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The Nicest
In 2019, we got more nominations for
Nicest Places than ever! We couldn't have done it without the amazing support of many organizations across our great country.
Nicest Judges
Meet the
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The 50 Nicest Places in America
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Bruce Kelley
Editor-in-chief
of Reader's Digest
MEET BRUCE
Sarah Friar
CEO of Nextdoor
MEET SARAH
David Brooks
Op-Ed columnist for
The New York Times and Executive Director
at the Aspen Institute
MEET DAVID
Geri Weis-Corbley
Founder of
Good News Network
MEET GERI
Gary Dixon
President of Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (RAK) and the Foundation for a Better Life
MEET GARY
Claire Babineaux-Fontenot
CEO of Feeding America
MEET CLAIRE
Madeline Rogero
Mayor of Knoxville, TN, home of Yassin's Falafel House, the 2018 Nicest Place in America
MEET MADELINE
Steven Petrow
Award-winning journalist and book author
MEET STEVEN
50 Finalists
Nicest Places are big and small, stories of all different kinds, about people just like you—and people like nobody you've ever met. Read on to
feel the love and check back in October to see which one we put on the cover of Reader’s Digest magazine as the Nicest Place in America!
NH
MA
NJ
CT
RI
DE
MD
Franklin, TN
your hometown
Hover over the map to see the Nicest Places in America. Click to learn more!
Living in the Nicest Place in America means you live in communities that are committed to kindness, trust and health. Life Extension is the health solutions expert that is translating scientific research into everyday insights for people wanting to live their healthiest lives. Together, we’ve spotlighted the Community Health Heroes who are committed to supporting and inspiring communities to live happier, healthier lives.
SPONSORED BY
If your faith in humanity has been wavering, Nicest Places in America will restore it. America is
full of places where neighbors are friends, strangers are welcome, and random acts of kindness
are the norm. Each year, we find stories that prove that America is full of nice people trying to
do right by each other. Our goal is to inspire everyone to be better friends, relatives and neighbors.
VT
Winchester, KY
neighborhood family
Drexell & Honeybees
Donations Only Restaurant, AL
where all are welcome!
Drexell & Honeybees gives food and dignity to people who need it most and has inspired
the surrounding community to do the same.
North Pole, AK
the nicest place ever
Kingman, AZ
Kingman equals kindness
Anaheim, CA
city of kindness
Pueblo West Women's League, CO
Keeps on Giving!
Clintonville Elementary School, CT
School mission: kindness
The Estates at Saint Anne's, DE
where friendly people thrive
The Villages, FL
florida's friendliest hometown
The Fugees Academy in Clarkston, GA
Helping Refugee Children Find
Their Place and Succeed in America
Ahuimanu, HI
where heaven and earth meet
Hidden Springs, ID
the place where you want to come home
Fox Point in Barrington, IL
Family-Oriented, Friendly,
Fun Neighborhood For All Ages
Lafayette Transitional Housing
Center in Lafayette, IN
homeless is not helpless
Lansing Iowa Food Trust, IA
always here to give people
a lift when they need it
Cedar House in Abilene, KS
It Starts Out As a Women's Sober Living Environment And Then Becomes Family
Houma, LA
You'll Never Meet a Stranger in Louisiana's Bayou Country!
Bristol, ME
Idyllic Oceanfront Location
Whitehurst Community,
Severna Park, MD
a waterside community for young and old
Plymouth, MA
beach, downtown and family
Armada, MI
remembering april millsap
Fertile, MN
the best place to live and raise a family
Jourdan River Estates, MS
paradise, baby, paradise
Columbia, MO
the kindness capital of missouri
Ovando, MT
bikers' oasis
Sehnert's Bakery in McCook, NE
Welcoming and Inviting...And The Doughnuts Are Good, Too!
Dayton, NV
we may not be pretty, but we are pretty nice!
Pembroke, NH
where neighbors become family
Hunterdon County
YMCA Flemington, NJ
we are family
Las Cruces, NM
Mi Casa Es Su Casa
Harding Park in The Bronx, NY
Bronx's Best-Kept Secret
Sunset Hills, Greensboro, NC
Turning Tacky Christmas Balls Into Charity
Watford City, ND
North Dakota Nice
Columbiana, OH
the mayberry of ohio
Country Aire Estates
Broken Arrow, OK
i love my neighbors!
