Mayor Lois Humphreys said some credit for that must go to Steve Weston, owner of a 12-screen Abingdon movie complex. Weston plugged the contest to his movie audiences until his voice literally gave out.
The voting was done last year from October to December. Each voter could go to the American Dream Town Web site once a day to cast a ballot, so the number no doubt represents a lot of repeat votes by the same people.
Still, the competition was heavy. Judges screened three nominees from each state, for a total of 150 candidates.
Last year's Dream Town was Braselton , Ga. The winner in 2004 was Glen Rose, Texas , and, in 2003, Montauk, on Long Island , N.Y. Nominees must be towns, not cities, and preferably attractive towns with something extra going for them.
The Washington County Chamber of Commerce and the Abingdon Convention & Visitors Bureau didn't even know about the contest at first. The nomination came from Bruce Northam, a travel writer for National Geographic who apparently was just passing through.
"We did some press releases, went before some businesses," said Steve Galyeon, who spent about 11 years as visitor center director before becoming tourism director for the Virginia Tourism Corp. in Richmond in December.
Weston, owner of the Abingdon Cinemall, which opened eight years ago this month, became a cheerleader for the town. He asked movie audiences if they were familiar with the Dream Town competition.
"Of course, most of them weren't," Weston said. "Initially, nobody really knew but, after a couple of weeks," he said, "I'd see several hands go up."
He urged the moviegoers to vote early and often for Abingdon . "Even if you live in Bristol , if you want to vote for the southwest region, we're the town that's nominated," he would tell them.
Weston said he opened the Abingdon Cinemall, which boasts state-of-the-art projection equipment and a sound system designed by none other than George Lucas to showcase his "Star Wars" movies, because he likes movies and had no nearby place to see them when he moved to Abingdon from Florida in 1996.
His contest-pushing got to the point that his manager, Cindy Hubbell, took him to task for putting his duty to the movie enterprise second.
"I guess I was quite a bigmouth, going through the community, bothering people," Weston said.
"I was just very persistent," he said. "I told my employees that they had to vote and they had to get 10 friends or family members to vote."
Sure enough, the American Dream Town Web site soon showed Abingdon moving up in the totals. It climbed to third place, then gradually worked its way up to first.
Votes suddenly grew for other towns near the top, Weston said, as they saw they had competition. "They started to close the gap," he recalled. "They got within 200, 300 votes of us."
But Abingdon pulled away for a decisive victory, with a total of 20,452 votes. Locust Grove , Okla. , came in second with 5,589 and Celebration, Fla. , finished third with 4,850.
"We're pretty excited about it," said French Moore, a former Abingdon mayor and current town council member who was named president of the Virginia Municipal League this year. "I understand they're getting a lot of hits on their Web site."
Town officials are looking into upgrading that Web site as news about the contest sparks interest in the town.
"It was a horse race there for a while. I started making speeches until I was hoarse," Weston said. He actually lost his voice once while talking to people attending late shows.
"So my voice was gone and I'd be trying to talk to audiences the next day," Weston said.
Abingdon will be featured this summer in a half-hour talk show on WVVH-TV in Hamptons , N.Y. , on the American Dream Town show.
Why Abingdon ?
Founded in 1778, the town still has historic buildings dating to that period. Its 20-block historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places.
As home to the two-stage Barter Theatre, the State Theater of Virginia, the town is also a cultural center. It hosts the Virginia Highlands Festival, an arts, crafts and antiques gathering, for several weeks each August. It is home to the William King Regional Arts Center , the Arts Depot and many shops and galleries.
Outdoor enthusiasts visit the Virginia Creeper National Recreation Trail, along a 34-mile former rail bed. Abingdon is also a gateway to the vast Mount Rogers National Recreation Area and to South Holston Lake .
On the Net: www. abingdon .com
Illustration: Photos by PAUL DELLINGER The Roanoke Times - 1. The Barter Theater, an Abingdon centerpiece since the Depression, has two stages and is the State Theater of Virginia. Abingdon is also known for the annual Virginia Highlands Festival in August. 2. The Martha Washington Inn in Abingdon is part of the town's historic district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 3. Steve Weston - Multiplex manager led effort to get out the vote. 4. chart - The woman behind Dream Towns (please see microfilm for text)
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