Regional honorees: Make A Difference Day Awards, April 2000
Are your neighbors listed among thse special awards for helping others Oct. 23, 1999?

Find honorees in your state! (pull down) Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Two honorees from each state receive $2000 awards from Wal-Mart foundation to continue their good work. State newspaper awards are selected by USA WEEKEND for its carrier newspaper. Back to National Honorees Back to Encore Awards To states Nebraska-Wyoming

Alabama

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Argo Led by Ann Muse, 50 residents of the Argo area made a permanent home for the Argo Senior Citizen Community Center after years without one. Volunteers transformed a 50-foot mobile home by painting, hanging curtains and laying carpet. Seniors now meet there twice a week to quilt, play games, enjoy a snack and company. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Argo Senior Citizen Community Center.

Decatur The Volunteer Center of Morgan County rallied 2,000 community volunteers to help twice that number and collect more than 20,000 items of food, clothing, toiletries and household supplies for the needy: Morgan County Schools raised $2,000 from CD sales for student scholarships, collected school supplies for needy kids, pet food for an animal shelter, and blankets; one anonymous donor gave $2,000 to buy coats for foster kids; a high school ROTC collected enough toiletries for seniors to fill two pickups. Others baked cookies and donated paper goods to a new teen girls' home. Engineers worked on blueprints for a one-of-a-kind obstacle exercise course at a high school for disabled teens. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Volunteer Center of Morgan County.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The Decatur Daily. Athens-Limestone County Retired and Senior Volunteer Program collected 300 books and a $300 Wal-Mart grant for an America Reads tutoring program and a new lending library.

The Dothan Eagle. First United Methodist Church members rallied 300 others from across Ozark on eight projects, from visiting nursing homes and hosting a free health fair, landscaping needy agencies aided by a Wal-Mart grant, to dental screening and moving tons of dirt to beautify an old cemetery.

The Gadsden Times. The Pilot Club of Gadsden gave $505 in items for a new apartment for three mentally challenged adults, including a microwave, sheets, blankets, towels, dishes, cookware and small appliances.

(Jasper) Daily Mountain Eagle. Whispering Pines Girl Scouts -- 250 volunteers from 23 troops -- collected more than 2,000 food items and $2,465.62 ($2,000 in Wal-Mart grants) for the Salvation Army.

Montgomery Advertiser. Auburn University Montgomery's Center for Business and Economic Development held its first-ever HIRE (Helping Improve Readiness for Employment) workshop attended by 17 welfare-to-work recipients and worked on their résumés.

Opelika-Auburn News. Tuskegee University, along with members of the Macon County community, collected 1,700 books and $2,000 to buy 1,100 new books for schools and needy kids in its "Kick Illiteracy Good-Bye" campaign.

The Selma Times-Journal. Members of Beloit Community Association in Beloit pampered retired schoolteacher Odessa Curry Pernell, 90, cleaned her yard and planted flowers, brought flowers, cards and fruit, presented her with a plaque from Dallas County teachers and planted a red maple in her honor outside her window at the same time one was being planted for her at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

Alaska

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Fort Wainwright. Sixteen kids, ages 12-18, from Fort Wainwright Army Post spent four hours cleaning, cooking, painting and sorting clothing at the Fairbanks Rescue Mission; another few hours visiting residents at the Denali Center at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, a nursing home for the elderly and disabled; then five hours completing a haunted house to entertain the community. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Fort Wainwright Teen Council.

Juneau. Twenty women from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5559 donated $500 worth of winter clothing and $300 worth of food to the city's largest homeless shelter. Forty percent of the homeless served are veterans, mainly from the Vietnam and Gulf wars. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Cooperative Christian Ministry/Glory Hole.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

South Tucson. In this poor, largely Hispanic community, where 70% are without a high school diploma, 285 volunteers organized by Pima County officials collected food and toys for the holidays, delivered gift boxes to seniors and painted city walls. Individuals and businesses donated $6,765 to 11 local service groups, including Scouts, veterans and Special Olympians. And a semiannual cleanup of streets, alleys and vacant lots hauled off 12 tons of debris. Others gave and delivered about 80 gallons of paint to Tucson's Ronald McDonald House, which hosts about 700 out-of-town medical patients and their families each year. By day's end, volunteers from various groups had repainted the exterior of the house, cleaned the property and transformed a white retaining wall enclosing the backyard play area into a colorful floral mural with ladybugs and a dragonfly. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit The Pio Decimo Center.

Yuma. About 90 volunteers conducted a massive cleanup of the rundown Carver Park neighborhood, removing 52 tons of debris and lifting residents' spirits. The volunteers, coordinated by the Yuma Neighborhood Development Organization, were led by a contingent of 35 Marines and 10 Young Marines and included church members, employees of the city housing department and Carver Park residents. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Carver Elementary School.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

(Bullhead City) Mohave Valley Daily News. About 10 co-workers making up the Southwest Gas Employee Volunteer Team, with financial help from Southwest Gas and Wal-Mart and concrete donated by United Metro Materials, built a basketball court for the Boys and Girls Club of the Colorado River.

Casa Grande Dispatch. The Central Arizona Chapter of Newborns in Need organized 16 volunteers in a sewathon. They sewed 378 items, including receiving blankets, T-shirts and a sleeper, and bought bottles, pacifiers and diaper-rash ointment. All the items were donated to five hospitals.

The (Douglas) Daily Dispatch. The Elfrida Youth Center mobilized 80 community volunteers to clean the Elfrida Whitewater Cemetery. Among the volunteer groups represented were the town's churches, businesses and fire department, as well as two Southwest Cherokee Confederated Tribes.

(Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun. The Coconino Senior Living Foundation organized 45 volunteers to make 490 dozen enchiladas to raise funds for low-income seniors to pay for prescription medication. The enchilada sale netted more than $5,000 in proceeds to help seniors countywide.

The (Gilbert) East Valley Tribune. The Gilbert Cares group organized 300 volunteers to refurbish 10 homes for 25 low-income and in-need residents in Gilbert, Queen Creek and Maricopa County, including seniors and single mothers. Volunteers scraped and painted home interiors and exteriors, replaced siding and a roof, and cleaned yards. Then they removed three 40-yard dumpsters filled with trash and debris.

The Kingman Daily Miner. The Kingman Police Department organized 50 volunteers to host a "Christmas in October" party for area seniors. Before the Oct. 23 event, seven elderly women were treated to lunch, hairstyling and gifts of personal-care and beauty gifts; volunteers also wrapped gifts for the 25 partygoers, including throw blankets, socks, jackets and robes. A local florist donated corsages.

(Lake Havasu City) Today's News-Herald. The Western Welcome Club held a fashion show and auction to raise $2,600 for a family, six of whose seven children have special needs.

The (Mesa) East Valley Tribune. Lindsey Keeler, then 12, collected $355 in $1 door-to-door donations in her Red Mountain Ranch neighborhood and community for the Child Crisis Center-East Valley because (according to the center's policies) she was too young to volunteer there.

The (Prescott) Daily Courier. Members of the G-Force Kids Club of Trinity Lutheran Church held a "Recycle Prescott Valley Day," a communitywide recycling event. Townspeople dropped off 1,000 pounds each of newspaper and cardboard, about four fifths of a ton of mixed materials, about two fifths of a ton of glass, 130 pounds of aluminum cans, more than 70 pounds of paper and several hundred pounds of steel, copper and mixed metals. The Public Works department transported the haul to recycling centers in Prescott Valley and Flagstaff.

The (Scottsdale) East Valley Tribune. Five students from Scottsdale Educational Enrichment School, an alternative high school for at-risk youth, sorted and delivered 350 pounds of non-perishables collected the week before to St. Vincent De Paul Food Bank, then devoted five hours to cleaning up the pantry.

Sierra Vista Herald. Sixteen volunteers organized by Beta Sigma Phi sorority's local Epsilon Upsilon Chapter, ages 7-50, cleared and cleaned a quarter-mile desert nature path connecting Sierra Vista Middle School and Town and Country Elementary School, making it handicapped-accessible.

(Sun City) Daily News-Sun. Eighteen volunteers organized by the Neighbor Helping Neighbor help group cleaned the yards of two senior citizens.

The (Tempe) East Valley Tribune. Carminati Elementary School pupils, staffers and family members donated 1,000 items of clothing and 375 new pairs of socks and underwear, with help from community members and local merchants, including Wal-Mart and Mervyn's. Girl and Boy Scouts helped wash and sort the clothing, which will stock a clothing bank for students at 18 schools and in Guadalupe.

Tucson Citizen. The Volunteer Center of Tucson mobilized 200 residents to help seriously ill or special-needs children and their families in projects around the city. Among them: a trip to the Children's Museum; reading stories and drawing with pediatric-ward patients at the University Medical Center; painting at a Ronald McDonald House; and grounds work at Arizona's Children Association.

