DAVE CLARK: It's time to find our 2026 Citizen of the Year

Previous Citizen of the Year winners are (from left) Dallas Rau, Erin Patrice, Marsha Stamas and the volunteers of The Bridge Food Center, and Floyd Andrick. Dave Clark/Midland Daily News Dave Clark Photo provided Most people who make a community better are not doing it because they expect somebody to write a story about them. They are usually too busy. They are delivering meals, stocking shelves, coaching kids, raising money, checking on neighbors, helping veterans, serving at church, maintaining a cemetery or finding some other way to solve a problem that nobody else seems to have noticed yet. Advertisement Article continues below this ad They do not expect an award. Many of them would probably prefer that nobody make a big deal about it. Naturally, we are going to make a big deal about it. The Daily News is launching its 2026 Citizen of the Year competition today. We need your help finding the people whose service makes Midland and Gladwin counties — as well as Auburn and Freeland — better places to live. We are looking for the people who show up and get things done. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The nomination process is simple. Readers choose someone who has made a meaningful contribution to the community through volunteer service. Daily News staffers will review the nominations and select a group of finalists. Finally, the Citizen of the Year will be selected by Daily News editors along with previous Citizen of the Year honorees. During the holiday season, we will publish stories introducing readers to the finalists and explaining the work they have done. The winner will be announced on Dec. 31. There is no election campaign, no yard-sign strategy and no reason for nominees to begin practicing an acceptance speech in front of the bathroom mirror. Advertisement Article continues below this ad This is not a popularity contest. What matters is service. We want to know what your nominee has done, who has benefited from that work and why it matters. Tell us how long the person has been involved. Give us examples. Most importantly, tell us what would be missing from the community if that person stopped showing up. The Citizen of the Year award is intended primarily to recognize volunteer service. Being excellent at your profession is admirable, but doing your job well is not, by itself, enough to qualify. A teacher, for example, would not be nominated simply for being an outstanding teacher. But that same teacher might be a terrific nominee if she spends weekends organizing a food drive, volunteers with Special Olympics or mentors young people outside school. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Our previous winners illustrate just how many forms community service can take. Dallas Rau became the Daily News' first Citizen of the Year in 2022. She was honored for her work to improve mental health across the Great Lakes Bay Region and for helping people feel seen, heard and supported. Her advocacy helped increase awareness of mental health issues while connecting people with resources and encouraging conversations that are often difficult to begin. In 2023, Erin Patrice received the honor for her work building connections through The Breaking Bread Village and creating spaces where people could have honest, respectful conversations about difficult issues. Her work has emphasized empathy, inclusion and the idea that stronger communities begin when people are willing to sit down and listen to each other. The 2024 Citizen of the Year honor went collectively to the volunteers of The Bridge Food Center, led by Marsha Stamas. Those volunteers helped move the organization into a larger location while nearly doubling the number of households it served. The Bridge sells affordable food, but its volunteers also provide something that cannot be measured on a grocery receipt: kindness, dignity and a welcoming place for people who need a little help. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Last year, Floyd Andrick was named the 2025 Citizen of the Year after decades of service involving churches, food distribution, civic organizations and historical preservation. Andrick has helped feed hundreds of people, maintained cemeteries, restored hundreds of veterans' headstones and continued volunteering into his 70s. That variety is exactly what we hope to see in this year's nominations. Your nominee does not have to run a nonprofit or lead a major fundraising campaign. The person may be helping dozens of families, or they may have made an enormous difference in the life of one neighbor. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Maybe they deliver groceries. Maybe they shovel sidewalks for older residents. Maybe they mentor children, support local veterans, raise money for families in crisis or spend hours every week volunteering somewhere that most people rarely notice. What matters is the difference they make. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Nominations must be submitted by 5 p.m. Nov. 20. You can nominate someone using the Daily News online form, by emailing david.clark@hearst.com or by mailing your nomination to 'Citizen of the Year,' Midland Daily News, 219 E. Main St., Midland, MI 48640. Please include your name and contact information, the nominee's contact information and a detailed explanation of the nominee's service. Specific examples help us considerably. Tell us what the person actually did. Tell us who benefited. Tell us why it mattered. And do not assume somebody else will nominate the person you have in mind. The best candidates are often the people least likely to nominate themselves — or to even realize that what they are doing is unusual. Advertisement Article continues below this ad They just keep showing up. Somewhere in Midland, Gladwin, Auburn or Freeland, the 2026 Citizen of the Year is probably already at work. Our job is to tell that person's story. Your job is to help us find them. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Let's get to work. Dave Clark is editor of the Daily News. Email him at david.clark@hearst.com with your questions about the Citizen of the Year.