Molalla High School, OR
share the love
Delta Pizza, Delta, PA
the heartbeat of delta
Maury Loontjens Memorial
Library in Narragansett, RI
staying positive against all odds
Lake Trollingwood, SC
best neighborhood in the USA
Rapid City, SD
city of the presidents
Texarkana, USA
Twice as nice
Springville, UT
world folkfest comes again to springville
Barre City, VT
the granite capital of the world
Colonial Beach, VA
not just a beach town — a community!
Kitsap Peninsula, WA
Picturesque Pacific Northwest
B.A.R.K. Club Doddridge
County High School, WV
bulldog acts of random kindness
The Lingonberry Llama
Coffee Shop in Belleville, WI
Breathing Life and Kindness Into Small Town America
S. Chestnut St. in Casper, WY
dream neighborhood
Nicest Places are big and small, stories of all different kinds, of people just like you—and people like nobody you've
ever met. Read on to feel the love of the Nicest Places
in America and then vote on your favorite. One place and its inspiring story will be on the cover of Reader's Digest.
alabama
Drexell & Honeybees
Donations Only Restaurant
North Pole
Alaska
Kingman
Arizona
North Pole
Alaska
Kingman
Arizona
Drexell & honeybees donations only restaurant
Alabama
Texarkana
Arkansas
Kingman
Arizona
North Pole
Alaska
Drexell & honeybees donations only restaurant
Alabama
Texarkana
Arkansas
pueblo west
women's league
Colorado
Clintonville elementary school
Connecticut
City of Anaheim
California
Estates at Saint Anne's
Delaware
Hidden springs
Idaho
Ahuimanu hills
Hawaii
Fugees family in clarkston
Georgia
The Villages
Florida
Cedar House, Abilene
Kansas
Lansing Iowa Food Trust (L.i.f.t.)
Iowa
Lafayette transitional housing center
Indiana
Fox Point, barrington
Illinois
whitehurst community, severna park
Maryland
bristol
Maine
houma
Louisiana
Colonial valley subdivision
Kentucky
Jourdan River Estates
Mississippi
Fertile
Minnesota
Armada
Michigan
Chiltonville, Plymouth
Massachusetts
Dayton
Nevada
McCook; Sehnert's Bakery
Nebraska
Ovando
Montana
Columbia
Missouri
Harding Park
New York
Las Cruces
New Mexico
Hunterdon County YMCA, Flemington
New Jersey
Pembroke
New Hampshire
country aire estates, broken arrow
Oklahoma
columbiana
Ohio
Watford city
North Dakota
Columbia
North Carolina
Lake Trollingwood
South Carolina
Maury Loontjens Memorial library
Rhode Island
Delta Pizza
Pennsylvania
Molalla Oregon High school
Oregon
If your faith in humanity has been wavering,
Texarkana
Texas
Franklin
Tennessee
Letters to Santa make their way to this frosty town, where folks keep the Christmas spirit alive for kids around the world.
Small towns need a place to meet, talk and share. In this tiny town, that need was met in a big way.
A student club is making it their mission to make high school a friendlier place for kids who could use an ally.
When our nominator traveled abroad, she returned home to find her lawn neatly mowed. That’s
just how this neighborhood rolls.
All YMCAs offer fun and companionship. This one also offers family.
It's hard to find a house in this neighborhood because people hardly leave, and when
they do, they sell to the next generation.
It started with a plastic bag and a need
for a warm blanket. Now it's a movement that's making hundreds of lives better.
After an ugly incident split this town, the citizens found common ground when they anointed a homeless poet their “Adopted grandfather.”
It isn’t every city where someone can be elected mayor by running on the slogan, “Make Kindness Contagious.”
The students at this elementary
school go out of their way to make sure everyone feels included.
Here is the unique town where being different is normal and people banded together
to demand respect for those who deserve it.
A community of senior citizens remember the young men and women serving overseas by sending them goody bags chock-full of treats.
This non-traditional school uses
soccer to help refugees learn, and it
has a 100% college acceptance rate.
"Aloha" is a way of life on Hawaii, and this place truly embodies the spirit.
When illness nearly caused a beloved shop owner to close the doors, one group came to the rescue: Her customers.
An act of vandalism against an LGBT couple brings a neighborhood together and teaches a powerful lesson to the next generation.
People go hungry everywhere, every day. In this tiny town, help is here,
and everyone pitches in, even guests.
When this town helped women struggling with addiction get back on their feet, they repaid the favor.
A friendly town gets into an unfriendly battle with polluters, and wins!
A toe-tapping city welcomes everyone to dance their blues away.
Often, townies and tourists don’t gel. In this seaside town, they’re one in the same.
The spirit of Thanksgiving lives
on every day here as new settlers are as welcome as the very first pilgrims were nearly 400 years ago.
