Recognize the People Who Build Community
SELF presents two community awards with different purposes. Both recognize meaningful service, but their scope and criteria are distinct. Review the descriptions below, choose the award that best fits your nominee, and use the shared nomination form.
Which Award Fits?
The Jack Stice Award recognizes Southeast service and charitable commitment. The SELF Community Award recognizes inclusive community building on a national scale.
Jack Stice Memorial Community Service Award™
- For an individual, club, or business in the Southeast Region.
- Recognizes service to the community and dedication to charitable concerns.
- The awardee must attend SELF unless the award is presented posthumously.
SouthEast LeatherFest Community Award™
- For an event, organizer, business, club, group, or individual nationally.
- Recognizes inclusive community building, meaningful benefit to others, and sustained commitment.
- The awardee must attend SELF.
Why the Jack Stice Award Carries His Name
SELF was started by Jack Stice, a determined leader who understood the value of discovering who you are and choosing to be yourself. He inspired devotion, encouraged others to reach for what seemed impossible, and produced the first SELF knowing he would not live to see its future events. Before his death, he secured promises from a capable and loyal group who committed to carrying his vision forward.
In 1998, SELF Treasurer David Armstrong proposed an annual Southeast community service award. The Executive Committee unanimously agreed to honor Jack and his dedication to community service. The Jack Stice Memorial Community Service Award™ was introduced in 2000, during SELF’s fifth anniversary.
Read the award’s presentation history
The award formally recognizes Southeast individuals, clubs, and businesses that exemplify service to the community and dedication to charitable concerns. SELF presented it from 2000 through 2008, then honored a request to cease presenting it for a period while continuing to own the trademark.
SELF resumed presenting the award during its twentieth-anniversary celebration in 2015 and continues to present it annually.
Why SELF Created the Community Award
During SELF’s fifteenth year, a new award was created to honor individuals, clubs, groups, and businesses that go beyond bringing people together. SELF celebrates people of many orientations, genders, and traditions, and this award recognizes those who create opportunity and give back to communities large and small.
As the first major kink, fetish, and leather event of its kind in Atlanta, SELF demonstrated that communities could bridge divisions, exchange ideas, listen, learn, share, and play together. This award recognizes those who sustain that work throughout the year.
Before You Nominate
- Select the award that most closely matches the nominee’s scope and service.
- Explain the nominee’s impact with specific examples.
- Confirm that the nominee will attend SELF unless the nomination is posthumous.
- Submit the nomination by May 1.
Nominate Someone for a SELF Community Award
