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Breaking News: Peoria named All-America City for 2013

Peoria has been named one of ten All-America Cities for 2013 in a ceremony in Denver, Colo., this evening. The award, sponsored by the National Civic League, is given annually to ten communities for outstanding civic accomplishment. Peoria last received the designation in 1989. Peoria also won the All-America Stories Video contest and Ethan Mosher earned the Youth Award.

Peoria's All-America City delegation included members of the Young Professionals Organization of Greater Peoria and Carl Cannon's ELITE Drum Corps, and was led by Tim Cundiff.

To qualify as a finalist for the award, the delegation submitted an application highlighting three outstanding community efforts. Peoria's submission included the Museum block, educational development and medical growth in the community. Once Peoria was named a finalist, the delegation was required to create a video promoting the city culminating with a final 10-minute presentation before the All-America City committee during a three-day event on June 14-16 in Denver, Col.

According to the National Civic League website, the designation helps "by increasing community pride, networking with civic activists from across the country and gaining national recognition. The AAC designation has helped communities win grants and new resources and attract new employers."

Check out the team's presentation:

About the Author

A Juilliard-trained writer, Kevin Kizer has fought against numerous world-champion writers during his career, besting the reigning middle weight writing champion in an exhibition bout in Helsinki in 1976. He also played a crucial role on the U.S. gold-medal winning writing team during the 1984 Pan-Am games, where he came off the bench in dramatic fashion to write the winning prepositional phrase just as time expired.