T-Mobile pushes rural focus with $25 Million in small town grants

T-Mobile has made rural America a clear aim, with a push on brand recognition alongside deployments, retail stores, and initiatives like its Hometown Grant program. The company announced 25 small town winners that are part of its five-year commitment to provide $25 million in grants for community projects, alongside earlier stated plans to hire 7,500 new employees in small towns and rural areas. Winning projects span a range of community development initiatives, from renovating a town-owned home as a safe home for abused women and their children, revitalizing and creating a full-time performing arts center, creating and enhancing greenspaces like city parks, playgrounds and dog parks, completing a baseball complex, to converting an undeveloped city lot into an outdoor accessible classroom with public Wi-Fi. The project is in partnership with Main Street America and Smart Growth America. Winners are chosen and awarded on a quarterly basis and towns with populations of less than 50,000 are eligible to apply.

States that had winners include Alabama (Atmore and Wedowee), Arkansas (Clarksville), California (Mammoth Lakes), Illinois (Dixon), Indiana (Batesville), Idaho (Fruitland), Kansas (Fort Scott), Michigan (Lake Orion), Mississippi (Oxford), North Carolina (Laurinburg, Robersonville, and Boiling Springs), New Mexico (Raton), Ohio (Bowling Green), Oregon (Aumsville, Talent, and Toledo), Pennsylvania (Phoneixville, Pittston, and South Fayette Township), Tennessee (Erwin), Texas (Elgin), Utah (Helper City), and Washington (Moses Lake).