Dunaway is semifinalist for military award

MADISON – Marianne Dunaway is a semifinalist for the 2017 Military Child of the Year Award for Innovation.

Booz Allen Hamilton presents the award for innovation, which is associated with the 2017 Military Child of the Year Awards that Operation Homefront presents. Operation Homefront is a national, nonprofit organization serving America’s military families.

Operation Homefront has narrowed about 400 nominees for the 2017 Military Child of the Year Awards to 90 semifinalists nationwide. In addition, Dunaway is one of 20 semifinalists chosen from 40 nominees for the innovation honor.

A Madison resident, Dunaway is 17 years old.

Ranging from 8 to 18 years old, six winners of the Military Child of the Year Award will represent the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and National Guard and receive $10,000 each. They will be selected based on their scholarship achievements, volunteerism, leadership and extracurricular involvement.

The seventh award, open to 13- through 18-year-olds, is the Military Child of the Year Award for Innovation, presented by Booz Allen Hamilton. The winner of this award shows the power of innovative thinking.

Examples include a new invention, improvement to existing technology or creation of a new nonprofit organization. The Innovation award recipient will earn $10,000 and a mentorship by Booz Allen Hamilton employees to scale or to advance the winner’s project.

A national nonprofit organization, Operation Homefront builds strong, stable and secure military families so that they can thrive in the communities they have worked so hard to protect. With more than 3,200 volunteers nationwide, Operation Homefront has provided assistance to tens of thousands of military families since its inception shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Independent charity oversight groups have recognized Operation Homefront’s performance, with 92 percent of Operation Homefront’s expenditures going directly to programs that provide support to military families.

For more information, visit OperationHomefront.net or militarychildoftheyear.org.