The Yuma Daily Sun. Greater Foothills Helping Hands organized 90 community volunteers, ages 4-80+, including 4-H and Key Club members and fire-department staff, to do work for 50 seniors. Volunteers washed windows, hauled off trash, painted houses and porches, planted flowers and handled electrical and plumbing repairs.

Arkansas

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Russellville. Twenty-five members of the Russellville City Slickers 4-H Club, with the help of a $1,000 Wal-Mart grant, donated a new computer to the Shelter of Sunshine (SOS), a temporary shelter for abused, abandoned or neglected boys. The 4-Hers, who adopted SOS several years ago, also assembled more than 100 gift bags, each containing soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, cologne, a comb and a stuffed toy. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Shelter of Sunshine.

Strong. Dozens of volunteers helped a struggling 10-month-old non-profit, Level Ground Ministries, with two projects: They sewed 35 tote bags filled with toiletries, puzzle books, crayons, coloring books and small stuffed bears bought with $300 in donations for the Strong Homeless Shelter. They also raised $187.50 from a jewelry and bake sale for the shelter's food bank and helped replenish a food bank in Monroe with $1,300 in food. And they donated nail-polishing supplies to another group of volunteers, who gave manicures to 27 senior citizens Oct. 23. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Arkansas Food Bank Network.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The Benton Courier. "Coats and Care forKids," a clinic for children sponsored by St. Matthews Episcopal Church, Birch Tree Communities Inc., Pro-Cleaners, Christian Community Care Clinic and the Saline County Boys and Girls Club, supplied children from low-income families with coats, clothing and supplies, as well as health checkups.

Blytheville Courier News. Twenty-three youth and adult volunteers from the Community Service Youth Council went on a citywide "scavenger hunt," collecting 23 boxes of household items and toiletries to donate to the Haven, a safe house for abused women and children.

(Conway) Log Cabin Democrat. Class members of the Faulkner County Leadership Institute collected more than 1,000 books for the struggling Twin Groves library.

(El Dorado) South Arkansas Sunday News. The Columbia County Animal Protection Society coordinated more than 200 volunteers to build and staff a haunted house and raise $7,000 toward the construction of a county animal shelter.

(Fort Smith) Southwest Times Record. On Oct. 23, Fort Smith's Clean Neighborhoods program kicked off with the efforts of Susie Brooks' fifth- and sixth-grade classes at Fairview Elementary School. After a rally led by Mayor Ray Baker, 50 volunteers cleaned trash from 60 square blocks, sorting out recyclables.

Harrison Daily Times. Twenty-five volunteers from Newton County Friends of the Library held a dinner and house tour that raised about $2,000 for the county library.

The (Hot Springs) Sentinel-Record. On Oct. 23, the Junior Auxiliary of Hot Springs kicked off plans to create a natural park for children in a poor neighborhood. More than 50 people, including volunteers from the Junior Auxiliary, Habitat for Humanity, the Downtown Rotary Club and the Math and Science School, picked up trash, cleared brush and readied land for playground equipment in an overgrown lot next to a Habitat Village.

The (Mountain Home) Baxter Bulletin. Working through the non-profit group Love Circle, 10 teens from Holy Cross Lutheran Youth Group cleaned yards and planted winter pansies for 14 senior citizens.

The Paragould Daily Press. About 60 students and teachers from Oak Grove Middle School visited the Paragould Nursing Center, entertaining 180 residents with six puppies from the Greene County Humane Society and an unusually friendly black-and-white cat named Domino.

The (Russellville) Courier. Students from the city's middle and high schools and Arkansas Tech College helped collect and sort donations to the River Valley United Way's non-perishable-food drive. Altogether, 40 volunteers assisted; 2,129 pounds of food were collected and passed on to four organizations serving the needy.

The (Springdale) Morning News of Northwest Arkansas. A new all-volunteer soccer club held its first tournament. The Madison County Soccer Association aims to raise self-esteem and encourage racial tolerance by including any child who wants to play, no matter his or her ability, sex or financial situation.

California

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Chico. After a summer of devastating fires that raged through parts of 3,678-acre Bidwell Park, 300 residents, young and old, spent the day rehabilitating trails to prevent further erosion. Organized by 100 students, families and staff of Farshad Azad's Martial Arts Academy, other volunteers included the mayor, police chief and city park personnel. Wielding pickaxes and shovels and moving boulders, the residents worked from 7 a.m. to early afternoon restoring damaged trails and blocking off bootleg trails that were scarring the rolling hills near Horse Shoe Lake. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit North Valley Community Foundation.

Long Beach. From California's beaches to its mountains, 5,500 college students from all 23 campuses of California's state university system mobilized to clean and landscape schools, paint homeless shelters, walk to raise funds for AIDS and breast cancer, plant trees and host parties for children at shelters. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Jumpstart for the Young Children Inc.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

Auburn Journal. 370 Bowman Elementary students and 30 members of the Skyridge Discovery Club did eight community-service projects, including a Halloween UNICEF carnival, a recycling drive, donating pet supplies to an animal-adoption agency and giving 60 teddy bears to an emergency room.

(Chico) Enterprise-Record. Thirteen members of the Olive 4-H club, grades K-8, and seven adult helpers collected clothing for hurricane victims in North Carolina and coats, shoes, bedding, food, toys, toiletries and housewares for fire victims in California's Tehema and Shasta counties. The total haul filled a pickup truck, several vans and a large trailer.

The Davis Enterprise. Twenty members of the Sewing Servants of First Baptist Church of Davis made five twin-bed quilts toward their goal of 16 for needy clients of the Davis Community Meals and Cold Weather shelter.

(El Centro) Imperial Valley Press. The Las Vecinas auxiliary of the Valley Orthopedic Clinic raised $2,000 with a rummage and bake sale and open house for the clinic, which serves needy patients at no charge.

(Fairfield) Daily Republic. 35 Club Life Youth members of New Life Church, ages 11-18, and 10 adult church volunteers painted the Mission Solano homeless shelter with donated paint and discounted supplies from local merchants.

The (Fremont) Argus. The Hopkins Junior High School Leadership Class mobilized 128 Hopkins students and about 50 teachers and family helpers to clean the school campus, including dusty lockers and dirty windows on the inside, as well as the grounds outside. The students also collected 552 items of clothing that day for the needy, along with donations for an animal-welfare agency.

The Hanford Sentinel. 150 students, parents, teachers and staffers from Armona Elementary School landscaped and planted trees and flowers on school grounds and raised $1,500 at a carnival to benefit a 22-year-old resident who was seriously injured in a car accident.

The (Hayward) Daily Review. Fifty Alameda County education workers and student volunteers collected 10,000 pairs of socks for 10 shelters to distribute to the needy.

Lodi News-Sentinel. Forty AmeriCorps members from San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton joined forces with 200 other city volunteers to remove three garbage truckloads of debris.

The Lompoc Record. More than 600 community volunteers, ages 18 months to 83 years, renovated Ken Adam Park; installed new trails at Beattie Park; built a playground for the Boys and Girls Club; collected food, clothing and supplies for the needy; and cleaned up more than seven tons of trash.

(Marysville) Appeal-Democrat. Nearly 80 members of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church bought and donated new household items for a "shower" to help a homeless single mother and her two daughters, ages 6 and 9, move from a Salvation Army shelter, the Depot, to their new transition house.

Merced Sun-Star. The Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society at Merced College mobilized 852 volunteers, ages 5 to 65+, from 10 communities in Merced, Mariposa and Madera counties to clean a bike trail and creek; remove seven truckloads of trash; work at nursing homes and hospitals; collect food, clothing and books for the needy; read to children; and help students with their homework.

The Napa Valley Register. The Cooperson family -- dad Marshall, mom Sharon and kids Evanne, 16, and Colin, 13 -- collected $4,365 from residents in their Monticello Park neighborhood for construction of a facility for the Napa Boys and Girls Club. On Oct. 23, the family gave hot cider and cookies to all contributors and a free pumpkin to the first 60 donors.

(Novato) Marin Independent Journal. Residents of the Pilgrim Park Apartments collected more than $3,000 worth of clothes, shoes and food for two help organizations, the Ritter House and Marin Food Bank.

(Ontario) Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. About 54 volunteers contributed to the American Legion Auxiliary #299's collection of toiletries, toys, socks and underwear, school supplies and Halloween costumes for the Hillview Acres Children's Home.

(Oroville) Mercury-Register. Three generations of women in one family -- mother Juanita Moxley, daughters Sue Giese and Cheryn Moxley, and granddaughters Jill Giese and Belynda Warner -- collected more than 160 pieces of maternity clothing for the Caring for Women Pregnancy Resource Center. The women also donated a clothes rack and hangers.

