactive.
Most communities within a 50-mile radius of the super-stores have witnessed the extinction of family-owned retail outlets. Add to this the ever-growing culture of engineered obsolescence where nothing is repaired, only replaced, and gone away are repair shops as well.
Our Agriculture-based economy, currently supplemented by minimal recreation and tourism dollars, continues to provide a fairly decent tax base that keep our schools and county services viable.
So then—just how do these small Idaho towns keep looking so good, and stay so active and pertinent to the quality of life in Idaho?
VOLUNTEERISM! Often taken for granted are the countless numbers of hours provided by members of our small communities who have a true appreciation for the quality of life afforded here. Many are the members who sacrifice their own time and efforts to present community activities like The Cambridge Rodeos and Hells Canyon Days. The Weiser River Trail, Community and Highway Clean-Up days are also conducted by volunteers.
Service organizations like The Cambridge Commercial Club and the Midvale Lions, bolstered by our schools and churches continue to do valuable volunteer service in our small towns.
In a class of their own of course, are our amazing Fire Department and Emergency Medical Technicians. These wonderful men and women have been devoting countless hours of voluntary, mandatory training over the years in order to provide our communities with selfless care 24/7, often at the expense of time with their families and personal pursuits.
Then, there are those individuals who look after their neighbors and quietly go about serving without notice or fanfare, seeing something that needs to be done and then taking care of it.
In celebration of America’s 250th Birthday, the Idaho Ambassador’s Service Challenge is calling for 250,000 acts of volunteer service by July 4th. At last count, 219,290 acts have been reported to the Idahokindness.com website. If you would like to contribute to that goal, please pull up the website and report your act of service.
You may also list volunteer opportunities on a free worldwide website at justserve.org in conjunction with the America 250 initiative.
