Heroes Inspiring Heroes: Volvo For Life Awards' Nominees Provide Tips For Volunteering

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HEROES INSPIRING HEROES:

VOLVO FOR LIFE AWARDS' NOMINEES

PROVIDE TIPS FOR VOLUNTEERING

Everyday hero nominations accepted at www.volvoforlifeawards.com

through Jan. 16; Volvo to provide $1 million in contributions

(NEW YORK) Nov. 24, 2003 -- Does the holiday season motivate you to volunteer in your community? If so, here are tips to get you started, inspired by hometown heroes who have been nominated for the Volvo for Life Awards (www.volvoforlifeawards.com), the nation's largest search for and celebration of everyday heroes:

• Turn your hobby into your philanthropy, like Leslie Jacobs, Hahira, Ga., who loves horses and created a therapeutic horse-riding farm for kids with special needs.
• Pay it forward: become an inspiration to others, like Sarah Yourman, Fair Lawn, NJ, a 13-year-old with cystic fibrosis, diabetes and Crohn's Disease, who skis competitively in freestyle and downhill skiing and performs with other extreme athletes to educate kids with similar diseases that they, too, can live active lives.
• Consider helping those who once helped you, like Veronique Moore, Kalamazoo, Mich., a program director of a local homeless shelter, the same shelter that guided her to recovery five years ago when she was homeless.
• Tap personal life experiences to channel your volunteerism, like Steven Cohen, Gainesville, Fla., a student who lost a young friend to leukemia, then decided to create an organization that facilitates volunteer opportunities for people who want to help pediatric cancer patients.
• Do for others what you'd do for your loved ones, like Janice Woody, Altadena, Calif., an engineer who, inspired by her deaf son, is working to build deaf-friendly housing in southern California.
• Unleash the talents you bring to your day job onto the community, like Adam Weiner, a theater professor at Coker College in Hartsville, S.C. who has created an after-hours theatrical organization for at-risk youth in his town.

If you know a local hero, nominations for the second annual Volvo for Life Awards are open until Jan. 16, 2004.

In March, Volvo will select 100 semi-finalists, who will receive a framed Certificate of Merit to honor their accomplishments. From those 100 semi-finalists, Volvo will select the top three finalists in three categories: Safety, Quality of Life and Environment.

From these finalists, celebrity judges -- including Hank Aaron, Bill Bradley, Caroline Kennedy, Maya Lin, Paul Newman, Sally Ride and Eunice Kennedy Shriver -- will name one winner for each of the three categories; they will each receive $50,000 to be donated to the charities of their choice. The remaining six finalists will each receive a $10,000 charitable donation. The three category winners will be flown to New York on April 7, 2004, to be honored at the Volvo for Life Awards Ceremony in Times Square Studios Ltd, where an 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 about the program and to nominate a hero, visit www.volvoforlifeawards.com. A Spanish version of the site can be accessed at this address, as well.

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Contact:

Eric Davis, Haberman & Associates, 612-338-3900, eric@modernstorytellers.com.

Sören Johansson, Volvo Cars of North America, 949-341-6719, sjohan44@volvocars.com.

Media: For photos and more information on the Volvo for Life Awards: www.volvocars-pr.com.