(Palmdale) Antelope Valley Press. Five Edwards Air Force Base co-workers collected 120 food items, 14 pairs of eyeglasses, 70 books and magazines and $85 for graffiti abatement for community-service organizations.

The (Palm Springs) Desert Sun. Students, parents and staff of grades K-5 at Washington Charter School collected 3,000 books, videos and audiotapes for the Torres-Martinez Indian Reservation. Tribal members participated in a school assembly accepting the items.

(Pinole) West County Times. The VFW Ladies Auxiliary 761st Tank Battalion Post 8399 collected 152 lap robes and made 17 health-and-beauty gift bags for a veterans clinic in Martinez and for area homeless.

(Pleasanton) Tri-Valley Herald. 7,000 residents participated in a variety of community projects, donating 6,000 pounds of non-perishable food and 2,000 toiletry items to the needy, as well as children's books, clothes, bedding and pet supplies. High schoolers raised $5,000 to help flood victims in Mexico and $1,000 each for earthquake victims in Taiwan and Turkey. Volunteers also held blood- and bone-marrow drives, cleanups, a "Festival of the Family" and other community events.

(Pleasanton) Valley Times. Pupils at Danville's Green Valley Elementary School collected items ranging from toiletries to toys, filling about 500 "Friendship Boxes" for the American Red Cross in Concord to distribute to children whose homes are destroyed in fires.

Red Bluff Daily News. About a dozen members of Junior Grange #184, ages 5-14, cleaned a mile of Old Historic 99W Highway, collecting 15 big bags of beer and soda cans, cigarette stubs and other debris.

The (Salinas) Californian. Nine VISTA and AmeriCorps volunteers kicked off a six-week book drive that collected 60 books and money for 30 that day, and ultimately amassed almost 10,000 books for pupils at 22 elementary schools.

San Bernardino County Sun. In Colton, 88 people ages 4-74 collected and dumped more than 15 tons of trash, including 11.2 tons on Oct. 23 alone. Volunteers also picked up 55 tires and directed residents to the proper locations to dispose of hazardous materials in a townwide cleanup of streets, alleys and vacant lots.

San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle. The Daly City Volunteer Program mobilized 350 volunteers to tackle eight projects, including cleanups, landscaping and graffiti removal. Residents filled two industrial-sized dumpsters and more than 100 bags of trash. On Hanover Street, workers saved the trash-filled home and property of a single mother from unaffordable code fines of $2,500 a day.

San Mateo County Times. Eight members of teacher Edith Schlesinger's Spanish class at the Stanbridge Academy raised $500, by selling candy truffles, to help buy a van for a disabled Redwood City man.

The Santa Barbara News-Press. Five members of the Golden Key National Honor Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, cleaned Estero Park in Isla Vista, removing several large trash bags of cans, bottles and other debris littering the park, which is used as a playground.

Santa Cruz County Sentinel. The Volunteer Centers of Santa Cruz County mobilized 1,000 people to help others. Volunteers painted out graffiti on a 10,000-square-foot abandoned building along Highway 1, refurbished a Head Start playground in Corralitos and gave massages to seniors in an Aptos senior-care home. They also rebuilt a porch for a senior and a bed frame for a handicapped man. Capitola Mall shoppers decorated holiday gift bags for needy families.

Santa Maria Times. Your Helping Hands Referral Service organized 75 volunteers to help 100 seniors by cleaning homes and yards, shopping, writing letters and removing trash.

The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat. One hundred Konocti Council Girl Scouts from 15 troops and adult helpers assembled 600 Comfort Kits for the American Red Cross to distribute in disaster-relief efforts. Aided by a $1,000 Wal-Mart grant, the Scouts filled the kits with toiletries, toys, crayons and a coloring book designed by the Scouts.

Tulare Advance-Register. Seventy-five residents of Pixley, ages 4-80, filled and removed dozens of bags of trash and weeds in a citywide cleanup of streets and vacant lots.

Turlock Journal. The Cal State Stanislaus Hunger Network mobilized 90 student and community volunteers at eight sites to collect food for hungry families, prep construction sites and paint and perform building maintenance tasks for help agencies. For a month leading up to Oct. 23, homeless clients of the United Samaritans Foundation took photos of their daily life, which were displayed at the shelter that day at a luncheon for residents and volunteers.

Ukiah Daily Journal. Six California Native Plant Society Sanhedrin Chapter volunteers weeded patches of the invasive plant pampas grass and one rogue Spanish broom from around Lake Mendocino.

Visalia Times-Delta. The Leadership Goshen youth program mobilized 150 people to clean 10 vacant lots filled with glass, chicken wire and other hazardous materials. Helpers filled a 40-cubic-yard garbage bin, disposed of 220 tires and cleaned stretches of a highway and railroad route.

(Woodland Hills) Daily News of Los Angeles. 110 members of the California Dental Hygienist Association provided services at health fairs and expos in more than 20 communities from San Diego to Eureka. The hygienists cleaned teeth, applied sealants and distributed floss, toothpaste, toothbrushes and educational materials to more than 2,300 people, mostly poor children.

Colorado

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Aurora. Annette Hunter, who lost her job last fall, used the extra time to collect 70 pairs of socks, 20 warm hats, an assortment of long johns and gloves, several big boxes of Frito-Lay chips, $50 of food from Safeway, $10 from Cub Foods, buns from Earthgrains and Entemann's, and other donated food. It went to about 150 homeless people -- including seven families with a total of 20 kids -- in Denver on Oct. 23. Assisting her were niece Alyssa, 13; two nephews, Tyrael, 12, and Andrae, 11; and two adult friends, Jeffrey Beals and Barbara Williams. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Curtis Park Community Center.

Fort Morgan. Laura Harling, a teacher of English as a second language and breast-cancer survivor, held a bone-marrow-transplant registry drive over two days, after learning that minority donors were in great demand. She registered 150 mostly Hispanic workers at Excel Corp., a beef-packing plant where she teaches, and 30 more at Morgan Community College. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Morgan Community College - Workplace Education Program.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The Denver Post. Teachers, staff, pupils and families from Vivian Elementary School, along with community residents, collected a truckload of "wishes" for Denver's Ronald McDonald House to support a school staffer battling breast cancer. Besides a truckload of paper goods, cleaning supplies, coffee and filters, snacks and play items such as cards and coloring books, the school also gave $460 from a student bake sale and individual cash donations at two supermarket collection points.

Durango Herald. Members of the Spring Creek Community Association held a dance and silent cake auction, raising $770 to continue building improvements at Spring Creek Hall. Wal-Mart and a local energy council also contributed $1,500 in grant money.

Fort Collins Coloradoan. The Umbreit family -- dad Eric, mom Diane and sons Scott, 10, and Mark, 7 -- created a model train set display and donated it to residents at a senior residential facility. Using an automatic timer, the train makes six runs a day; the Umbreits listed and posted a "train schedule" on a bulletin board so residents could watch for arrivals. Wal-Mart helped with a $500 grant that also allowed the family to finance "scholarships" for seniors at an elder day-care center.

Montrose Daily Press. Eleven Columbine Middle School students began their Peer Mediation Training on Make A Difference Day. The program seeks to develop healthy conflict-resolution skills.

Connecticut

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Middlebury. Sixty-five Middlebury Congregational Church Sunday schoolers, ages 2-16, raised $1,430 by selling handmade crafts to buy 858 boxes of cereal for the Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries food pantry. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries.

Westport. In a week-long city effort, more than 1,325 volunteers (triple the number four years ago), along with 21 organizations, completed 64 projects for 3,000 residents. A high school group, Youth Ending Hunger, raised $70 in a school bake sale; 20 Rotarians cleaned gutters and raked leaves at a women's shelter; and a breast-cancer awareness program was launched. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit United Youth Fund of Westport-Weston, Inc.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

(Bridgeport) Connecticut Post. Ninety-two Westport Girl Scouts crafted 70 original "touch" books for blind children statewide. Since Make A Difference Day, they've expanded the project to include 300 Scouts making 150 more books.

(Manchester) Journal Inquirer. Forty-two children, ages 7-16, sheltered by the state in East Windsor as abused or neglected, raised $942.83 for school supplies for 50 poor children. They sold original cookbooks, held a walkathon, collected coins, ran an auction and hosted lunch.

(Meriden) Record-Journal. Thirty girls, ages 13-17, from Cady School at Long Lane -- a state school in Middletown for at-risk youth -- crafted the first in what they plan as a series of "Ugly Bag" sleeping-bag quilts, delivered to a Meriden homeless shelter Oct. 23. The bags are made from donated materials.

