Operation Homefront Accepting 2018 Military Child of the Year® Award Nominations and Military Child of the Year® Award for Innovation Applications Through Dec. 4, Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit with the mission of building strong, stable, and secure military families, will accept nominations for the 2018 Military Child of the Year® awards as well as applications for the 2018 Military Child of the Year® Award for Innovation. All awards will be presented at a recognition gala April 19, 2018, in the nation’s capital. 2018 will be the 10th anniversary of the Military Child of the Year® awards, with 42 military children honored since 2008. The annual awards will recognize seven outstanding young people ages 13 to 18. Six of them will represent a branch of the armed forces — the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and National Guard — for their scholarship, volunteerism, leadership, extracurricular involvement, and other criteria while facing the challenges of military family life. The seventh award is the Military Child of the Year® Award for Innovation presented by global technology and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. This award goes to a military child who has designed a bold and creative solution to address a local, regional or global challenge. All seven Military Child of the Year® Award recipients will be flown with a parent or guardian to Washington, D.C., to be recognized at the April 2018 gala, during which senior leaders of each branch of service will present the awards. They also will receive $10,000 each, a laptop computer, and other donated gifts. In addition, the Military Child of the Year® Award for Innovation recipient will work with a Booz Allen Hamilton team to develop a plan to scale the recipient’s project — drawing on technology and strategic thinking as a part of the corporation’s competitive Summer Games. “Anyone may nominate a favorite military child for a service branch Military Child of the Year® Award. Parents, siblings, teachers, coaches, clergy, neighbors, grandparents and anyone who knows a child’s talents may nominate. Simply go to www.militarychildoftheyear.org and click the Nominate tab. Children and youth interested in the Innovation Award do not need to be nominated, and may apply directly at www.militarychildoftheyear.org.
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This special award recognizes the amazing contributions military children make to our communities,” said Brig. Gen. (ret.) John I. Pray Jr., President and CEO of Operation Homefront. “This exceptionally talented group of our fellow citizens has to cope not only with the standard slate of challenges young people in our society face, but have to deal with the added pressures of parental deployments, relocations, and many other uncertainties as well. As a result, they develop an inner compass that guides them towards giving back, leading, volunteering, advocating, and serving others.
I encourage all to consider nominating a deserving military child and join Operation Homefront in our annual celebration of resilience, achievement and strength of character.” Previous awardees remember their Military Child of the Year® Award as both an honor and an amazing experience. On average, previous recipients have had at least one parent deploy for 18 months or longer and have relocated at least five times due to a parent’s military assignments. For more information about the Military Child of the Year® nomination process, visit www. militarychildoftheyear.org.