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GOVERNMENT
ORR Awards Recreation Grants to 5 Rural Communities
Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) officials said they are proud to award five rural communities – from New England and the mid-Atlantic to Appalachia and Alaska – with implementation grants to help grow their local economies and make them more resilient through outdoor recreation. The 2024 awardees are: Beverly, Ohio; Claremont, New Hampshire; Giles County, Virginia; Haines, Alaska; and Poultney, Vermont. Each recipient participated in the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) program, an interagency partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USDA Forest Service, Northern Border Regional Commission, and Appalachian Regional Commission that provides technical assistance to help communities chart out economic development plans including outdoor recreation. This is the third group of ORR grant recipients since the program’s launch in 2021 and comes just after the RERC program opened the application period for its new cycle. For communities with big plans and limited bandwidth, this funding will help to unlock federal, state, and local match dollars from programs like USDA Rural Development, state infrastructure funds, and interest from private foundations. Success stories from the five communities awarded grants by ORR in the previous year’s cycle are highlighted here. These grants are made possible through funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and help ensure that ORR can continue to provide support, information, and resources to rural communities seeking to create economic opportunities through outdoor recreation. “This year’s group of rural recreation communities receiving support through our grant program represent an outstanding mix of all that outdoor recreation has to offer,” said Jessica Wahl Turner, President of ORR. “From economic resilience and retention of workers and businesses to public health improvements and environmental investments, hundreds of communities nationwide are turning to outdoor recreation as a core foundation for their success. The Richard King Mellon Foundation has been an invaluable partner in helping deliver this grant program and ensuring that more places and people than ever will have the opportunity to experience the benefits of time spent outside. We can’t wait to see what these communities accomplish with this support.”
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