The (New Britain) Herald. Eleven special-needs students at the inner-city Vance Village School hosted a "Senior Prom" for their adopted "grandparents" at Andrew House Healthcare. A $500 Wal-Mart grant helped pay for the musicians, and all flowers were donated.

New Haven Register. Twenty-one members of the North Haven High School football team collected two pickup truckloads and three carloads full of sports equipment -- bats, balls, bicycles and skateboards -- for 52 boys at the St. Francis Home for Children in New Haven. They even set up a weight room.

The (Norwalk) Hour. 150 Tumble Bugs Nursery School children, ages 3-5, spent two weeks collecting 1,200 pounds of food -- in particular fulfilling a request for pancake mixes and syrup -- for the Norwalk emergency shelter pantry. The food was delivered Oct. 23. The school has participated in Make A Difference Day for four years and each week delivers to the shelter items left in a year-round collection box.

Norwich Bulletin. Twenty-seven students, stroller age through eighth grade, and their parents combed one acre of woods around the Integrated Day Charter School, collecting 15 cubic yards of debris such as old washing machines and mattresses, and recycling dozens of tires.

(Torrington) Register Citizen. 200 volunteers, including Merrill Lynch co-workers, the Junior League of Stamford, Girl Scouts and Sacred Heart Academy students, removed eight tons of debris and litter in three hours from cemeteries and parks.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

New Castle. In a fifth statewide effort, 6,285 volunteers turned out, including 3,500 youths 21 and under from 21 public schools and five colleges, and 3,500 members of Veterans of Foreign Wars and its auxiliaries. Highlights: Smyrna Elementary School kids rallied to help classmates without homes (several live in motels) by establishing a giveaway closet filled with school, household and personal-care items. Dover Housing Development was so inspired by 15 young volunteers who helped landscape a needy neighborhood that they now plan landscaping projects on a quarterly basis. VFW chapters in three counties collected $825 in cash, plus furniture, bed linens, books, cleaning supplies and snacks for state homeless shelters, senior centers and hospitals that help needy veterans. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Delaware State Office of Volunteerism.

Wilmington. 120 co-workers from the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company helped the Clarence Fraim Boys & Girls Club of Delaware make long-overdue repairs to its headquarters. Volunteers created a reading room and added 200 books, set up an arts-and-crafts room, created anti-violence messages in the form of colorful murals, fixed computers, painted and landscaped. Estimated value of work: $50,000. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Boys and Girls Club.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The (Wilmington) Sunday News Journal. Three generations of women from the Ellison family and a friend collected 1,000 personal-care items from schools, businesses and neighbors in Smyrna and Magnolia, outside Dover. Value: $850. Recipient: Peoples Place II, a shelter for abused women and children in Milford.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Washington. Some 600 co-workers from the William C. Smith & Co. property-management company planted 23,000 red and yellow tulips at 29 properties, from a police station to low-income housing. The group also planted 60 trees, 250 shrubs and other spring flowers at two schools. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Student Conservation Association.

Washington. More than 250 volunteers -- including Air Force and Navy personnel and families, Marine and Army personnel, Park Service staff, Bell Atlantic employees and at-risk youth from Covenant House Washington -- helped clean up Anacostia National Park, along five miles of the Anacostia River. Two hundred garbage bags were filled with debris, such as syringes and glass. The park's roller rink and trash cans were painted, as was the outdoor deck of an environmental-education program for kids. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Building Bridges Across the River.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The Washington Times. It Suits You teen and adult volunteers from Washington Hospital Center and Jos A Bank Clothiers gave away 200 suits and other pieces of clothing to needy men to help them hunt jobs. At a job-search boutique, they also took applications for employment at the hospital.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Tampa. The Tampa police, led by community-service officer and adoptive mother Maryann Hunsberger, came to the aid of Skip and Susan Sampson, who have 10 kids ages 4-15, seven adopted. With a $1,000 Wal-Mart grant, they bought wooden play equipment for the family's new home. Volunteers from other city law-enforcement divisions and the Marines worked 12 hours to paint the interior; a plumbing contractor donated a hook-up for a donated washer and dryer; and a new fence went up. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Tampa Police Dept PAL.

Boca Raton. For the fourth consecutive year, women from Phi Sigma Sigma, an international sorority headquartered in Boca Raton, volunteered nationwide. More than 770 members, from both college and alumnae chapters, completed 36 projects. Locally, Florida International University students visited hospitalized kids with treats and coloring books. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Phi Sigma Sigma.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

Boca Raton News. About 20 members of the Fifer George Weissenfels Society, Children of the American Revolution, raised $100 by selling booklets about apples at the Delray Beach Global Festival. With that money, and a $300 Wal-Mart grant, they bought apple-themed T-shirts, books, videos and games for 35 preschoolers at the Redlands Christian Migrant Association Farmworker Child Development Center. Eleven volunteers later delivered the items, serving the kids apples, apple pie, applesauce and apple juice.

Bradenton Herald. About 100 volunteers ranging from Girl Scouts to seniors brightened the rec room at the Manatee Children's Services Children's Shelter, the project organizer, with fresh paint and new furniture and blinds. Volunteers also did plumbing and landscaping.

(Brooksville) Hernando Today. West Hernando Middle School eighth-grader Megan Johnson, 14, raised $50 for a shelter for abused women and their children by selling raffle tickets at a youth football game.

(Crystal River) Citrus County Chronicle. Mail carriers from Floral City, Hernando and Inverness collected 15,000 pounds of non-perishables on their postal routes. Inverness Middle School students, community volunteers and members of Citrus County Harvest, the organizers of the project, took the items to Citrus United Basket, a pantry in Inverness.

The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. About 30 employees and family members from R.R. Donnelley and Sons in South Daytona and 11 members of Sigma Pi fraternity at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach painted the interior of two future Serenity House of Volusia County homeless shelters. Volunteers also planted flowers, laid sod and built a 350-foot-long fence.

The (Fort Myers) News-Press. Students and families at Denicole Private School treated 26 autistic children and their parents to a cookout and "Olympics" competition. Events ranged from timed runs and softball and football throws to a water-balloon fight and a bucket toss using Beanie Babies. Each participant received a ribbon and a Make A Difference Day button, tattoo and balloon.

The (Key West) Citizen. About 35 students from the Florida Nursing Students Association at Florida Keys Community College painted and decorated residents' rooms and a day room at the Key West Convalescent Center. They stenciled, put up wallpaper borders, hung new curtains and added comforters and pillows. The student nurses have adopted the center as an ongoing project.

The (Leesburg) Daily Commercial. About 30 members of the American Legion and Auxiliary Mid-Florida Lakes Unit 330 served homemade cake and cookies and called bingo at the VA hospital in Gainesville. The group gave toiletries to about 100 veterans and supplied about $250 worth of bingo prizes.

The (Marianna) Jackson County Floridan. About 30 members of Set Free in Christ Ministries gave away used clothes, toys and household items to 175 needy people.

(Melbourne) Florida Today. Nearly 250 parents and students from St. Joseph Catholic School in Palm Bay painted, repaired and landscaped a Melbourne fourplex used by families enrolled in the Salvation Army's transitional housing program. Volunteers rebuilt and painted a fence and cleaned and painted the inside of a vacant apartment.

The (Panama City) News Herald. Fifteen members of the "Hardly Able" Construction Crew, made up of men from three Lynn Haven churches, worked on five construction projects: They built or repaired four wheelchair ramps, replaced a damaged subfloor, and laid carpet in the trailer home of a single mother.

Pensacola News Journal. Thirty students at Escambia Charter School in Gonzalez adopted Magnolia and Rosewood nursing homes, sharing songs and distributing toiletries and greeting cards designed by one of the school's computer classes. Students also collected linens, canned goods, clothes and pots for two homeless shelters, a pantry and a youth home.

(Port Charlotte) Sun Herald. About 20volunteers from the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program of Charlotte County entertained residents at six nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. The volunteers jammed on banjos, accordions, harmonicas and pianos, singing and sometimes dancing with the residents.

The St. Augustine Record. Seven staffers from the cardiopulmonary department at Flagler Hospital worked the busy lunch shift at McDonald's, earning $200 for EPIC (Education, Prevention, Intervention and Counseling) Community Services, a youth-mentoring and substance-abuse-prevention program.

(Sebring) Highlands Today. Fifteen members of Faith Temple Church of God in Wauchula began renovations on a house slated to become a youth center by tearing down walls.

