Every year, the nominations for Citizen of the Year and Junior Citizen of the Year are fewer and fewer. People seem to not care as much, and yet it’s still as important an award as ever.
Recognition of these individuals is an opportunity for somebody else to say, “Hey, you did good, you’re an amazing person, and I want everyone else to know that as well.” Life goes on whether we like it or not and too often we end up feeling like cogs in a machine; unimportant and unappreciated. There are those special people who end up voluntarily doing a lot to help other people and yet go unnoticed.
The Humboldt Journal, City Hall, and Humboldt & District Chamber of Commerce is once again encouraging residents to look up and start taking notice of the people around them. Look for those people who you keep running into at every event because they’re just there helping out. Look for those people who are still there at the end of events, helping put away chairs or packing up the tray of goodies they brought out of the goodness of their hearts. These people are silent, but generous. They give freely of their time and their skill simply because they want to.
The stipulations of the award calls for people who have done extensive volunteer work, but that doesn’t mean they have to be part of every volunteer organization. They don’t have to be well-known or popular public figures in the community; they simply have to be people who help out a lot. More often than not, they’re harder to find because they don’t stand out in a crowd. They don’t do it for the glory so they don’t advertise their own selfless efforts.
It’s for that reason that everyone is encouraged to find those people and nominate them. It’s not hard and it doesn’t take very long. Just fill out a nomination form (which is only a single page) and hand it into one of the aforementioned organizations. Sometimes, all it takes is a little recognition and appreciation to motivate people to keep lending a helping hand. It’s the one time of the year that we can all say thank you.
