Think about your friends, your family, your co-workers. Chances are, you know at least one person between the ages of 16 and 40 who's making Cape Breton an awesome place to live, work and play.

Perhaps this person you know devotes hours upon hours to volunteering for a non-profit. Maybe they dreamed up a new initiative or event in their community. Others are working tirelessly to preserving important facets of our island's culture and natural beauty.

You definitely know people excelling at their respective workplace, inspiring colleagues to work together to achieve a common goal or hustling to take on new projects and challenges.

Whomever these awesome people are in your life, I'm asking you to nominate them for a Vital Cape Breton Excellence Award.

About the Vital Awards

Former Cape Breton Partnership CEO Keith MacDonald welcoming attendees to the first-ever Vital Awards back in 2014. 

The Vital Cape Breton Excellence Awards are an initiative of the NextGen Leadership Society (full disclosure, I'm a board member and co-chair), in collaboration with the Cape Breton Partnership.

The Vital Awards began in 2014 as a way to celebrate and recognize the success, talents and community spirit of young people living in Cape Breton, as well as employers who were creating rewarding work opportunities for youth.

I shouldn't be surprised that every year, more fantastic young people are recognized for their unique impact - the people who live here are what make Cape Breton such a special, wonderful place.

But if we want to make our fifth Vital Awards the best yet, we need to have lots of nominations. That's where you come in.

The Vital Categories

Frankie MacDonald won a Vital Award in the Vital Excellence category in 2014 for his work in weather forecasting, and for being a Cape Breton ambassador.

You can nominate people and organizations who fit within any of these four categories:

Vital Excellence Award - Individuals who have played a vital role in their community through volunteerism, culture, leadership, innovation, etc.

Vital Employer Excellence Award - Recognizes employers who have played a vital role in creating rewarding employment opportunities for youth in Cape Breton.

Vital Employee Excellence Award - Employers can nominate an employee who has played a vital role in their workplace in Cape Breton.

To celebrate the Vital Awards' fifth anniversary, we have introduced a special new award category:

Vital Innovation Excellence Award - An individual person or company that has demonstrated and inspired leadership, creativity, problem solving, risk-taking, in their community or sector.

I bet you can think of at least one person worthy of being nominated for each category. Are you up for the challenge?

How to Nominate

Nominations can be submitted online in a quick nomination form. It should only take 5-10 minutes to submit a nomination. 

Be as descriptive as you can be, and try to really convey what makes the person or organization you're nominating so vital to our community.

Then What?

Once nominations close on Friday, October 5, the judging panel, made up of NextGen Leadership Society's board members, will assess the nominees in order to determine winners.

We'll reveal the winners of each category throughout the month of October. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay updated. 

And then, on Friday, November 2nd, we will host our fifth-annual Vital Cape Breton Excellence Awards at Centre 200 in Sydney. It's a fun night of uplifting speeches, tons of mingling with young professionals and delicious food. 

Want to join us? Click here to purchase your tickets at a great early-bird rate.