The (Winter Haven) News Chief. Members of American Legion Auxiliary Unit 34 in Haines City gave three new twin beds and bed linens, a microwave, kitchen utensils and a used dinette set for a new Auburndale boys' home. The group also bought toiletries and baby items for a domestic-violence facility in Winter Haven.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Albany. 1,200 volunteers led by Flint River Habitat for Humanity, including members of 11 churches, spent the week leading up to Oct. 23 building five Habitat homes, including one in a 24-hour "Midnight-to-Midnight Madness Build-a-Thon." Volunteers not only provided the labor, but also raised $120,000 for construction costs at the Habitat chapter's 32-acre subdivision, where the group hopes to have 101 new homes by 2001. By week's end, 28 men, women and children had new houses they'd helped build with 300 hours of their own "sweat equity." The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Habitat for Humanity.

Milledgeville. Two hundred-plus Georgia Military College cadets made a difference all year, with an extra push on Oct. 23. Results: 2,592 pints of blood for the American Red Cross (as incentive, businesses pooled $1,000 in prizes for the donor giving the 2,000th pint); 1,050 hours of sweat for Habitat for Humanity; 1,584 hours of caring for the lonely, needy or sick; and 1,106 meals delivered to the elderly. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Boys and Girls Club of Milledgeville/Baldwin County.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The Albany Herald. Eight members of the Albany Humane Society Paws Patrol hosted six brain-damaged adults for lunch and a fishing trip; 18 others helped with a pet adoptathon at a shopping center, where two cats and seven dogs got new homes.

(Carrollton) Times-Georgian. Some 200 parents, students and staffers from Carrollton Elementary School put together 150 phonics games and books and cut out 25 sets of the 220 words most commonly found in children's books. Volunteers, who included six members of Kappa Delta sorority from the State University of West Georgia, also planted 216 pansies and hundreds of bulbs on school grounds.

The (Dalton) Daily Citizen-News. Dalton State College volunteers, including 25 faculty members and 53 students, hosted 149 at-risk seventh-graders from eight schools in Whitfield, Murray and Gordon counties for a day of academic enrichment aimed at encouraging college enrollment. Among the activities: a game called "Ecopoly," created by members of Students in Free Enterprise, designed to teach about credit and the value of finishing school.

The (Dublin) Courier Herald. 560 volunteers from 30 service organizations turned out for Dublin's first communitywide effort, completing more than 30 projects that ranged from nursing-home visits and gifts for the elderly to highway and park cleanups.

The (Gainesville) Times. About 200 people took part in Habersham County's first Make A Difference Day effort, coordinated by the Volunteer Center in Cornelia. Volunteers, representing seven service organizations, four churches, eight youth groups and five businesses, worked on 18 projects, including toy drives, landscaping and painting.

Griffin Daily News. Girl Scout Troop 152 held a yard sale at First Christian Church, the troop's sponsor, raising $500 for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. Unsold items were donated to a thrift shop for battered women.

La Grange Daily News. Eleven Callaway High School students built a wheelchair ramp for an elderly man suffering from arthritis and a recent stroke.

(Lawrenceville) Gwinnett Daily Post. Southern Wings Bird Club and Gwinnett Master Gardeners planted 300 perennials and pansies and installed a bird-feeding station at the Gwinnett Senior Center.

Marietta Daily Journal. More than 30 teens from Pope High School went to Whispering Glen, a neighborhood of Habitat for Humanity homes in Powder Springs where they had built a house in 1998. They reseeded 10 yards devastated by an unusually dry summer and one at a just-completed house. Residents joined the teens at work and for a picnic lunch.

The (Milledgeville) Union-Recorder. 1,324 Baldwin County volunteers worked on more than 60 projects, including Red Cross blood drives, Habitat for Humanity home construction, collections for North Carolina flood victims, cleanups and meals for the needy. One of the largest groups of volunteers came from Georgia College & State University: 400 students turned out.

The (Newnan) Times-Herald. Seven employees of Frank Cawood & Associates, a publisher of health books in Peachtree City, and 11 family members fed animals, repaired fences and helped remove trees in danger of falling at the Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Grantville. The group also gave Second Chance $800 from bake sales and hot-dog sales.

Rome News-Tribune. To help emergency personnel find houses in their rural community, Menlo Elementary School staff, pupils and parents installed specially designed address markers at the homes of about 200 senior citizens. Students also gave them refrigerator magnets with emergency numbers.

Thomasville Times-Enterprise. Led by the Grady County Help Agency, about 1,000 volunteers from youth groups, civic organizations and churches picked up 19 tons of trash in Cairo and collected three pickup truckloads of clothing for the help agency, which gives emergency financial assistance and clothes to the needy. The Northwest Neighborhood Association provided lunch for the volunteers.

The Tifton Gazette. Pupils at Charles Spencer Elementary School raised $500 at a yard sale in the gym, donating the money to the Tifton Food Bank, United Way Soup Kitchen and Brother Charlie's Rescue Center. Leftover yard-sale items were taken to a women's shelter.

The Valdosta Daily Times. Students at Lomax-Pinevale Elementary School capped off a week of collecting toiletries, school supplies and toys for the Haven, a women's shelter, with a carnival in the school gym attended by more than 200 people. Afterward, students picked up trash on the school grounds.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Honolulu. Twenty-five bags of garbage, including 2,585 cigarette stubs, were picked up off Kuhio Beach by 12 kids, ages 7-14, and their mentors from Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Honolulu. The beach cleanup was part of a day-long event organized by the Waikiki Aquarium to benefit Honolulu's ocean environment and foster a spirit of community service. The group also rode a submarine, hiked up Diamond Head, explored an ocean reef flat at night and learned the importance of keeping the coast clean and healthy for marine life. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Friends of the Waikiki Aquarium.

West Hawaii. Children at the Kona Association for Hebrew Education and the Arts, joined by children from Kona United Methodist Church and three schools, ages 3-14, collected 1,313 pounds of food for the Hawaii Island Food Bank, which supplies all 20 food banks in West Hawaii. They also gave nearly $4,000 raised from 35 local businesses, families and individuals to eight local charities. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Kona Association for Hebrew Education and the Arts.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

(Hilo) Hawaii Tribune-Herald. About 25 students in teacher Steve Nemeth's Agriculture and eighth-grade Practical Arts classes at Laupahoehoe High School planted 329 rare and endangered Hawaiian plants in a two-acre native garden and ecosystem on school grounds. Acacia Koai'a trees were planted at 15-foot intervals to eventually create a full canopy.

The Honolulu Advertiser. The Nani 'O Wai'anae community group and the city and county of Honolulu mobilized 850 volunteers representing almost 20 Oahu groups. They collected 18.2 tons of trash along eight miles of beach and nine miles of Farrington Highway; stenciled 447 storm drains in English and Hawaiian; cleared the mouths of two streams; and painted three comfort stations at campsites and parks. The volunteers also weeded and planted two acres near a waste-water treatment plant and potted 200 plumeria trees to give to residents as part of a beautification and adopt-a-tree project.

The (Lihue) Garden Island. About 100 community volunteers organized by the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge and the Kilauea School Parent Teacher Student Association worked together at the school's three-acre Nature Center. Among the day's clearing and landscaping projects: Volunteers created a section of 50 native plants of 10 species and identified them with labels for the benefit of students and the community.

(Kailua Kona) West Hawaii Today. Members of the Kamuela Hongwanji Mission, a Buddhist temple, collected three boxes of food for Ka Hale O Kawaihai homeless shelter, where they also prepared a hot meal of stew, rice, pickled vegetables, dessert and juice for residents on Oct. 23.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Idaho Falls. With the help of $1,070 in cash grants and supplies from Wal-Marts in Chubbuck, Idaho Falls and Blackfoot, the Golden Key National Honor Society at Idaho State University collected enough clothing, school supplies, children's books and toiletries for 800 needy adults and kids helped by four community groups. The tally included 114 hats, 15 hat-and- glove sets, 80 pairs of gloves, two scarves and 344 pairs of socks; school supplies including 179 books, 59 boxes of crayons, 200 pens, 317 pencils and nine packs of erasers; and shampoo, soap and toothpaste. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit SEICCA.

Weiser. The American Center for Educational Opportunities (AMCEO), a non-profit group that seeks to improve educational opportunities in rural communities, rallied 75 volunteers, Holy Rosary Medical Center and 10 community groups to carry out a health fair and immunization clinic. About 175 parents and children attended; 30 children got shots and 25 were fingerprinted for safety. The event also collected four boxes of food as well as clothing and other items, including balloons and 100 Halloween bags with coloring supplies for the kids. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit American Center for Educational Opportunities Inc.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The (Boise) Idaho Statesman. The Treasure Valley Alcohol and Drug Coalition mobilized 175 community volunteers to help 17 low-income neighbors in the town's Fox Meadow subdivision. They raked and mowed yards, hauled refuse, hung two wooden doors and repaired fences. They also cleaned a two-mile stretch of canal bank that residents use for recreational walking.

