When the matter was put to a vote, 72 percent of people approved raising the local sales tax by a half percent to cover a $30 million bond issue, the first in the county in 40 years.

“They saw the big picture,” Heard says.

The new Allen County Regional Hospital opened in 2013, with state-of-the-art equipment thanks to another $2.2 million in donations, grants and tax credits. Bolstered, people took that win and parlayed it into more action. Residents petitioned for a new grocery store. On the site of the old hospital, Iola Industries, an economic development group, built 12 apartments in order to convince a grocery chain—G&W Foods—to follow the lead and invest in a new market. “The pride is back,” says Mary Ross, who knocked on 1,000 doors for the supermarket petition.  

Helping the process along is Thrive Allen County, a nonprofit that works as an engine to connect people and turn ideas into reality. In Moran (pop. 500), residents want to convert the town’s sole grocery store, which the retiring owners want to sell, into a food cooperative. Working with the Thrive team, they held a “God, Country and Groceries” rally last July where they recruited 40 members. “We have to succeed,” says Dale Johnson, a pastor from a neighboring town. The nearest place to buy food is the Walmart in Iola, 15 miles away.

Thrive Allen County pushes the message that residents must work with what they have. That’s why it rallied residents to carve a network of biking and hiking trails among 300 underutilized acres around the abandoned Lehigh Portland Cement Plant and quarry. Volunteers with chainsaws cleared 10 miles of paths through dense woods, a chore that took two years to complete.

Everyone chipped in. When the trail-blazers needed a bridge to span a gully, the county government offered an old one. A house mover was hired to move it to the trail. Another business donated old conveyer belts to use as decking.

At first, naysayers thought the trails were a waste of time and money. Now that they see how popular they are, the question is how to add more. “That’s a big paradigm shift,” Toland says. “It shows that we have made it over a huge hurdle as a community from the ‘whether’ to the ‘how’.”

Thrive Allen County began bringing middle-class residents together with lower-income neighbors in “conversation circles” to encourage frank discussion, as well as connections and understanding. Helen Ambler, a retired school district employee, formed a bond with an unemployed younger woman and helped to coach her through a job interview. “When you actually get to know people, to set aside prejudice, we can begin to listen,” she says.

From these community conversations, leaders stepped forward and started to put ideas into action. Some were simple gestures, like covering the cost for a free load of laundry to remove the embarrassment of having to wear soiled clothes, or setting up “Blessing Boxes” stocked with canned goods and household products. Others required advocacy, such as successfully pushing municipal utilities not to turn off service in below-freezing weather.

At the First Presbyterian Church of Iola, volunteers serve free meals on Sundays to keep the conversations going. “People don’t get out of poverty if the only people they know are other poor people,” says the Rev. Linda Whitworth-Reed. “This helps in relationship building.”

Instead of furloughs, Works retained everyone on the payroll but kept them busy by sending them into Humboldt to do volunteer work. Every church got free repairs. A baseball field got a facelift. Teams of five would go to an employee’s home and do repairs for a day, then hit another home the next day.

Works carried the financial cost of doing this for a year, until orders picked up.

People like Works contribute to a Culture of Health in Allen County by fostering a sense of community and sparking a spirit of volunteerism and engagement, inspiring others in the process. They understand that increasing job opportunities and improving education are the best ways to eliminate economic barriers to health.

In 2013, another business owner in another part of the county heard the story of Joe Works and thought, “If I ever get into the position where I can do something like that, I’m going to do it.”

Ray Maloney got in that position and did something just as big. He owns a sprawling metal scrapyard in La Harpe, a town of 500 and one of the county’s poorest. Maloney will be the first to tell you that school wasn’t his strong suit growing up. So he thought: Why not start a training program to help kids like him who may be struggling in high school?

His goal is to keep jobs and young people in Allen County. “We’re trying to get people to stay here, get the kids back home,” Maloney says.

He floated the idea and people liked it, including the county’s four school districts, as well as three community colleges. But to actually launch the “Regional Rural Technology Center” was like herding cats, Maloney recalls.

Money was an issue. Impatient and determined, Maloney plowed ahead, buying a warehouse from a foreclosed lumber business in La Harpe. He dispatched his crews to convert the building into a teaching space.  

One community college provided a trainer for the construction trades, another for welding and a third will begin online classes for instruction for nurse assistants. Instruction began last fall.

“Allen County and the people have been really good to me,” Maloney says. “That’s why I thought I need to give back a little bit.”