There were a number of great events throughout the month of January, but the two I want to highlight on this post are the Prayer Vigil/Concert/Red Carpet event and the Centre for Commerce Annual meeting in which we presented the first annual Tourism Awards.
On January 18, stars from the "Selma" movie visited Selma to participate in a Prayer Vigil at City Hall, which ended with a march from City Hall to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. At the Bridge, John Legend and Common performed their Academy Award winning song "Glory." The cast, director, and producers of the film, along with Alabama officials then attended a red carpet screening of "Selma" at the historic Walton Theatre. After the screening, the cast, director, and producers took the stage for a question and answer session on the film.
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| Front Row (L-R): Ava DuVernay ("Selma" Director), David Oyelowo (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), Oprah Winfrey (Annie Lee Cooper), Dede Gardner (Producer), Jeremy Kleiner (Producer). Back Row (L-R): Paul Garnes (Producer), Common (James Bevel and co-writer of "Glory"), and John Legend (co-writer of "Glory") |
Later that week on January 22, the Centre for Commerce held its annual meeting at the Convention Center. At the end of the meeting, we presented the first annual Tourism Awards. The community voted on Event of the Year and Attraction of the Year and there were almost 500 votes for these awards. We also surprised the crowd and presented two additional awards - Tourism Partner of the Year and Media Advocate of the Year. Thank you to One Way Book Store for creating these beautiful awards!
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| Congratulations to the winners of the 2014 Tourism Awards! Attraction of the Year - Old Cahawba Archaeological Park; Event of the Year - Integrity Worldwide 5K; Media Advocate of the Year - Selma Times-Journal; and Tourism Partner of the Year - Madden & Associates. |
Congratulations to Dr. Alston Fitts, III for being inducted into the Blackbelt Hall of Fame on January 30!
Be sure to check the blog on the first Monday in March for the next Tourism update.
