Tri-Cities, TN/VA became America's first and only All-America Region based on two key factors: sound responses to the National Civic League's Civic Index (an over-arching tool developed to measure community infrastructure) and a 10-minute presentation full of feeling and emotion. The Tri-Cities, TN/VA team set out to win the National Civic League judges' minds with the Civic Index and their hearts with the presentation.

When the Index asked about citizen participation in political, community, and neighborhood affairs, the Tri-Cities, TN/VA team pointed to efforts ranging from tree-plantings to citizen-driven visioning sessions. When the Index asked how well leaders from the public, private and non-profit sectors worked together, the Tri-Cities team was able to point towards the Tri-Cities Quality Forum, a seminar designed to educate leaders from all walks of life about quality management techniques. The Index asked about volunteerism and philanthropy. The Tri-Cities All-America team responded with tales of the "Santa Train" and Bristol Motor Speedway's "Fantasy in Lights" benefit for children's charities. "Do the schools teach citizenship and civic responsibility?" asked the Index. Tri-Cities All-America team members answered with information on the Roan Scholars Leadership program at East Tennessee State University and the Appalachian Inter-Mountain Scholars program. In the area of community information sharing, it was noted that The Business Journal of Tri-Cities, TN/VA has covered news from a regional perspective for years and that more media are beginning to follow suit. In community vision, the Tri-Cities highlighted efforts such as Bristol Ignite, Johnson City Focus 2015 and Kingsport Vision 2017. Objective analysis of the Civic Index clearly bade well for the Tri-Cities effort. When it came time for the Tri-Cities, TN/VA All-America team to face the judges June 24-26 in Philadelphia, it seemed there was no question which team members couldn't answer (and answer well). The judges' minds were won.

The 10-minute presentation had been scripted to the second, yet still came through not as a well-rehearsed performance, but as an honest, sincere show of pride and love for the region. In the end, said team chairman Colon Terrell, "The judges said our presentation was not the slickest, but it was the most heartfelt."

The Tri-Cities, TN/VA was the fourth winner named from a field of 30 finalists...and we haven't stopped celebrating since. More importantly, though, we haven't stopped doing the things which made us deserving of the award...and we won't stop...simply because those are the things we'd always do anyway. They're the things which make us who we are: the Tri-Cities, TN/VA - the nation's first and only All-America Region.