Selma, North Carolina is currently competing in Strong Towns’ #StrongestTown contest. The Town of Selma and Activate Selma, of which I am one of the co-founders, nominated the town of 7,000 people and was delighted to learn we have been selected!

We started the bracketed competition last week — a Sweet Sixteen of 16 selected towns across the US and Canada. We were matched with Los Altos, California. By Friday, Strong Towns notified us we had advanced the Elite Eight with 70 percent of the vote total in the first round. Phew! For two days we’ve been in the heated second round of voting, matched with Brattleboro, Vermont. Town staff and council members, our “activators” in Activate Selma and others have done everything we can think of to get the word out to VOTE. (If you read this before March 30, 2023 at 1 pm Eastern Standard time, please vote for Selma NC: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/3/27/stc2023-r2-selma-brattleboro

Yesterday, when I saw our local news site, JoCo Reports, had posted about the competition, and I read snarky comments from anonymous commentors, I posted – and repeat here – why I think Selma, North Carolina is strong.

First, there are our ongoing, weekly, grassroots conversations that build community. Activate Selma meets every Wednesday at 9 am, and anyone is welcome – business owners, retirees, volunteers, stakeholders. We move around, so today’s meeting is at The Farm at 95, 215 Batten Road, but our upcoming April meetings move from the 40-acre farm R Ranch, to Barn Shelter Antiques, Coffee on Raiford and Call Pernell Heating & Air Conditioning. We take people out of their silos so they can see the town from other people’s shoes. Our motto is, “we don’t complain, we take action” to change ourselves, and in the process, change the town. That what makes Selma strong.

Second, we follow Strong Towns’ approaches. In his book, Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity, Charles Marohn explains his four-step process before investing in any kind of solution to a town’s challenges:

a. Humbly observe where people in the community struggle.

b.  Ask the question: What is the next smallest thing we can do right now to address that struggle?

c. Do that thing. Do it now.

d. Repeat.

That’s what Activate Selma is doing. When you see high school students painting building art in “activate alleys,” when you see a man go from selling quinceanera dresses in his garage to owning his own building with a boutique that caters to a market that stretches across the state; when people are pouring into their own downtown “living room” for a Rockin’ on Raiford concert — you know that your town is doing small incremental changes to get past the vacant buildings and apathy of the past. It takes a long time — but those small changes are the longest lasting ones.

Third, we carry the message. Watch a Facebook livestream by one of our activators, Michael Sneed, owner of Appliance Bootcamp and Old Fashioned Ice Cream in Selma. He explains it better than I can. He shared this with his 8,400 subscribers to his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdW88qngXA8&t=2538s

By Friday, we’ll know if we are in the Final Four of the #strongesttown competition. We’re giving it everything we’ve got! If you read this before March 30, 2023 at 1 pm, VOTE. I just know, no matter what, Selma, North Carolina is already strong, and getting stronger.