By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Sports often make up a significant, although singular part of the lives of Michigan’s high school student-athletes and coaches.

Many also find ways to have significant impacts on the lives of others – and we’d like to tell the rest of our state how they’re making a difference.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association, together with Lake Trust Credit Union, will award this spring the inaugural Community Service Awards to recognize individuals and teams that have worked to benefit their communities.

Each winner will receive a $1,000 award to be applied toward an individual college scholarship, credited to a team’s account with its athletic department or even gifted to the group helped by our honoree.

Please help us get the word out. Encourage a student, coach or administrator to tell us about a completed or ongoing community service project. Any student, team or coach currently participating in interscholastic athletics at an MHSAA member high school can apply. Applications should be e-mailed both to the school’s athletic director and MHSAA’s Kurt Tiesman at [email protected].

The deadline for applications is May 1, and multiple winners will be selected and notified by May 12. Click for more information.

We hear and read about these contributions and successes throughout the school year. Thank you in advance for your help in allowing us to honor some of this great work in the community by those who also shine on the field.

PHOTO: Members of the Adrian boys track & field team help clean up after a tornado in Dexter in 2012.