By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

In a campaign to showcase the best cities America has to offer, Reader's Digest representatives visited Kissimmee Feb. 22 on a 100-day tour to celebrate the pride residents had in their community and provide the city with an economic stimulus check.

Publication ambassadors pulled up to Kissimmee City Hall in a recreational vehicle at 9 a.m. to greet Mayor Jim Swan and other city officials and to provide the city with the $1,000 check.

Kissimmee was just one stop on Reader's Digest's We Hear You America, a 100-day, 100-city cross-country trek providing cities with a promotional spike and financial stimulus to help them counter the quality of life cuts triggered by the economic downturn.

The tour also was designed to show what the best America had through the pride and concerns residents had for their city. Reader’s Digest chose the 100 cities based on the comments left on the publication's website when voting opened in November. Individuals were asked to leave comments and concerns about their respective cities.

“They (Reader's Digest) wanted the people to speak out and see what they needed from us,” Jayson Harrison, assistant tour manager, said, standing in front of the RV.

The city of Kissimmee was chosen because the publication “noticed some incredible pride and some needs on rd.com (the Reader's Digest website) by the town’s supporters,” according to a press release.

Some of the comments about Kissimmee left on the website stated: “We need someone to clean up Lake Toho” and “Clean up Lake Toho.”

According to a city press release, the  $1,000 will be used to pay for a Lake Tohopekaliga community clean-up day.

“I think it's great and it's appropriate because of the commitment we made to the lakefront,” Swan said.

The city is currently in the second phase of a $25 million Lakefront Park improvement project.

Some other comments logged onto the website included: “We need more teen clubs!” and “Our Town needs more youth rec centers. The younger people have no where to go.”

But there was more to the publication's initiative than just a tour of the cities. It happens to coincide with the publication's digital platform relaunch as it's introducing an iPad app, a new electronic newsletter and a new version of the magazine available only on its website.

“We aim to provide the greatest value to our community while offering our content to the nation in any format that they want, whenever they want it,” Reader’s Digest Community President Lisa Sharples said in a prepared statement.

Reader's Digest, self-described as the world's largest global editorial brand in a press release, is a monthly general interest family magazine founded in 1922. According to Wikipedia.com, Reader's Digest has a global circulation of 17 million, making it the largest paid circulation magazine in the world. For many years, it was the best-selling consumer magazine in the U.S., losing the distinction in 2009 to Better Homes and Gardens.