This excerpt from our Appalachia Digital Accelerator newsletter highlights a story from our Kentucky partners Red Bird Mission and Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR). While being a celebration of the power of connectivity, it also provides a stark view of the broadband challenges facing so many rural communities and a reminder of the urgency of expanding reliable, high-speed internet.

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As Accelerator participants work diligently on broadband planning, it’s essential to remember what it’s all for. This month, a story from our partners at Red Bird Mission and Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) was a poignant reminder.

Sitting in rural Clay County, KY, Red Bird faces extremely limited and unreliable internet access, sporadic phone service, and no cell signal. In an effort to improve connectivity, Red Bird teamed up with SOAR and the Kentucky Department for Public Health to deploy Starlink satellite internet spots across the community.

This initiative proved to be not only life-changing, but life-saving.

On the day of an athletics tournament at Redbird School in January, both phone and internet services were down. During the event, a woman suddenly collapsed in the bleachers. With no connectivity at the school, a teacher used a radio to reach a colleague at a nearby internet point, who alerted the local hospital and requested an ambulance. Thankfully, despite suffering a heart attack, the woman received timely medical treatment and fully recovered.

Read the full account, shared by Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR)

This story underscores the critical role of internet access in emergencies. Without the quick thinking of those present and the work of Red Bird and SOAR, the outcome could have been tragically different.

Fortunately they were able to reach the hospital, but it is entirely unacceptable that the wellbeing of an entire community hinged on two-way radios and a satellite connection. The lack of robust communications meant precious minutes were lost. In other circumstances this delay could be the difference between life and death.

In 21st-century America every community should be able to reach essential services when and where they need to. That’s why the Appalachia Digital Accelerator exists. And why we’re grateful to have partners like SOAR, Red Bird, and others throughout Appalachia doing the life-changing, life-saving work of closing the digital divide.

Learn more about the Appalachia Digital Accelerator.