WATERVILLE — Each year Hardy Girls honor five girls who are making Maine a better place for all girls. Girls ages 9-19 who live in Maine are eligible to be nominated. Awards are given in five categories:

• Title IX Champion — for a girl advocating for equal access in school athletics.

• Health Advocacy — celebrating activism to make Maine a healthier place for girls.

• Against the Odds — an award dedicated to efforts to redefine “able” for Maine Girls.

• Community Organizing — awarded to a girl activist for her work mobilizing her peers.

• Entrepreneurship – honoring a girl who has turned her passion into a business.

Winners of these awards will receive $100 honorarium and statewide recognition of their achievements during Girls Rock Weekend — April 4-5.

Log on to hhghw.wufoo.com/forms/girls-rock-nomination-form-2014/ to learn more and nominate a girl who rocks before the Jan. 31 deadline. Anyone can nominate a girl. She doesn’t need to be a member of Hardy Girls, nor does her work have to have happened in the last year.

Honoring girls for all the ways they are making a difference is important. Big and small. Each nominee gets a certificate recognizing her, a blurb written in our program booklet dispersed to more than 400 people, and they are included in a PowerPoint presentation that plays during the award ceremony.

For more information on Girls Rock Weekend, visit hghw.org and to hear the stories of past Girls Rock Award winners.