Coeur d'Alene Press. About 25 quilters from the North Idaho Quilters Guild sewed or donated 12 quilts to children and babies helped by three local service organizations, including one that helps teen mothers. Another 25 community volunteers supported the quilters' efforts by setting and cleaning up. The quilters hope to make Make A Difference Day sewing an annual event.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Pembroke Township. Because this poor, rural community has no trash service, 300 multiracial volunteers -- led by the non-profit Unified Community Development Corp. -- combed 80 miles of roads, filling three borrowed dumpsters in four hours Oct. 23; county garbage trucks also ran the route for the first time. Typically, trash is burned, buried or left by the side of the road in this area, where more than half of the 3,600 mostly African-American residents live at or below the poverty line. The county has since donated two used trucks and targeted $21,000 for trash service. And plans are under way for a job-readiness program to combat the area's 50% jobless rate. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit The Pembroke Youth Program, Inc.

Princeton. Fifteen members of Woodcrafters Unlimited -- a non-profit group made up mostly of retired contractors, carvers and cabinetmakers -- crated and mailed 25 sets of "Braille Blocks" they'd spent eight months designing and crafting from scrap wood for a school for the blind in Winnetka. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Hadley School for the Blind.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The (Alton) Telegraph. Fifty members of Resurrection Lutheran Church held a community dinner for 500 that raised more than $4,000 for Taylor Neese, a 3-month-old girl born with a defective heart who'd undergone two operations and will have a third after she turns 1.

(Arlington Heights) Daily Herald. Junior high students and parents from St. Petronille Catholic Church in Glen Ellyn spent the day delivering 120 bags of clothing and toiletries to Chicago's Austin YMCA and visiting with residents. Many of the bags were personalized for the shelter residents' specific needs.

The (Aurora) Beacon News. Five graduate members of the Lambda Alpha Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority spent the weekend cleaning and organizing Hesed House for the Homeless. The women also baby-sat for five kids so their parents could go out. In addition, the volunteers donated 100 used winter coats and 10 bags of winter clothes for the residents.

Carmi Times. Twenty-two kids from the Mad Hatters 4-H Club, ages 7-13, and 53 adults -- including their parents and members of the Kiwanis Club, the Rotary Club and Emmanuel United Methodist Church -- held a rummage sale that raised more than $3,900 for a family with no health insurance and $50,000 in medical bills. The leftovers from the sale, about 2,800 articles of clothing, were donated to the White County Senior Citizen Center, Red Bird Mission in Tennessee and local needy.

Chicago Sun-Times. Thirty volunteers held a silent auction and raffles that raised more than $85,000 for the Elise Anderson Fund at Children's Memorial Hospital of Chicago, which finances research on neuroblastoma cancer, the third most common cancer in children.

(Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald. Jamie Farmer, 17, and brother Jeff, 15, organized a fund-raiser for Turning Point, an agency that helps abused women. The brothers, together with nine adults and 29 kids, raised $1,400 for the agency by selling candy on Oct. 23.

(Danville) Commercial-News. Eleven members of the Henning Civic Club of Henning collected clothing, toiletries, toys and household supplies for the YWCA's shelter for abused women and the Y thrift shop in Danville, about 20 miles away. The women gathered enough donations in their town of 280 people to fill four pickup trucks, a van and a car.

The (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle. Sixteen volunteers from the Kishwaukee College Theatre Department put on a play that raised more than $700 for the Linda McCartney Memorial Fund for breast-cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York City.

(Dixon) Sauk Valley Sunday. Thirty-eight volunteers from United Fellowship Church, the Federated Unity Club, Allen Singers, Alton Homecoming Committee, Lady Hues and Alton Memorial Hospital held a health fair at which 265 low-income people received free health screenings and information.

DuQuoin Call. Seven volunteers from Least of the Brethren Food Pantry collected 300 grocery bags full of food for the pantry.

Eldorado Daily Journal. About 70 Carrier Mills-Stonefort Junior High School students and seven parents cleaned every street in Carrier Mills, a town of about 2,300. They collected enough debris to fill a dump truck.

The (Elgin) Courier News. Thirty-five students from Larkin High School's Pro-Awareness Club planted more than 400 flower bulbs and 50 shrubs at four of the school's entrances.

The (Galesburg) Register-Mail. Fourteen volunteers from Piper Hills Nature Preserve & Youth Camp, along with 18 Girl Scouts, held a carnival for 90 developmentally disabled adults from group homes.

The (Harrisburg) Daily Register. Twelve members of Phi Beta Lambda at Southeastern Illinois College, eight college staff members and 20 senior citizens from Hardin County Golden Circle made 160 turbans for female and child cancer patients at Harrisburg Cancer Center. The volunteers also raised $230 for Southern Illinois Cancer Survivors.

Jacksonville Journal Courier. About 100 members of Jacksonville High School's Student Alliance club and 15 parents raised $1,265 from businesses to buy 135 teddy bears for kids in crisis situations. The bears were given to eight organizations, including the fire and police departments, the Women's Crisis Center and a hospital. The students also donated $400 to Big Brothers/Big Sisters and $400 to the Spirit of Faith Building Fund, which plans to open a community center in a poor section of town.

The (Joliet) Herald News. Twenty-four Taft Elementary School students, eight parents, and a teacher and her husband collected more than 600 grocery bags full of food, paper products and toiletries for a food pantry in Lockport that serves needy people in four towns. Their donation lasted the pantry two months and fed between 400 and 600 families.

The Kankakee Journal. Nikki Cnudde and her mother, Sharon LeCocq, collected 5,000 articles of mostly new clothes, a vanload of food, and enough furniture to fill three small homes for the needy in her area. On Oct. 23, two teen girls helped Cnudde distribute the donations to eight families, two of which had recently lost their homes to fires. The girls also cooked dinner for the fire victims.

(LaSalle) News-Tribune. Two hundred News-Tribune employees and their families collected 106 winter coats, 22 pairs of gloves, 35 hats and 12 scarves for three local agencies and a school to give to the needy.

Marion Daily Republican. Thirty-five volunteers from Our Redeemer Lutheran Church sewed 80 quilts; made 40 bags of school supplies, five first-aid kits and three sewing kits; and collected three large boxes of used clothes for Lutheran World Relief, which assists disaster victims and the needy in the Third World.

The (Moline) Dispatch. Twenty-one members of the Colona Township Lioness Club did eight projects, including recycling two pickup-truck loads of newspapers, cans and phone books; collecting two pickup-truck loads of clothes and household supplies for shelters for homeless men and battered women; and wallpapering and cleaning a safe house for fire victims.

(Mount Vernon) Register-News. Forty kids and 20 adults started renovation work on two buildings. One will become a youth center; the other will house the offices of three organizations that help children: the Police Athletic League, Heartland Young Marines and Operation 1st Choice. The volunteers cleaned and painted the inside of both buildings, carpeted and furnished them, and did yardwork.

The (Pontiac) Daily Leader. Eight members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 886 and the ladies auxiliary, along with friends and six girls, ages 6-11, from the VFW Junior Girls Unit, made two large baskets of snacks for the local police and fire departments, 125 bags of candy and toys for the children at the VFW's Halloween party, and held a bingo party, with a $100 cash prize, for nursing-home residents.

The Rock Island Argus. The Mercer County Family YMCA led volunteers in a number of projects. Eighty children, ages 6-18, from the Boy Scouts and Aledo High School collected 30 boxes of food for the Mercer County Food Pantry and $50 for the Mercer County Animal Shelter; they also did yardwork at 16 houses owned by elderly or disabled people. Seventy adult volunteers from the YMCA and First United Methodist Church made 100 gift bags for 110 residents of two nursing homes, planted four trees in a park and made lunch for 150 volunteers. And 200 Apollo Elementary School pupils put on a puppet show at two nursing homes and made fall decorations.

Rockford Register Star. Twenty-six employees of Ogle County Title and their families, together with employees of Stillman Banc Corp., repaired and cleaned a 50-year-old house owned by an 82-year-old widow who had not had any maintenance work done in 20 years. They replaced the gutters and downspouts; repaired, scraped and painted the windows and a sliding-glass door; installed storm windows; cleaned the house, removing piles of junk in the basement and garage; and mowed her two-acre property. They also presented her with a new fleece robe and matching slippers, plus seven bags of groceries.

The (Springfield) State Journal-Register. 122 volunteers from seven high schools, three colleges, four churches, a synagogue and the city government cleaned a blighted 21-block neighborhood. They tore down a dilapidated building for an 86-year-old man, built a 6-foot-tall security fence for a 94-year-old widow to keep out drug dealers, cut down trees and hauled away 16 truck loads of trash.

