Unity In The Community Of Hardy

One of the greatest strengths a small town like Hardy depends upon can be summed up in one important word: COMMUNITY.

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines COMMUNITY several ways, but they each serve as a valuable vision for what creates a community like Hardy. 

 a: a unified body of individuals – Unity, sharing common visions, hopes and desires. These are absolutely vital to any small town, like Hardy.

b : people with common interests living in a particular area – Common interests are as simple as a clean town, safe streets, relaxed living and as complicated as good education, well-paying jobs, and affordable taxes.

c : an interacting population of various kinds of individuals in a common location – Community members have to be involved, motivated and working together for the common good.

d : a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society – Characteristics can include joyfulness, sincerity, and helpfulness towards strangers. Interests can include art, horses, fishing and of course much more.

e : a group linked by a common policy – Coming together on how Hardy  can prosper and grow, how our children are educated and how our town is maintained can be the most challenging aspect of any community.

f : a body of persons having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests – Hardy is so richly blessed in its history and in its opportunities for the future.

Our first definition of what Community means began with “ a: a unified body of individuals – Unity, sharing common visions, hopes and desires. These are absolutely vital to any small town, like Hardy.”

Unity does not mean absolute agreement on every thought, action or detail. What matters is determining the most vital aspects of our community. Aspects such as quality of life, jobs, education, economic health, new businesses and others should all receive major focus from us all.

“FOHA” Friends Of Hardy Arkansas wants Hardy to remain somewhere people feel at home. Somewhere where we know our neighbors, visit with friends and share with family. There is no desire to outgrow our sense of community but to build on it instead.

So where should we start? First should be someplace where we can make a living. There is a need to attract “new” money to Hardy. Unfortunately, America no longer serves as bedrock for manufacturing jobs. We have moved even from a service economy to an experience economy and now people are talking about an innovation economy. Building such a capability though will take committed investment in time and education both of which will not happen overnight.

In the meantime, we need to attract outsiders to spend their money in Hardy. In other words attract tourism dollars to help support our community. Tourism is a pillar of economic survival for small American communities including Hardy. It is possible that our tourism dollars can provide a larger share of the community income than property taxes! In order to achieve this it is important to developed reasons for people to come visit Hardy and additionally ensure that the community attitude exhist to make even visitors feel at home.

Tourism is not the only answer to Hardy’s future, but it does provide opportunity and hope to the community. Tourism requires a reason for people to visit Hardy and an attitude by our community that visitors are welcome and respected.

The “common unity” though has to be in our attitude about our own community. What we project in our attitude about Hardy is what visitors will most remember. It’s important to note that even if we had a Silver Dollar City theme park, if we are constantly complaining about our community, people still wouldn’t enjoy it. How we feel about Hardy, including the locals and the transplants that call Hardy home, is much more important than buildings, history or events. Caring about our community and becoming involved in its future will make all the difference in the world.

If you haven’t noticed it yet, there is an effort underway to revitalize Hardy, it’s small business and web-based business. For rural communities like Hardy, the key is talented, innovative people with a heart for the culture and history of our community. We have that here already and together we can make this town shine bright!