COMMUNITY OF THE YEAR AWARD
Montana's first-ever Community of the Year Award was recently presented to the community of Philipsburg. The award is directed at honoring a community that has done exceptional work in promoting, preserving and improving its image and visitor resources for the benefit of not only its visitors, but its residents and Montana as well.

The bestowment of this award was influenced by comments like this one from a Montana visitor to the Philipsburg community:

"During the 50 years or so that I have been acquainted with this sleepy village, there has been little change until recent years. Now, the attitude of this entire town has changed and it is becoming increasingly recognized as a prime tourist destination."

Here's another comment from someone outside the community:

"Resourcefulness and self-reliance...we find these two qualities in spades as we look at what the people who live there have accomplished."

What have they accomplished?

• Their main street has vintage street lights valued at $4,000 each that were paid for and installed by local businesses and 26 community volunteers...and the U.S. & Montana flags that wave there now were also purchased and placed the same way.
  
• They have cheerfully painted the historic business district fronts and earned the title of one of the region's "Prettiest Painted Places" by the national Paint Quality Institute.
• Their historic Opera House was renovated - by plenty of volunteer work - to host a recent Rocky Mountain Accordian Celebration and now will be in service to the community and region for years to come.
• They have expanded - through volunteer efforts - the Granite County Museum to include a cultural center for meetings and small plays. They have created a very realistic underground mining display at the museum and they host Montana's Ghost Town Hall of Fame.
• The 900 or so residents host visitors from all over the region during their Flint Creek Valley Days and they share their community with the children from Camp Mak A Dream for five separate days throughout the summer.

This and much more has happened in Philipsburg, the Montana Community of the Year. The support for Philipsburg comes from all across southwestern Montana and the country. A common comment was that less than 10 years ago, this was a grey, dying little mining and ranch town. Now it is a community sporting rainbows. Here are two more supporting comments:

"This little town speaks volumes about what can happen when individuals band together for their mutual self-interest and what can happen when the private sector acts."

"Philipsburg, Montana is not your typical tawdry tourist-trap town, where you spend a few hours and a lot of money and come away with a few cheap souvenirs and a feeling that you have been ripped off. Philipsburg is just the opposite. In Philipsburg, you can slow down, enjoy the beauty of an earlier, more graceful era, and come away with some wonderful memories, friendships, beautiful sapphires and one-of-a-kind jewelry, and most of all, a warm glow. In a way, Philipsburg, Montana is like Brigadoon...except that I hope it does not vanish into the mist for a hundred years at a time."

Congratulations, Philipsburg - the Montana Community of the Year.