Vince Gill Joins America’s Best Communities to Revitalize Small Towns

Vince Gill has joined the America’s Best Communities partnership to aid in revitalizing small towns across the country.

America’s Best Communities will reward communities with the best business plans for economic development and improved quality of life in a $10 million prize competition. Winners will share best practices and ideas for growth among all communities.

“There’s a lot of small town community in me. I have a small town mentality,” Gill recently said during a press event in Nashville. ”This is where I live and I want to make it better, I want to be part of a team focused on supporting the backbone of America.”

America’s Best Communities has already drawn more than 200 registrations across the 27 states served by Frontier Communications. Fifty quarter-finalists will be selected in April 2015 and awarded development funds for their revitalization proposals.

At the end of the competition in 2017, the top three applicants will share $6 million in prize money – $3 million to the winner, $2 million for second place and $1 million for third place – money to be used to continue to implement their improvement plans.

Maggie Wilderotter, Chairman and CEO of Frontier Communications, said, “As the largest broadband communications company focused on rural America, we want to be a catalyst for growth in our towns and cities. We believe that investments in these locations will have a multiplier effect as communities embrace opportunities for revitalization. Whether it is upgrading existing businesses in the area or new startups, a focus on local businesses will be key to sustained growth. We also will look for innovative ideas on how each community will come together to socialize and interact as a measurement of success.”

Conceived by Frontier Communications and co-sponsored with DISH Network and CoBank, America’s Best Communities Prize is a competition that will fund economic development opportunities for the winners and share best practices and great ideas for progress among all the communities that enter.