It's hard to believe that we are approaching the tenth anniversary of the Valley's winning the coveted All America City award from the National Civic League. A very diverse group of Valley citizens traveled to Louisville, Kentucky as one of 30 communities large and small from all over the country who had been selected as finalists to compete for one of ten awards. Valley United Way was one of the groups involved in putting this together along with the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Valley Council for Health & Human Services and its Healthy Valley 2000 Project among others.
According to the National Civic League, the "All-America City Award is America's original and most prestigious community recognition award". The first awards were made in 1949, and more than 500 communities have been recognized for their outstanding work in overcoming local challenges. Nationally syndicated columnist Neil Pierce who was a judge in 2000 said in his column following the event that he had been pleased to have had the opportunity to see what was "cutting-edge" in communities across the country dealing with issues of local importance and went on to single out the Naugatuck River Valley for its collabortive work.
The award was the culmination of the work of many groups in the Valley, but I'd like to single out Healthy Valley 2000 for some special recognition. That project is now simply called Healthy Valley, and it has been scaled back quite a bit. However back in the mid '90's it was a robust "virtual" organization with members drawn from all walks of life in the community. It involved people who had an interest in enhancing the quality of life of the Valley. It's original website with a description of all its programs can still be found by clicking
http://valleycouncil.org/healthy/. Bill Powanda of Griffin Hospital was a driving force behind Healthy Valley, and he was the one who first suggested that the Valley go after the All America City award. In 1999, we were selected as a finalist and had a wonderful time in Philadelphis, but were crushed when we did not become one of the selected ten.
However a review of our performance from the Ntional Civic League gave us an understanding of just how close we had come and after getting over the initial disappointment, we decided to apply again. On the application, you have to tell the story of your community and its accomplishments and how it meets its challenges. Being a finalist one year does not mean anything for your next application, but we had a great story to tell, and we were selected as finalists agin in 2000!
From there, everything became a blur as we had to assemble the delegation, recruit sponsors, make travel arrangement and then take Louisville by storm to tell the amazing story of one of the most resilient local communities in the United States. The key part of the process would be a 10 minute stage presentation before the panel of nationally recognized experts who served as judges. Luckily, we had Liz Kennard and Gary Scarpa producing our presentation, and it was extraordinary. Though our rehersals had left something to be desired, it all came together when the delegation marched into the hall chanting, "We are the Valley, the mighty, mighty Valley" as suggested by delegate Diane Stroman. The presentation which highlighted our unique history and our approach to solving community problems went off without a hitch, and so did the question and answer session that followed. All 30 delegations made similar presentations in an effort to support their cause.
Later that night, there was a Civic Action Fair where each delegation had a booth which also highlighted each communities uniqueness. To say that our booth was spectacular would be an understatement. We were mobbed all night telling the story of the Valley and passing out samples of items produced here in the Valley. What made the night even more special was a presentation on the main stage by the Ansonia High School Gospel Choir. Students from the Youth Connection had already shown the musical talents of Valley students during the formal presentation earlier in the day. However, the Choir was a show stopper. Their high energy performance literally stopped people in their tracks throughout the hall.
Sitting around waiting for the final night's session was nerve wracking, but there was both excitement and confidence in the delegation as we streamed back into the main hall along with the 29 other delegations to await the final verdict. It had all the excitement of a national presidential convention as the room rocked to loud music and a multi-media display from the week's activities. The tension rose as the selection of the 10 winners was announced until we finally heard the Valley announced as one of the ten winners. It was both a feeling of exhiliration and relief knowing that all the hard work had paid off and that the rest of America would now know and confirm what a special place the Valley is.
It was almost ironic that when we strted the Healthy Valley Project in 1994, we had called it Healthy Valley 2000, and in 2000 the effort had culminated in an All America City Award! That was one of my proudest moments in my years at United Way as we were an important contributer and partner in the achivement. It was - and is - something that everyone in the Valley can continue to be proud of. It's also a reminder of the good things that can happen when we work together to solve our problems.
Our All America City website still exists. Though some of the links are now broken and some of the videos no longer work (there was no YouTube in 2000!!), you can still visit the site
http://electronicvalley.org/allamerica/ and relive one of the great moments in Valley history.
For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at
http://www.valleyunitedway.org/.
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