
The pandemic was just months away when David Jackson, Boone Area Chamber of Commerce’s president and CEO, first began to understand the NC Rural Center’s impact. He’d taken part in a center retreat in Raleigh and soon after participated in its Homegrown Leaders program, which promotes regional solutions to long-term challenges for rural communities.
It was perfect timing. As the pandemic placed unprecedented challenges on rural communities, Jackson fell back on relationships with leaders he met through the center.
“That opportunity to pick up the phone and connect with somebody that you had a little bit of knowledge of became incredibly valuable currency in a very difficult time,” Jackson said.
Through the center, Jackson forged the kinds of professional and regional relationships he’d grown accustomed to in his previous career. Jackson joined the Boone Chamber in 2016 after 15 years as a member of the Appalachian State Athletic Department. There, he served as a play-by-play announcer for App State teams; he still does freelance announcing.

“Whether it’s COVID or Helene, that timing matters, the relationships matter.”
David Jackson
College athletics radio broadcasters are a close knit crew, said Jackson, who graduated from App State in 2000. But in the public sector, those connections weren’t as common.
“It was harder to make relationships early on in my chamber career without things like Homegrown Leaders that purposely put people in a room together and begin to learn from one another,” Jackson said.
In the years since, Jackson has only built on those relationships and continued connections with the Rural Center, which paid off when Hurricane Helene dealt a devastating blow to Western North Carolina in September. By late November, when Jackson briefly shared the App State booth with Super Bowl champion Jason Kelce, who was attending a football game to draw attention to the community’s resilience and ongoing needs on his YouTube channel, there were success stories — and an App State win — to celebrate.
But the work continues. On a recent January day, Jackson was headed to Asheville for an event with other regional chambers of commerce to seek the next round of aid from legislators and business leaders. The Boone chamber’s foundation also continues to raise money for the region. So far, it’s dispersed about $460,000 in recovery grants to 160 businesses and $125,000 to help keep licensed childcare centers open.
Once again, those shared connections, whether through regional networks or the Rural Center, have led to quicker problem-solving and proven indispensable, Jackson said.
“Whether it’s COVID or Helene, that timing matters, the relationships matter.”

“It was harder to make relationships early on in my chamber career without things like Homegrown Leaders that purposely put people in a room together and begin to learn from one another.”
David Jackson