A recent research campaign for The Good Samaritan Society, America’s largest nonprofit provider of elderly care, afforded The Matale Line the chance to spend weeks on the road visiting some of the smallest towns in rural America—Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakota’s, Kansas, Florida, Colorado and Arizona. “We spent days with people who understand the value of hard work, and who aren’t inclined to pay much attention to things that aren’t real,” says Bill Toliver, executive director of The Matale Line. “It was a wonderful reminder of the humble, straightforward, help-your-neighbor values that built this country.” It was also a sobering reminder of the real impact of a poor economy, loss of jobs overseas and high oil prices. “Some of these towns are literally disappearing as fast as their economic foundation decays,” observes Bill. “Without The Good Samaritan Society, many of the ‘old-timers’ in these towns would literally have no place to go.”