Volvo for Life Award Program Accepting Nominations Through January 10, 2005

Volvo Cars of North America announced that for the third year it is accepting nominations for the Volvo for Life Award, a program that seeks ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things, including developing community recycling programs, creating after school programs for troubled kids and sponsoring shelters for the homeless.

Volvo said the annual national public service program honors and rewards local heroes with $1 million in financial contributions. The top hero will win a Volvo car for life. The nomination process continues through Jan. 10, 2005. During the nomination period, Volvo will profile select nominees on its website and in the media. Volvo is conducting the program in an effort to inspire people nationwide to make outstanding contributions in their own communities, a company spokesman said.

According to Volvo, in February 2005, Volvo will be choosing 100 semi-finalists who will receive a Certificate of Merit honoring their accomplishments. Volvo will then select three finalists in each of the three nomination categories. From these nine finalists, a panel of judges that include Maya Lin, Hank Aaron, Paul Newman, Caroline Kennedy, Sally Ride, Bill Bradley, 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.

Volvo added that the winners and finalists will be honored in New York on March 24, 2005 at the Volvo for Life Awards Ceremony in Times Square Studios Ltd. The event is to include top music entertainment, a celebrity host and three documentaries profiling the category winners. The overall winner will then be announced and given a Volvo car every three years for the recipient's life.