When Will arrived in Rutherford County about three years ago drawn by the region's beauty, he went looking for a broadband connection. That's how he wound up at Foothills Connect, a fledgling nonprofit established to support small business entrepreneurs. The nonprofit offered him a job when it discovered that he spent much of his career as a telecommunications systems analyst introducing complex technological innovations in the Caribbean and South America.
Foothills Connect Business and Technology Center is transforming the area's food system and returning a once farm-based economy to its agrarian roots, thanks to the ideas and initiative of Executive Director Hondruas RPCV Tim Will
Rutherford program is an economic model, deserves recognition
November 6, 2009
Anyone looking for evidence that Margaret Mead got it right when she said a few committed people can change the world needs look no further than Rutherford County.
That's where Foothills Connect Business and Technology Center is transforming the area's food system and returning a once farm-based economy to its agrarian roots, thanks to the ideas and initiative of Executive Director Tim Will.
Last week, Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think tank, recognized Will's accomplishment by awarding him the Purpose Prize, which goes to social innovators over 60 who make significant contributions in their "encore" careers. Will is one of five people nationally chosen from among about 1,200 nominees who will receive $100,000. Five others will receive $50,000 awards.
When Will arrived in Rutherford County about three years ago drawn by the region's beauty, he went looking for a broadband connection. That's how he wound up at Foothills Connect, a fledgling nonprofit established to support small business entrepreneurs. The nonprofit offered him a job when it discovered that he spent much of his career as a telecommunications systems analyst introducing complex technological innovations in the Caribbean and South America.
The executive director resigned about a month later and Will took over. The nonprofit was floundering and Will faced a gargantuan challenge. Over the past 10 to 15 years, Rutherford County lost about 75 percent of its textile and furniture manufacturing base as plant after plant closed or moved offshore. With little broadband infrastructure, hopes for building a new 21st century economy were slim.
Will had found a mission for which he was ideally suited by a lifetime of experience and a passion for social justice. Besides his career in telecommunications, he'd helped rebuild poor communities in Honduras and Fiji with the Peace Corps, worked as a neighborhood planner in New Orleans, managed a small Florida town as its part-time mayor and taught U.S. history in a Miami high school.
His first big achievement at Foothills Connect was to secure a $1.4 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation to provide broadband access to the county's schools and police and fire departments.
Looking around for another way to provide economic support, Will learned that 6,000 families in the county owned between five and 20 acres of land. Small farms had been the county's primary economic engine before manufacturing, but few were still operating.
During a chance encounter, he discovered from a chef at a Charlotte restaurant that restaurants there had little access to local produce. He came up with an idea. If he could persuade farmers to grow for Charlotte restaurants and Foothills Connect could create an online ordering system, laid off factory workers could use their land to earn a living.
So Foothills Connect began offering sustainable farming classes and urging would-be farmers to learn computer skills. Will signed up a group of restaurants willing to add local produce to their menus and persuaded farmers to grow unfamiliar items like shiitake mushrooms and microgreens.
Foothills Connect set up a database and adapted software to create a unique ordering and distribution system that promotes farmer-chef relationships through the Internet. The result was Farmers Fresh Market, which now has about 70 farmers enrolled. It's an initiative that promises a future of sustainable farming and economic security melding the region's heritage with 21st century technology.
Will credits the staff and farmers who are part of Farmers Fresh Market for making it possible for him to win the Purpose Prize and he believes in its mission so much, he is donating the $100,000 to Foothills Connect. For baby boomers just beginning to enter their 60s, Will is an inspiration. He not only demonstrates that a few committed people can change the world, he reminds us it's never too late.
On the Web:
To view Will's Purpose Prize profile go to:
http://www.encore.org/prize/nominate?ref=candidate page.cfm?candidateid=4765
