Ten years ago, Joanne Galloway could feel her rural community in the eastern part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula being left behind.“We’re not blind,” said Galloway, a self-described mom, small business owner and family farmer. “We could see the advances in the internet connectivity happening around us.”

Galloway was concerned that her community and region were missing out on opportunities for remote work, telemedicine, educational services, and internet-based entrepreneurs. 

Galloway went to work, hoping to find a way to bring high-speed internet to her town and region.

“Any time I was out and about in town, if I ran into a county commissioner or the person from regional development and planning, I would just keep asking: ‘what are we doing about getting internet?’” Galloway said. 

Galloway built relationships and connections over the years, always intending to bring more opportunities to her region through better communications infrastructure.“In 2014 we brought everybody to one table,” Galloway said. “All the internet suppliers were there. Michigan Connect was there. People from the university and the hospital were on the team. People who I knew in the community who were hoping to work virtually were in the room.”

Yet, even as the group matured into the newly formed EUP Connect Collaborative, Galloway said that the group always ran into the same problem. 

“What we were up against is a lack of money,” Galloway said. “We simply couldn’t put the capital together to build the community-based system that we envisioned.”

That changed when Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in 2021. The legislation included significant payments to state and local governments to pay for critical public services and infrastructure like high-speed internet. Galloway and her partners sprang into action, tapping into ARPA and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund at the Federal Communications Commission to fill their funding gap. 

“We asked for 3% of the ARPA funds from all the townships and counties, and then 3% from the Department of Education Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, intended to promote universal access to telecommunications services) for the schools at that time,” Galloway said. “And we are putting that funding to work across the three county area in the Eastern Upper Peninsula with a goal of universal connectivity.”

The EUPConnect Collaborative is creating a 21st-century broadband infrastructure throughout the EUP which will provide cyber security protection for all residents, businesses, utility companies, governmental units and institutions at a competitive pricing structure by 2025. In addition to ARPA funding, the group has another pending grant through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

Members of EUPConnect present to White House leaders on how leveraging IRA and ILJA federal infrastructure and climate spending can make the promise of equity a reality .

Galloway, now retired from farming and living in Lansing, has made bringing high-speed internet to rural Michigan her full-time job. As executive director of Center for Change Northern Michigan Advocacy, Galloway said that federal investments are necessary to fill the funding gaps in rural infrastructure.

“We’re talking about low-resource areas all over rural Michigan, especially in the UP,” Galloway said. “A portion of the funding has to come from federal investment, from outside funding. It absolutely has to because there’s no extra money in these communities.”

Center for Change Northern Michigan has joined with other groups to advocate for federal investments in rural America. They partner with United Today, Stronger Tomorrow and have traveled together to Washington, DC, to tell their stories. Galloway even visited with White House staff to describe her community’s grassroots approach to internet connectivity. 

“We are urging our elected officials to think about how now is the time to capitalize our rural infrastructure, Galloway said. “We have to make sure that our communities, our rural communities, don’t get left behind.”

Joanne Galloway in Cheboygan, Northern Michigan.

Galloway said that federal funding for high-speed internet service in rural Michigan would help reduce economic inequality.

“I think we’re seeing more and more that people are getting left behind—sometimes they don’t even know it because you don’t know what you don’t know—and there’s a lot of anger and frustration that comes with that feeling.” Galloway said. “But we have the power to change. We can solve this problem and make lives better in the UP and all over rural Michigan.”

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021. The $1.9 trillion stimulus package helped  fight the pandemic and support families and businesses struggling with its public health and economic impacts, maintain vital public services even amid revenue declines locally, and to build a strong, resilient, and equitable recovery by making investments that support long-term growth and opportunity