Carl Junction in top 5 winners in Small Town Showcase program

The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·2 min read

Jul. 20—CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — The city has won a spot in the top 5 of the 2023 Small Town Showcase from Missouri Humanities, the Carl Junction Area Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday.

The Small Town Showcase program spotlights small and rural communities in the state while giving them a platform to share their market with a larger audience. In addition to Carl Junction, a Jasper County town of about 8,000 people, the towns of Seymour (Webster County, population of 2,000), St. James (Phelps County, population of 3,900), Doniphan (Ripley County, population of 2,000) and Norborne (Carroll County, population of 637) also were selected through a public vote.

"Thank you to everyone who made this dream a reality by voting for Carl Junction the last month," said Cavanaugh Studyvin, executive director of the Carl Junction chamber, in a statement. "We are honored to be featured alongside fellow top 5 small-town winners in the state of Missouri. There were 43 amazing communities nominated, and just to be on that list was a great accomplishment. We can't wait to show everyone how special Carl Junction truly is."

As part of the program, Carl Junction will work with Missouri Humanities on the following:

—A three- to five-minute video about the community, shot on-site.

—An hourlong podcast, roundtable style.

—A feature in the biannual publication MoHumanities.

—A highlight reel, featuring all five communities, shown at the Missouri Humanities annual gala.

The Small Town Showcase initiative debuted in 2021 as a way to highlight the uniqueness of Missouri's small communities, according to Missouri Humanities, a nonprofit organization that provides educational public programs and grants. Nominations for 2023 were collected earlier this year; voting was open to the public from May 1 to July 1, and the nominees received a combined 47,000 votes in total.

"This year's 'Featured Five' boast all the characteristics that we look for in charming small towns: a slower pace of life, family oriented events, rich histories, proximity to nature and an authenticity that you just don't find anywhere else," said Ashley Beard-Fosnow, executive director of Missouri Humanities, in a statement. "These Missouri towns have small populations with big personalities that we cannot wait to highlight."