Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) will accept nominations until April 14 for the 2016 Yoneo Ono Outstanding Rural Volunteer Award. The award honors rural people who have made significant lifelong contributions to their community in volunteer capacities.

Who are these women? – The story of Donna Schroeder’s life until now-she is 76-can be told with chicken scratches carved into a small wooden block, an engraving that hangs amid dozens of others just like it in Elmo’s Highwood Bar in Highwood, Montana.

Several areas across the rural West saw noticeable gains in employment in the year preceding June 2015, but others, such as Alaska, suffered losses in the same period, keeping that state’s jobless rate above the national average.