A beautiful public park full of butterflies and doves is a living, loving monument to a young girl taken too soon.
A dying veteran gave his all to his town after nearly giving his life for his country. His neighbors decide to give something back.
Hurricane Katrina wiped out 58 of the 60 homes here. But the town’s back with a bang, celebrating their recovery with a huge fireworks display.
A faraway tragedy inspired this community to work hard to bring goodness into the world.
A tiny town in the middle of nowhere has an outsized reputation for helping strangers.
Don’t be in a hurry when you visit the local bakery. Order the “bieroc,” grab a seat, and make a friend or three.
A woman felt disconnected and alone in the city she lived in.
Then she moved to Dayton, and suddenly, everyone was her friend.
We have a collective image of the perfect 1950s era town—pretty, tight-knit, caring. Some people call it Paradise. Others, Pembroke.
How would your city respond if 1,600 asylum seekers were sent there?
In Las Cruces, they were greeted with food, shelter, and open arms.
Crimes of compassion are nothing new in this melting pot, where everyone gets along, no matter what part of the world they came from.
One family’s silly lark leads to a city realizing the true spirit of Christmas.
Newcomers discover that a
population explosion couldn’t
diminish just how friendly this
town is, even after tragedy strikes.
Two businessmen plow their money into a community theater that hires special-needs actors.
The students’ goal was to fill a jar full of money for the needy. It’s two decades later, and they need a MUCH larger jar.
The local pizzeria owner made sure his Amish neighbors never went hungry. When his restaurant burned down, they repaid the debt.
As the people of this seaside town fight to save their library, the librarians go
about their business, serving the community.
A transplant to the south has found
a home in a town that is so nice, she says, “It’s made me a nicer person.”
Each winter, people drape coats, gloves, and scarves on the town’s statues. It’s for the needy to take, and it’s the best clothes drive ever!
To bring people together, this traditional Southern city embraces its past—both the good and the bad.
In most places, a dividing line acts
to separate people. In this border town, the line brings folks together.
Every year, folk dancers and musicians from around the world come to this out-of-the-way town to strut their stuff, and to make lasting friendships.
Most people don’t want a drug treatment addict as a neighbor. In this town, they’re met with open arms.
When young people in a small
town need a place to play, residents do what it takes to give to them.
For a period of 24-hours, no place in America has greater community spirit.
When snow falls, it's a race to the snowblowers to see who can do their neighbors' walks first. Everyone wins!
This small community can’t afford all the niceties. Lucky for them they have a fairy godmother watching over them. Make that a hundred.
judges
Meet the
Sarah Friar
CEO of Nextdoor
MEET SARAH
Bruce Kelley
Editor-in-chief
of Reader's Digest
MEET BRUCE
Geri Weis-Corbley
Founder of
Good News Network
MEET GERI
David Brooks
Op-Ed columnist for
The New York Times and Executive Director
at the Aspen Institute
MEET DAVID
Claire Babineaux-Fontenot
CEO of Feeding America
MEET CLAIRE
Gary Dixon
President of Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (RAK) and the Foundation for a Better Life
MEET GARY
Steven Petrow
Award-winning journalist and book author
MEET STEVEN
Madeline Rogero
Mayor of Knoxville, TN, home of Yassin's Falafel House, the 2018 Nicest Place in America
MEET MADELINE
Nicest Places are big and small, stories of all different kinds,
of people just like you—and people like nobody you've
ever met. Read on to feel the love of the Nicest Places in America and then vote on your favorite. One place and
its inspiring story will be on the cover of Reader's Digest.
Nicest Places
in America
50
From 1,100 nominations, 49 finalists, tens of thousands of votes, and 8 judges to one special place. The 2019 Nicest Place in America is like a lot of places all over our great country, full of kind people working hard to make each other's live better every day. Here's their story.
Welcome to the
in America
nicest place
The Main St. Theater in Columbiana, Ohio, is a symbol of making sure nobody is left behind in this rural community.
John Hippley has
turned his backyard into a free park for all to enjoy, pouring his own money and sweat into the whimsical venture, which he intends to donate to the town.
From left, Deb Salmen, Don Arthurs, Erich Offenburg, and Dawn Arthurs run Crowne Theater Productions, which puts on shows at the theater featuring special-needs actors.
The Waystation, a local non-profit,
is a thrift store, food pantry, jobs center and addiction support network supported by the whole town.
Pat Tingle moved back to town after a lifetime away, and has given back to the place she loves by donating a nest egg to renovate a beloved local park.
2019 Nicest Place in America:
Columbiana,OHIO
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