Story by CINCINNATI ENQUIRER STAFF, 2025
Click HERE for nomination form.
Nominations are open for the 2025 Jefferson Awards, sometimes called the Nobel Prize for community service.
Greater Cincinnati is one of over 90 communities in the country that present a local Jefferson Award, said Bill Shula of Bethel, who chairs the local awards program administered by the Rotary Club of Cincinnati.
The deadline to submit a nomination is 5 p.m. Feb. 16.
You can find an online form at https://bit.ly/JeffersonAward2025. The Cincinnati Enquirer partners with The Rotary Club of Cincinnati to present the local awards program.
The 2025 Jefferson Award Program will be the Cincinnati Rotary Club meeting on March 20.
Nine local awardees have gone on to become national winners.
The award recognizes volunteers in the community who have created a program that serves an unmet need, or a special volunteer who has provided extraordinary services to an organization.
Bruce Kintner of Cold Spring was selected as a 2024 National Jefferson Award winner for his dedication to providing free car maintenance to low-income families through the Samaritan Car Care Clinic.
The annual Jefferson Awards “have been the highest and most prestigious honor recognizing public service in the United States” for over 50 years, Multiplying Good, the organization behind the awards, wrote on their website. Past recipients at the national level include Oprah Winfrey, former President Jimmy Carter and Shaquille O’Neal.
In 2023, the Cincinnati Rotary award winner was Ron Dumas, executive director of Reaching Out for Kids, which gives youngsters an opportunity to learn life skills through playing golf.
In 2022, Roger Grien was recognized in the Jefferson Awards program for his work in founding and sustaining Magnified Giving, which teaches students how to be philanthropists by giving them $1,000 to donate to a local nonprofit.
The National Jefferson Awards program was founded in 1972 by Cincinnati native Robert Taft and former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The Rotary Club of Cincinnati was Cincinnati’s first Rotary Club. It is a service and networking organization for business and community leaders and has a mission to provide selfless service in the community and the world.
