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Golden Heart Awards Nomination Information
Categories
- Adult Volunteer of the Year – Individual 19 years of age or older.
- Environmental Stewardship Volunteer of the Year – An individual or couple that volunteers for an organization involved in environmental stewardship.
- Performing Arts Volunteer of the Year – Individual or couple, that volunteers for an organization that supports and promotes performing arts within the community.
- Cultural Volunteer of the Year – Individual or couple, that volunteers with an organization promoting, educating and preserving visual arts and cultural heritage of the community.
- Volunteer Group of the Year – A group of 3 or more volunteers whose efforts have strengthened an organization and the community.
- Youth Volunteer Scholarship Award – Limited to high school seniors. Nominations can be made by the youth or others. Youth nominees will be asked to provide an essay on volunteerism.
- Karl May Lifetime of Service Award – An individual whose lifetime of service exemplifies notable achievement in community service. The award has typically been given to a volunteer who is 60+ years of age.
Eligibility
- Nominee’s volunteer organization must provide services for the community at large. Religious, fraternal, or professional groups that provide services only to their members are not eligible.
- Volunteers who received reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses such as mileage are eligible.
- Past recipients of Golden Heart Awards are ineligible to receive the award again for 5 years. Past nominees can be nominated annually.
Helpful Tips
- Be as specific and concise as possible.
- Consider interviewing the nominee to ensure you have complete information about their service.
- On the Nomination Form, focus on one program or organization that best highlights the nominee’s service when answering the first four questions (Activity, Need/Impact, Initiative and Achievement).
- Use the fifth question (Service) to describe the nominee’s volunteer work with other organizations and programs. Consider reaching out to those organizations to get more information about your nominee.
- Assume judges know nothing about the nominee or the organization, so tell the story as you would to a stranger. Expand on why the work of your nominee is important to the program or organization.
- Well-written nominations score higher with judges. If necessary, ask for help from someone you know who has excellent writing skills.
- Not sure where to start? Want your nomination to stand out? We highly encourage any nominator to attend a ZOOM Q&A and coaching session. Sessions are:
(SIGN UP TO GET THE ZOOM LINK AUTOMATICALLY EMAILED TO YOU) Entries must be received by United Way of Door County by Monday, February 24, 2025.
Nomination Form Instructions
- Organization or individuals can nominate more than one candidate or candidates may nominate themselves.
- Volunteers can only be nominated and receive an award in one category.
- Nominations will only be accepted on the Nomination Form.
- All nomination information should be considered public and may be disclosed at the awards ceremony or to the media.
- An independent, anonymous panel of community leaders will choose award recipients for each category. Judges may request additional information. Their decisions are final.
- The nomination form can be found at United Way of Door County website at: https://unitedwaydc.com/nominationform. For persons unable to access the online nomination form, please contact United Way of Door County office at (920) 746-9645 before Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
Questions? Contact Kelly at kelly@unitedwaydc.com or 920-746-9645
Golden Heart Nominees Get Complimentary Tickets!
- All Golden Heart nominees received complimentary tickets to the event.
- Nominees in Adult Volunteer of the Year, Environmental, Performing Arts, Cultural, Youth and Lifetime of Service receive 2 complimentary tickets for themselves and a guest.
- If a couple is nominated for one of the categories, they receive 2 complimentary tickets, one for each of them.
- A nominated Volunteer Group will receive up to 8 complimentary tickets for members of that group.
- Additional tickets can be purchased for $50 each. First opportunity for purchased tickets goes to nominees and the organizations who nominated them. Tickets will go on sale to the general public early March.
- Some of the sponsor packages include tickets. For more information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Kelly at United Way of Door County at 920-746-9645 or kelly@unitedwaydc.com.
