Rural Route Ramble

Holiday shoppers are descending on northwest Iowa communities, getting a glimpse of the beauty of small-town life and offering a much-needed boost to businesses.

- By Lisa Foust Prater Executive Editor, Family & Rural Issues [e-mail]

From left: Kari Thomas, Melissa Nelson, and Marissa Molland are the friends behind the Rural Route Ramble in northwest Iowa.

If you want cool things to happen in your small town, you have to do cool things that's Melissa Nelson's motto.

She and friends Marissa Molland and Kari Thomas are living those words in northwest Iowa.

Nelson grew up on a Nebraska cattle operation, earned an ag communications degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and moved to her now-husband Mark's home farm near Moville, Iowa, 18 miles east of Sioux City. She started a nonprofit ag education organization, visiting classrooms for about six years before becoming the ag internship and externship coordinator for Morningside University in Sioux City.

She's also the creator of Hungry Canyon, a line of ag-themed greeting cards and gifts. Nelson said her items are designed "for people who know true love is getting the gate or signing the operating note."

A Hungry Canyon collection called Wait For Me features high-visibility shirts for children, and stickers that can be placed by the ignition or gearshift of equipment, reminding operators to make sure the area is clear before starting machinery. A portion of those proceeds are donated to farm safety efforts.

Building Community

Nelson said she wanted to become part of the Moville community and began thinking of ways to get involved. After seeing a social media post from a boutique rental space in a small town in Nebraska, she shared it and said she wished there were something similar in Moville. She received a message from Molland, whom she didn't know at the time. It turns out, Molland went to high school with Mark, and their kids attended the same daycare.