Traverse Connect is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Distinguished Service Award, its signature recognition for “business leaders, public servants, patrons of area arts, naturalists, and those from a host of other backgrounds who’ve worked and given tirelessly to improve the region.” This year will mark the 96th year of the award, which was first presented in 1929.

Winners of the Distinguished Service Award over the years have included local luminaries like Glenn Loomis (1963), Helen Osterlin (1989), Keith Charters (2003), and Tony Anderson (2018). Most recently, the honor was bestowed upon Mary Vollink, a long-time member of the Salvation Army team.

Those wishing to make nominations for the Distinguished Service Award may do so on the Traverse Connect website. Nominees must be residents of Traverse Connect’s five-county service area, which includings Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Kalkaska, and Antrim counties. The nomination portal will remain open until 5pm on Friday, January 30. The recipient of this year’s award will then be announced in March and honored at a luncheon in May.