(Sterling) Sauk Valley Sunday. Fifty students from Kiwanis Key Clubs at three high schools slept outside in cardboard boxes to raise money for two local shelters. They raised $2,000, collected two station wagons full of non-perishables and recycled the boxes.

(Tinley Park) Daily Southtown. Seventeen members of the Oak Lawn-Hometown PTA Council and 17 members of Junior Girl Scout Troop 334 collected more than 1,200 new toys and books and $600 in gift certificates for the Pediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation, which provides gifts to young cancer patients at nine area hospitals.

The (Waukegan) News-Sun. Fifty community volunteers helped at a fund-raiser to buy a thermal-imaging camera for the Waukegan Fire Department, to help firefighters find people inside burning buildings. The volunteers raised $1,000 from an Oct. 23 raffle and donations.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Kokomo. For a third consecutive Make A Difference Day, Kokomo Student Council members came to the rescue of the Kokomo Rescue Mission. This year's drive netted 6,200 toiletry items and 100 blankets. Meanwhile, Kokomo and four suburban high schools joined forces -- aided by a $375 Wal-Mart grant and $65 from a local spa -- to collect $1,100 to buy a copier for the mission's women's shelter. And beauty students at the Kokomo Area Career Center, the high school's vocational program, gave free manicures and facials, while Rudae's beauty salon offered free haircuts. On Oct. 23, an army of 65 students and parents stocked shelves, handed out the gift bags and blankets and served residents spaghetti and ice cream donated by businesses. Dentists gave toothbrushes and toothpaste, and five churches donated winter clothes and more blankets. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Kokomo Rescue Mission.

Statewide. The women's auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars conducted a collection in 59 towns of food, clothing, blankets and other supplies for homeless veterans -- enough to clothe at least 1,000 people and feed nearly that many. Estimated total value: $31,746. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Roudebush VA Medical Center Post 211 Fund.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The (Anderson) Herald Bulletin. The Alexandria Emergency Fund raised about $500 through a penny drive to buy new winter coats for needy kids. Together with an $800 donation from eight local Wal-Marts, the money was enough to buy about 75 coats. Volunteers from Calvary Community Church of God also collected 57 used winter coats for children and adults.

The (Auburn) Evening Star. About 1,100 people came to a community fair where 30 social-service agencies gave out information on everything from fire safety to child care. There were also free health screenings and free fingerprinting for children. Nearly 300 volunteers helped put on the event.

The (Columbia City) Post & Mail. 196 students at Columbia City High School and 49 adults cleaned two parks and a cemetery. They also raked, cleaned gutters, cleaned out basements and did other chores for the elderly owners of 26 houses.

The (Columbus) Republic. Beth Bode and her two "little sisters," twins Frannie and Jamie Anderson, 13, made about 60 bird feeders and put them in trees at the nursing home where the girls' grandfather lives so residents can watch birds and squirrels from their windows.

Decatur Daily Democrat. Sisters Violet, 76, and Mildred Steffen, 78, collected more than 2,000 pounds of food for the Wells County Food and Clothing Bank and Operation Help.

The Elkhart Truth. Glendia Wyatt, the mother of a cancer survivor, wanted to do something for United Cancer Services, which helped pay her son's bills when he underwent treatment nine years ago. So she started a food and clothing drive at Little Apple Pre-School, where she volunteers. The kids and staff brought in eight large boxes of food for United Cancer Services and Church Community Services of Elkhart, both of which help the needy. They also brought in three boxes of clothing for the church-services group. In addition, Wyatt donated $250 from Wal-Mart to United Cancer Services and $165 worth of toys to three children with cancer.

The (Fishers) Daily Ledger. Seven members of the Altrusa Club of Hamilton County collected 13 bags of trash along a stretch of a rural road.

The (Fort Wayne) News-Sentinel. Four students from St. Vincent's Junior High School collected about 100 used winter coats for distribution by two inner-city churches for needy children.

(Franklin) Daily Journal. More than 100 community volunteers spent a year repairing the condemned home of an elderly widow who's nearly blind. On Oct. 23, 25 volunteers, many of them students from Franklin College, worked on the floors and roof, painted and did electrical work.

(Gary) Post-Tribune. Thirty Student Council members from Kanakakee Valley High School went on a scavenger hunt to collect food, paper products, toys, toiletries, socks, slippers, winter coats, mittens, hats, gloves and scarves to donate to organizations that help the needy. They sent two vans full of items to the local crisis center for abused women. They donated 25 shoeboxes full of items for people in Bosnia and Turkey. And they donated 250 cans of food to a pantry.

(Greencastle) Banner Graphic. Twenty volunteers, including YMCA staff, kids from the YMCA after-school program and DePauw University students, cleaned, painted and landscaped at Camp Friend, a camp for Scouts and other youth groups.

The (Greenfield) Daily Reporter. Five members of Angel Bible Studies, a prison ministry, collected winter clothes and purchased toiletries for six female inmates at the state prison.

The (Kendallville) News-Sun. Fifty-two kids from Noble County PRIDE and eight parents and advisers built a three-bedroom Habitat for Humanity house for a single Hispanic mother and her three children. They had been living in a mobile home. On Make A Difference Day, the volunteers held a celebration to turn over the keys of the house to the new owner.

Kokomo Tribune. Blair Boles, 18, collected 3,000 books for a library at a shelter for abused women and enough school supplies for 50 children. About 1,000 volunteers from Howard and Northwestern elementary schools, Shiloh United Methodist Church and friends of the Kokomo Public Library contributed to the book drive.

(Lafayette) Journal and Courier. About 845 kids from Southwestern Middle School and their parents and friends raised nearly $2,400 for the state and local cystic fibrosis foundations. They made pizzas and sold them Oct. 23 to raise most of it; the rest came from a six-week Make A Difference Day button-selling campaign.

(Logansport) Pharos-Tribune. More than 1,500 Cass County volunteers participated in 22 projects. They did everything from help renovate a building that will become the city's first homeless shelter, to giving 5,000 pairs of socks to the needy, to shredding 3,381 pounds of old medical records.

The (Marion) Chronicle-Tribune. Eighty volunteers participated in nine projects in memory of Bill Swan, an 18-year-old volunteer firefighter killed in the line of duty in 1996. Among the efforts: going door to door to distribute smoke detectors and batteries; doing yardwork and winterizing homes for the elderly; collecting food for FISH, the local food bank; planting 1,000 flower bulbs; and teaching children about fire safety.

The (Michigan City) News Dispatch. The Girl Scouts of Queen of All Saints Parish organized a day of volunteering for 54 kids in the parish. They made 42 comfort kits for the Red Cross to give to children in emergency situations, 105 birthday boxes for the Visiting Nurses Association to give to needy children, 200 artificial flowerpots for hospital patients and 200 holiday favors for nursing-home residents, and they decorated Meals on Wheels bags for every client in the city. They also raised $361.10 to help build a playground and $36 for the library.

The (New Albany) Tribune. Frank Schroeder raised $118 for the Dare to Care Food Bank by spending the day at Wal-Mart making balloon animals and selling them for $1 a piece. His donation enabled the food bank to buy more than $2,000 worth of food.

(Richmond) Palladium-Item. About 100 members of First Christian Church did a number of things to help others. Some collected food for a food pantry. Others took elderly shut-ins to doctor's appointments and out to eat. Some visited shut-ins with baskets of cookies and fruit. And still others raked lawns for elderly homeowners.

The Shelbyville News. Nine volunteers from Shelby Senior Center and the youth group at Trinity United Methodist Church made a spaghetti lunch for 35 needy people in their town, which has no soup kitchen. The senior center is working on holding one meal for the needy every month.

The (Seymour) Tribune. Six members of VFW Ladies Auxiliary 1925 collected $65 worth of food, blankets and men's clothing for homeless veterans. The auxiliary also donated $350 to the United Fund, a homeless shelter called Anchor House, mental-health associations and programs for homeless veterans.

The (Terre Haute) Tribune Star. 1,000 West Terre Haute volunteers showed up for Make A Difference Day in this town of 2,500. The volunteers included students, teachers and parents from West Vigo High School, West Vigo Middle School, Sarah Scott Middle School, West Vigo Elementary School and Consolidated Elementary School. They cleaned, painted, pulled weeds and planted more than 1,000 flowers along the business district's main street. The Lions Club held a pancake breakfast that raised more than $2,000 for a family that had been left with unpaid medical bills after the father died of cancer.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Spencer. The Northwest Aging Association coordinated a drive to collect toiletries and small gifts for 670 nursing-home residents in northwest Iowa. Thousands of items, ranging from playing cards donated by Native American casinos to ball caps, jewelry, perfume and a total of $2,250 in Wal-Mart gift certificates, were delivered to 57 nursing homes. Targeted were seniors whose nursing home bills are paid by a government program and receive only $30 monthly in spending money. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Northwest Aging Association.

