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Montgomery has won the title of an All-America City at the National Civic League's All-America City Awards in Denver, Colorado.

Winning such a title is an achievement for the city, especially for Caroline Hall who said she was one of the many to vote for Montgomery to win.

"I'm real happy!" Hall said. "We have a lot of history here so I'm glad we won. Like I said I voted so I'm glad we won."

Twenty-three finalist cities competed for the title given to at least 10 cities each year. The award recognizes communities for successfully addressing pressing challenges such as housing, government innovation, job development, educational improvement and neighborhood and commercial revitalization.

For Louis Calligas, who works downtown for Balch & Bingham, the revitalization of Montgomery's downtown is one area he is thrilled to see recognized.

"I work downtown and everything downtown is going great," Calligas said. "I hope they keep doing what they're doing to help revitalize downtown and get people down here both living working and going out and that kind of thing."

Similarly, Hamp Russell, the owner of City Drug on Dexter Avenue is excited to see the improvements being made around his business to prepare for the anniversary march from Selma to Montgomery.

"We're excited about what's going on in Montgomery," Russell. "As you can see we have a lot of things going on downtown and it's been great … we're exited about what we've seen happening downtown and we just want to see it continue on."

This year applicants were asked to list one or more projects or initiatives aimed at addressing the underlying conditions that affect the health of communities. Montgomery boasted three programs that successfully tackled this issue: The Obesity Task Force, The Eat South Organization, and the River Region Health Clinic.

Delegates representing each of these programs traveled to Denver over the weekend to present a program that showed how together, leaders and residents have partnered to significantly reduce the obesity rate, increase physical activity, increase the consumption of fresh produce and improve the quality of indigent health care in Montgomery.

"This award is well-deserved and a wonderful follow-up to our recent title of USA Today's Best Historic City. This just goes to show how Montgomery has always been a place where even in the face of great challenges, in the past and in the present, Montgomerians work together to make our city an exceptional place to live, work and play," Mayor Todd Strange said in a news release.

— Rebecca Burylo and staff report