Become a Hometown Hero in 2005: Volvo For Life Awards' Nominees Provide Tips For Volunteering

Everyday Hero Nominations Accepted at www.volvoforlifeawards.com through Jan. 10, 2005; Volvo to Provide $1 Million In Financial Contributions

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 -- Are you determined to do more for your community in 2005? If so, here are tips to get you started from hometown heroes nominated for the Volvo for Life Awards (www.volvoforlifeawards.com), the nation's largest search for and celebration of everyday heroes:

  
   
   -- Make your community a safer place, like Pat Abrams, Sarasota, Fla.,
   who formed the Sarasota K-9 Search and Rescue Team, specializing in
   operations involving dense brush, wetlands and high temperatures.
   
   -- Let your own life experiences inspire you, like Hope Bevilhymer, West
   Jordan, Utah, who had a leg amputated and now delivers prosthetic
   limbs to amputees injured by land mines in developing countries
   through her Limbs of Hope Foundation.
   
   -- Take your hobby to a new level, like Chad Juros, a teenage cancer
   survivor from Atlantic City, NJ, who performs magic shows for patients
   at hospitals and cancer centers.
   
   -- Honor your heritage, like Fadi Elsalameen, Richmond, Ind., who created
   Voice of Arab Youth to train 50 young Arab adults in business and
   community improvement practices.
   
   -- Channel your life-long passion into your hometown, like Chant Thomas,
   Jacksonville, Ore., who, through various organizations and educational
   programs, has spent the past 30 years fighting to save the forests and
   wildlife in Southern Oregon.
   
   -- Turn your own misfortune into something positive, like Lorna Hawkins,
   Lynwood, Calif., who lost her son, Joe, to a drive by shooting.  In
   his honor, she started the nonprofit organization and cable television
   show Drive By Agony which educates the public about the increased
   violence in Los Angeles and allows parents of murdered children to
   talk about their loss and pain.

If you know a local hero, nominations for the third annual Volvo for Life Awards are open until Jan. 10, 2005.

In February 2005, Volvo Cars of North America will select 100 semi- finalists who will receive a Certificate of Merit to honor their accomplishments. Volvo will then select the top three finalists in three categories: safety, quality of life and environment.

From these nine finalists, a panel of judges representing some of the world's foremost experts on care, conscience and character -- including Hank Aaron, Bill Bradley, Caroline Kennedy, Maya Lin, Paul Newman, Sally Ride, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and last year's top winner Earnestine Russell-Drumgold -- will name one winner for each of the three categories. The category winners will each receive $50,000 to be donated to the charities of their choice. The remaining six finalists will each receive a $25,000 charitable donation.

The three category winners will be honored in New York on March 24, 2005 at the Volvo for Life Awards Ceremony in Times Square Studios Ltd. The event will feature top music entertainment and a celebrity host, as well as three documentaries profiling the category winners. The overall winner will be named and presented with a Volvo car every three years for the rest of his or her life.

To learn more and to nominate a hero, visit http://www.volvoforlifeawards.com/ . A Spanish version of the site can also be accessed at this address.

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