By BEN KLEPPINGER

ben.kleppinger@amnews.com

The Heart of Danville Main Street program is now accepting nominations for its annual awards, which will be presented in April.

“We’re going to do something a little different this year. In years past we’ve always had it in the evening and this year we’re going to explore a breakfast awards ceremony,” said Nick Wade, director of the Heart of Danville. “There’s a couple Main Street communities that do a breakfast and I thought it might be a really interesting change.”

Nominations can be made through March 10. Then, a Heart of Danville committee will review the nominations and select winners for up to seven awards:

• the Heart and Soul Award for being a “downtown hero;”

• the Big Heart Award for the volunteer of the year;

• the Heart on Fire Award for “creativity and innovation in business;”

• the Pulse Award for “business excellence;”

• the Heartbeat Award for “visual appeal;”

• the King or Queen of Hearts Award for outstanding renovation; and 

• the Heart of Gold Award for investing.

Wade said the Heart of Danville is relying on the public to make nominations of people who deserve the awards.

“If we don’t get nominations for one then we just won’t award it,” he said. “Last year we worked really hard on trying to fill all seven of them and it was really challenging.”

Nominees should generally be a member of the downtown community, Wade said. The Heart of Danville’s area of oversight extends along Main Street between Wilderness Trail Road and Fifth Street and one block to north and south of that stretch.

A nomination form is available at downtowndanville.com or by emailing director@downtowndanville.com. The nomination form requires a name, organization, phone number, award category and a brief description of why an individual deserves an award. Those descriptions will be used during the presentation of awards, Wade said.

A date for the April awards event has not been finalized.