There is an old story told by minister Harry Emerson Fosdick about an experience he had as a boy growing up in New York. His mother sent him outside to pick a quart of raspberries. He didn’t want to do it. He approached the chore reluctantly, and that container seemed to fill painfully slowly. Then he changed the challenge in his mind. Instead of picking the quart his mother requested, he decided to surprise her by picking two quarts. Suddenly, everything changed. The raspberries hadn’t changed. The chore hadn’t changed. The amount of time he had hadn’t changed. His mother hadn’t changed. His attitude changed. I’ve been thinking about that story because I believe it applies to how we approach our neighborhoods and communities. It is easy to look around and focus on everything that needs to change. We want local government to do more. We wish people volunteered more. We complain that nobody knows their neighbors. We wonder why someone doesn’t organize an event, clean up the park, welcom...

  What if one of the keys to a thriving rural community is not found at home or at work—but in the places in between? Coffee shops. Libraries. Parks. Local stores. Community centers. Farmers markets. Restaurants. Public squares. These are often called “Third Places” —the informal gathering spaces outside our homes (our first place) and workplaces (our second place) where people encounter one another, have conversations, build relationships, and develop a sense of belonging. For rural communities especially, these places can be much more than amenities. They can become essential pieces of a community's social infrastructure. That idea was the focus of a Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities (CEC) Exchange Quarterly Webinar on Friday, August 28, 2026 that can now be viewed on YouTube . One of the featured guests was Stephanie Campbell-Yount, owner of Haven in Maryville, Missouri. She shared  how Haven came to life and how a business can become something more than a pl...