Nominations for 2021 Hometown Spirit Award Open Thursday

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Cary, NC — Once a year, a Cary resident who embodies a community-driven spirit is chosen as the Hometown Spirit Award winner.

Following a tumultuous year where helpful acts and community morale were especially needed, it’s time to recognize a few of our communities heroes who went above and beyond in the last year.

2021 Nominations

The nomination period begins this week on Thursday, August 26 and will remain open until September 23.

Nominees must be age 21 or older and should demonstrate qualities such as helping neighbors, showing hospitality, promoting a sense of community, and displaying patriotism. A panel will select the award winner after the nomination period ends. All nominees will be recognized at a reception and the Hometown Spirit Award winner will be announced in November.

Award Details

The Hometown Spirit Award is bestowed annually on a Cary citizen who enhances the quality of life in Cary by preserving, promoting and carrying out positive and quantifiable traditional small-town community values and traits as embodied in the following criteria:

  • Helps out neighbors and fellow Cary citizens
  • Demonstrates hospitality
  • Promotes and preserves traditional American past-times
  • Shows a concern for preservation and works to preserve traditions and the small-town atmosphere in the community
  • Promotes a sense of community in their neighborhood and all of Cary
  • Demonstrates patriotism through promotion and preservation of the country’s symbols and dedication to the U.S. military, past and present
  • Serves the community through business

Award History

Brent Miller, last year’s Hometown Spirit Award recipient.

In 2008, Cary citizen William Clifton Barnes submitted a proposal to the Town Council pertaining to a “Small Town America Award Program.” Council members supported the concept and directed staff to research the idea and report back. On Feb. 26, 2009, the Town Council approved a preliminary concept for a “Preservation and Continuation of Traditional Small Town America Award” and the criteria proposed by staff.

The award program is now known as the “Town of Cary Hometown Spirit Award,” and it utilizes the same criteria that council approved on Feb. 26, 2009. The award program was implemented in calendar year 2009.

Visit the archive of award recipients. Have any questions? Email [email protected]

Story from staff reports. 

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