Editor’s Note: Doug Croft was a key member of the team that brought the All-America City Award to Thomasville, North Carolina, in 2013. Since then, he has remained deeply involved in the All-America City experience, serving as a mentor to finalists and the League’s lead onsite volunteer for over a decade. In the reflections below, Doug beautifully captures the heart and soul of the AAC experience.
“You all have restored me,” was my heartfelt statement to 500 people during the closing ceremony of the All-America City Award Event. I walked away from those 500 Americans hopeful and lifted.
The title ‘All-America City’ sounds so cliché. Maybe it is, but the spirit inside the event is something special. In an era when we often hear about what is wrong, I saw and felt what is right about America. What is best about America.
The All-America City Award is a program which for over 75 years has recognized towns, cities, counties, and regions that are overcoming challenges through cross-sector collaboration. The awards are presented to cities, but are really — all about people.
Let me tell you about just a few individuals who I met during the weekend. I met Trista from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina who is on the autism spectrum. With a huge smile and joyful spirit, she and a few others with special abilities, work at a pizza restaurant, folding pizza boxes with skill and pride in their hearts.
I met Adrian from Hampton, Virginia. When he was 11, his parents forced him to sell crack. At 14, his father beat him, stole and used the drugs Adrian was supposed to sell, and then turned him over to the authorities for dealing. Adrian spent 28 years entangled in the justice system until prison programs helped him turn his life around. After his release, he founded a nonprofit that addresses gaps in the juvenile justice system. As Adrian puts it, today he is a ‘violence interrupter.’
I met Terry, leading a ministry that serves the hungry and homeless in New York City. She literally sleeps under the streets, with those who have nothing. We both write poetry and recited it to the large All-America City audience. In a quiet moment after I muttered, “I would like to write poems like yours,” she gently replied, “you cannot, for you’ve never slept under the streets.”
I was with elected officials at city and county levels who deservedly exude pride, because it is their citizens, their school systems, their law enforcement, their chambers of commerce, their civic clubs, their churches who are addressing challenges and changing outcomes.
The list goes on. Five hundred people, from all over the United States, with similar realities and experiences of doing good. Overcoming challenges by doing things to improve their communities.
I do not write this as a commercial for the All-America City program (though I should). I write this to remind myself, and you, that in a country where we publicly see decorum dissipate, civility crumble, ugliness unleashed, and vociferous vitriol, there ARE beautiful stories out there.
Yes, the All-America City Award recognizes a few of them each year; however, there are thousands of other experiences all over the United States.
A country’s greatness should not only be measured in military power, GDP, or individual prosperity. Those are all highly important. But a country’s greatness should also be measured in her people. Who we are – healthy, loving, caring, lifting, educating, innovating, discovering, exploring, and nourishing.
You want to know what I think makes America great? Spend a weekend viewing All-America City presentations on YouTube. Watch and listen to hundreds of stories of citizen engagement, neighbor helping neighbor, community-building projects, where citizens, businesses, civic clubs, and yes, elected officials, take charge and overcome challenges. You too will be restored.
-Doug Croft
As communities grapple with the urgent challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, the 2025 All-America City Award will recognize the pivotal role that community engagement plays in advancing environmental sustainability and resilience. Learn more and apply.
