I n October 1994, a severe storm hit Neylandville, population 168. Winds in excess of 80 miles per hour tore apart the town's community center.

"That building was where we had our town meetings, youth programs, senior activities, weddings, you name it," says former mayor Lois Callagan who spearheaded the effort to rebuild the center. "We stored equipment for the fire and police departments there. That's even where people got married."

In an effort to rebuild the community center, Callagan asked each person in Neylandville to send letters to friends and family asking for contributions. The town rallied behind the cause, doing most of the construction themselves. But still they were short $7,500 to complete the project.

That's when Callagan, who worked for a branch of Texas A&M University in Commerce, found out about the TEES Center for Community Support (CCS). CCS grant writers helped her put together a proposal to the Texas Rural Communities grant program. The resulting

Callagan points out the importance of the Center for Community Support to small, rural communities.

"Our center was destroyed at about the same time as the big Houston flood, so when we asked the state for emergency funds to rebuild our community center, we were not prioritized," says Callagan. "The people at the Center for Community Support helped us find a grant that would fund us, and they really helped us in writing the proposal."

Neylandville City Hall & Community Center