Summer of Solidarity seeks nominations for Champaign County community heroes

Know someone who has made Champaign County a better place through advocacy, mentorship, bridge-building or simply showing up for others? Beginning Aug. 22, the Summer of Solidarity coalition will give residents a way to recognize and celebrate those local heroes.

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URBANA - Know someone who has made Champaign County a better place through advocacy, mentorship, bridge-building or simply showing up for others?

The Summer of Solidarity coalition wants to hear about them.

Beginning Aug. 22, residents can nominate and recognize living people who live or once lived in Champaign County and who have made a meaningful difference through their care, support, bravery, advocacy, vision, collaboration, respect, kindness or other efforts to strengthen their community.

The coalition is launching the Solidarity Hero of Champaign County, or SHOCC, project to encourage residents to recognize people who have helped make their communities better and to personally celebrate the impact those individuals have had.

SHOCC awards recognize living people who live or once lived in Champaign County and have strengthened their community through actions such as advocacy, mentoring, bridge-building, kindness, courage and leadership. The project aims to build stronger connections by encouraging residents to openly appreciate local heroes and collectively celebrate people working to create a more caring and just community.

The project is intentionally broad. A SHOCC recipient might be someone who has mentored others, built bridges between people, advocated for their community, challenged others to do better, offered support during difficult times or pursued a vision for a better community, state or country.

Residents also can work together to recognize someone they share as a local hero. If the honoree is willing, organizers encourage groups to host a SHOCC celebration to collectively recognize that person's contributions.

The Summer of Solidarity began in 2025 and continues to highlight exemplary local leadership and community-minded efforts. Through the SHOCC project, the coalition hopes to encourage people to recognize those who strengthen the community by putting people over profit and standing up for civil rights, respect and justice.

For residents wondering who to nominate, the coalition's message is simple: Think about the person who helped lead the way for you or others in Champaign County. If that person has made your community stronger through caring, advocacy, courage, mentorship, collaboration or a commitment to a better future, they may be a Solidarity Hero of Champaign County.

Nominators can download SHOCC award certificates and give them to as many eligible recipients as they wish. Each certificate should include a personal explanation of how the honoree has demonstrated meaningful solidarity. Free certificates and information about eligibility and award parameters will be available beginning Aug. 22 on the Summer of Solidarity website.

Physical certificates also will be available for free at five local businesses: Art Coop, Circles, Exile on Main Street, Fire Doll Studio and Spineless Books. Pickup locations and the award parameters will be listed on the Summer of Solidarity website when the project launches.

For more information, contact Aimee Rickman at airiemail@yahoo.com or https://tinyurl.com/SOScu26

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TAGS: Solidarity Hero of Champaign County awards, Summer of Solidarity Champaign County local heroes, nominate community leaders in Champaign County, local advocacy and community leadership awards Urbana Illinois, SHOCC award certificates Champaign County

Apply for the Governor's Hometown Award, applications are being accepted now

The Governor’s Hometown Awards program, now in its fourth year, recognizes individuals and organizations that make an impact on the quality of life in their community. The award is given to projects that met a need with substantial volunteer support and made a significant impact in the nominee's town or village.

The Serve Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service is accepting applications for this year's Governor’s Hometown Awards (GHTA) program now through February 19. The Governor’s Hometown Award promotes the Commission’s mission to improve Illinois communities "by enhancing volunteerism and instilling an ethic of service throughout the state." The GHTA recognizes projects that, with the help of local government, enlisted sizeable community support and volunteerism resulting in beneficial outcome not only for recipients of the effort but the for the overall community.

The competition is open to townships, villages, cities, and counties for projects during the period of January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2020.

Past recipients include Edwardsville's Growing with the Garden which was recognized in 2018. Working with the Edwardsville YMCA Early Childhood Development Center to design and develop three raised gardens in the facility’s children’s playground, an Edwardsville High School senior taught kids at the center the importance of vegetables in the diet, helped them plant, cultivate and harvest vegetables from the new gardens.

With more than 35,000 veterans in Lake County, an educational program that demonstrated the benefits that equine-assisted therapy provides service men and women and veterans who face challenges such as PTSD was the result of a collaboration between BraveHearts, a therapeutic riding and educational center, and the Veterans of Lake Barrington Shores in 2018. The joint cooperation created an interactive event for Lake Barrington and its surrounding communities that resulted in GHTA recognition the following year in 2019.

Locally, in 2018, Urbana was honored as a project winner for their "Friendship Grove Nature Playscape" project. A year later, Urbana received an Honorable Mention for their "Urbana Park District Advisory Committee" work and Vermilion County also received and HM nod with their "Step Up Vermilion County" project.

For additional information regarding program and the application process, please visit www.Serve.Illinois.gov. This year's application can be downloaded from this link: 2020 GHTA Application.

The Serve Illinois Commission is made up of a bipartisan group of 40 members board appointed by the Governor JB Pritzker and is administered by the Illinois Department of Public Health.