Deserving disability community members are sought as nominees for the 2015 Access Press Charlie Smith Award. The award deadline is fast approaching on Friday, August 21.
The Access Press Board of Directors wants to hear from readers with nominations for the coveted award, which is given in recognition of outstanding service to Minnesota’s disability community. Honorees can be nominated as an individual, a couple, a family, organization or an informal group of friends.
Award applications are available here. Anyone needing assistance or accommodations may call the newspaper office at 651-644-2133.
Completed nomination forms and questions about the nomination forms and process can be sent via email to [email protected], via fax to 651- 644-2136, or mail to Anthony Avenue #910, St. Paul, MN 55103.
Nominees can be from anywhere in Minnesota. The board welcomes and encourages nominations from throughout the state.
Additional materials about an award nominee, such as a resume, letters of support, articles in other publications or links to broadcast news stories, are welcomed as part of a nomination. Don’t forget to send a high-quality picture of the nominee. The jpeg format is best; ask about other formats. Pictures can also be mailed or brought to the office for scanning. Please specify if a picture needs to be returned.
People cannot nominate themselves. Nor can past award winners be nominated again.
Past nominees can be submitted again, but with conditions. A nominator cannot submit the same nominee in consecutive years, but someone else can make the same nomination the following year.
Nominees can be nominated for two consecutive years. But then there is a one-year waiting period before the nominee can be submitted again.
Pictures and biographies of all nominees will appear in the September issue of the newspaper, on the Access Press website and on a display at the award banquet. The winner is the guest of honor at the annual banquet, which is Friday, November 6 at the Minneapolis Airport Marriot 2020 E. American Blvd., Bloomington.
The award is given in honor of the late Charlie Smith, founding editor of Access Press. He was a wel-lknown Minnesota disability rights advocate. With the support of his family and many friends, Smith founded the newspaper in 1990. He died of cancer in 2001.
Previous winners of the Charlie Award are:
2009 – Anne Henry, Minnesota Disability Law Center
2008 – Pete Feigal, Co-Founder of Tilting at Windmills
2007 – Jim and Claudia Carlisle, People Enhancing People
2006 – John Smith, University of Minnesota
2005 – Minnesota Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (MN-CCD)
2004 – Rick Cardenas, Co-Director of Advocating Change Together (ACT)
2003 – Margot Imdieke Cross, Minnesota State Council on Disability
Banquet tickets are $45 per person or $325 for an eight-person table in advance. That represents a savings of $35. Tickets are $50 per person at the doors
November 6. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the newspaper office.
Guests enjoy a delicious meal (Tuscan chicken, slow-roasted beef or vegetarian), a fun silent auction
and “pick your prize” raffle, speeches and time to socialize with friends. Family members and friends of the honoree are encouraged to attend. The Marriott is
reasonably accessible. Interpretation is offered by request for any guests. Please let the Access Press staff know in advance if any accommodations are needed.
Contact the office at 651-644-2133 or [email protected].
