Will Rogers Humanitarian Award
Will Rogers
Has your community suffered a natural disaster within the past year — flood, fire, tornado or earthquake? If so, did local news media get involved in coming to the aid of victims, during and after the event? Was there one individual columnist or other writer who performed outstanding service?
That person might qualify for the annual Will Rogers Humanitarian Award, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in Indianapolis this summer.
Nominations for the award are now being accepted. Rules and an entry form may be downloaded by clicking on this phrase. Information about past winners is listed on this page. These columnists have engaged not only in disaster relief work but charitable fundraising and a variety of other humanitarian activities.
Any regularly published newspaper columnist, investigative reporter or feature writer who is not a previous winner is eligible for the award. Writers may not nominate themselves, however. Entries must be signed and submitted by the writer’s supervisor. Deadline is April 1, 2015.
The winner is expected to accept the award in person. Along with a desk-size statuette, a $500 stipend is given to help defray the cost of attendance at the conference.
If you know of someone you think might be deserving of this recognition, please send the name and a brief description of qualifying reasons to Robert Haught, program coordinator, at rhaught@hughes.net and he will follow up on your lead.
The Will Rogers Humanitarian Award program, named for the popular entertainer and columnist of the 1920s and early ’30s, celebrated its 15-year anniversary in 2014 at the NSNC conference in Washington, D.C.