Toledo. Twenty-five teens in a young offenders program served their community instead of serving time by tearing down three dilapidated barns, recycling the wood to craft 135 wheelbarrow planters, selling them for $10 each to raise money for tools and paint, and refurbishing a 100-year-old farmhouse that hadn't been painted in 26 years. The project spanned five weekends. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Community Corrections Improvement Association.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The (Council Bluffs) Daily Nonpareil. Ten sixth-graders from Atlantic Junior Girl Scout Troop 202 made and delivered 100 care packages -- including Beanie Babies, Hot Wheels, free movie rentals, puzzles and coloring books -- to young hospital patients.

The Des Moines Register. Students at Beaver Creek Elementary School in Johnston saved $750 in pennies to apply toward a "Fun 4 All" playground fund to buy handicapped-accessible equipment. On Oct. 23, with the help of two $500 Wal-Mart grants, a disability awareness fair/fund-raiser kickoff was held at the school, and $3,000 in donations was collected from the community in one week.

(Dubuque) Telegraph Herald. 127 Girl Scouts and 18 adults sewed 135 "Comfort Caps" for young cancer patients at University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City.

Iowa City Press-Citizen. Ninety West Liberty volunteers spent five hours cleaning up downtown, painting a dilapidated building, planting trees and sprucing up the giant 80-year-old letters spelling "West Liberty" in a park.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Lawrence. 150 volunteers led by the University of Kansas' Center for Community Outreach helped a privately funded Native American cultural center by moving its food pantry to a new facility and cleaning and remodeling its transitional housing building. They also painted the exterior of eight single-family houses three blocks away, owned by a community housing group, and did yardwork for an elderly neighbor. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Pelathe Community Resource Center Inc.

Lawrence. Physician Dennis Sale and wife Mikki opened a free health clinic just one week after moving to Lawrence from Manteca, Calif., with son Adam, 2. They treated 12 patients Oct. 23, including a homeless man who could barely walk after a bike accident three days earlier. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit God's Final Plan.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The Hays Daily News. 120 volunteers -- many from Fort Hays State University, AmeriCorps and Hays High School -- picked up trash, did landscaping, washed windows and removed water-damaged carpet from two homes.

The Hutchinson News. 250 volunteers hosted a six-hour cultural-diversity festival in Liberal, including dances, music and fashion shows from the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, Central Africa and Latin America.

Kansas City Kansan. The week before Make A Difference Day, six homecoming candidates at F.L. Schlagle High School researched "wish lists" for the local Ronald McDonald House. Students voted by dropping items into a box marked for the king or queen of their choice. On Oct. 23, the king and queen were crowned -- and 20,000 donated items were delivered.

Lawrence Journal-World. Seventy-eight Ottawa volunteers logged 150 hours planting 58 trees -- in a new park, on ballfields and at the landfill -- picking up trash, working on a Habitat for Humanity house and entertaining elderly people at four senior centers.

The Leavenworth Times. Teri Carlino, 15, a high school tennis player, and mom Robin collected 50 old tennis balls to donate to the Leavenworth County Infirmary and to people who use walkers. When the balls are modified to fit a walker's back legs, they help stabilize it.

The Olathe Daily News. Twenty-nine members of the Civil Air Patrol-New Century Composite Squadron, including cadets ages 11-17, collected 1,000 pounds of non-perishables for the Olathe Catholic Community Services pantry.

The Salina Journal. 103 youths -- members of the McPherson County 4-H Program and a Moundridge church youth group -- and 22 adults spent 16 hours over two days scraping, priming and painting a two-story farmhouse for a needy single mom in Galva. They also dug and installed a 100-foot water line.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Linefork. About 50 residents finished building this mountain community's first-ever baseball field. Moms and dads, grandparents, politicians and business owners raked leaves and dirt. Kids picked up rocks and dumped them down an embankment of the Linefork Community Park. One man tilled with a tractor while his 86-year-old father-in-law supervised. A donated Bobcat scraped dirt from the nearby creek, then dumped it in areas that needed leveling. Later, volunteers installed basketball goals. At the end of the day, volunteers seeded, fertilized and covered the diamond-in-the-rough with straw. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Kingdom Come Elementary School.

Louisville. Nurses from the Kentuckiana Association for Perioperative Nurses granted wishes for five low-income women with advanced cases of breast cancer. Wishes ranged from having windows washed to finally getting a prosthesis. The nurses also served a home-cooked pot-roast dinner. The honoree's $2,000 award from Kentucky Cancer Program, University of Louisville.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The (Henderson) Gleaner. Operation Community Pride, a local beautification group, coordinated 127 volunteers, including Scouts, students in Job Corps and local residents in a cleanup of Audubon State Park. Work ranged from mulching trails and planting tulips to cleaning the pond and building tee boxes for a program introducing disadvantaged kids to golf.

(Hopkinsville) Kentucky New Era. Sixty members of Woodmen of the World, Pearl City Lodge 5, began a "Towels for a Year" program by donating 120 to Sanctuary House, a center for abused women.

The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. The "Sunshine Festival," a day of activities and entertainment for children and adults with special needs, was coordinated by students from the Bellarmine College School of Education. More than 150 attendees with disabilities, plus their family members and caretakers, participated in activities led by 400 volunteers, such as pony rides, an obstacle course, storytelling and face painting.

The (Madisonville) Messenger. Students from the Teen Outreach Program of Madisonville-North Hopkins High School rallied others to collect 300 personal-hygiene bags for needy schoolchildren.

The Paducah Sun. The Northside Baptist Church Senior Ladies Sewing Group and friends sewed 250 turbans for cancer patients.

The Richmond Register. Elementary and middle school students from St. Mark School held bake sales and a raffle, raising $310 for UNICEF and $422.06 for hurricane victims.

$2,000 STATE AWARDS

Bossier. Curtis Elementary School's 4-H club of fourth- and fifth-graders held a dance that raised more than $1,700 to create a books-on-tape library for seniors living at Riverview Care Center. The money bought eight tape players with headphones, more than 100 books on tape and a cart to carry them to patients' rooms. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Evergreen Foundation.

Hammond. In Tangipahoa Parish, where the poverty rate in some elementary schools is as high as 98%, children literally go to school with cold feet because they can't afford socks. On Oct. 23, kids as young as 9 reached out to warm their less-privileged peers in 16 schools by collecting 4,000 pairs of new socks, enough to outfit hundreds of kids in the parish's 15 public elementary schools. The project, called Sock It to Me, was organized via a partnership of private and public schools, church youth groups and businesses. A single group, the 49-member Interact Club at the private Oak Forest Academy in Amite, collected 1,200 pairs. Also donated: hundreds of pairs of new shoes, as well as 50 blankets and 81 stuffed bears and pillows. A restaurant collected 500 children's books toward the cause. Sixty-five teenagers from eight church groups who had helped to collect socks spent Make A Difference Day repainting and repairing the houses of needy and elderly people. The honoree's $2,000 award from Wal-Mart will benefit Kids Hope USA.

NEWSPAPER AWARDS

The (Bogalusa) Daily News. About 30 volunteers, ages 4-50, prepared new riding trails for disabled children and adults by removing brush and cutting down about 40 trees at the Happy Trails Therapeutic Horsemanship Center in Franklinton.

(Hammond) Daily Star. About 125 volunteers, mostly teens and college students, completed repairs at the homes of nine elderly and disabled residents of Tangipahoa Parish. Projects included wheelchair-ramp construction, interior and exterior painting and porch repairs.

The (Lafayette) Daily Advertiser. Twenty-eight members of Knights of St. Peter Claver Junior Daughters from St. Jude Court No. 179 read books to 32 kids at a low-income apartment complex. The volunteers, ages 8-18, gave each child a book, stickers, a bookmark and candy in a bag bearing the slogan "Chill out and read."

The (Monroe) News-Star. Christian Whitton, 16, used money saved from mowing lawns during the summer to buy about 40 smoke alarms and carbon-monoxide detectors, which he distributed in his West Monroe neighborhood.

The (New Iberia) Daily Iberian. About 40 volunteers removed two porches from a house slated for relocation and renovation as the home of the Robert Jenkins Youth Club in Franklin. The volunteers -- community leaders and youth-club parents and staffers -- also removed old furniture, kitchen cupboards and debris.

The (Shreveport) Times. Almost 3,000 students at 14 schools in Caddo and Bossier parishes collected 4,500 items of bedding for 14 shelters in the Shreveport and Bossier area. The drive, coordinated by the Extra Mile Volunteer Center, also included donation sites at three malls, which were staffed by volunteers from the Caddo Council on Aging, RSVP and the Junior League of Shreveport/Bossier.