More heroes: National Honorees 2007: Profiles in giving Local Honorees: State-by-state

MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY Annual Honors 2007

Encore award: Continued excellence by national honorees

Three years after receiving national recognition for their Make A Difference Day good deeds, the residents of Trumbull County in northeastern Ohio continue to help others. On Oct. 28, 1,000 volunteers tackled 80 projects. For that sustained giving, Trumbull County has been named this year's Encore Honoree.

"There's a lot of economic uncertainty here, yet people still came together and were very giving," says Sue Shafer of the Tribune Chronicle, who coordinates Make A Difference Day for the paper.

A food drive run by the paper netted 6,831 pounds of food. A high school clothing drive tallied 900 bags of clothes for families in Appalachia, while a collection for two county shelters filled the newspaper's 24-foot box truck.

With Make A Difference Day now an institution here, the county's plans for this October already are underway. Those plans will be fueled by a $10,000 donation from the Gannett Foundation and USA WEEKEND that will benefit Trumbull 100, a community charity.